Quote:Original post by johnhattan Legally, MIDI files have been ruled to be recordings and not sheet-music (even though they've got attributes of each), so copyrights that apply to sound recordings apply to MIDI files.
That's important because recordings and MIDI files have very different copyright laws applied to 'em. American copyright laws are a mess.
Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer.
That doesn't appear to make any sense. You say they have the same law applied, then in the next sentence say they have different laws. Which is it?
I meant that recordings and sheet music have different laws. Must be all the cough syrup I drank this morning.
(my byline from the Gamedev Collection series, which I co-edited) John Hattan has been working steadily in the casual game-space since the TRS-80 days and professionally since 1990. After seeing his small-format games turned down for what turned out to be Tandy's last PC release, he took them independent, eventually releasing them as several discount game-packs through a couple of publishers. The packs are actually still available on store-shelves, although you'll need a keen eye to find them nowadays. He continues to work in the casual game-space as an independent developer, largely working on games in Flash for his website, The Code Zone (www.thecodezone.com). His current scheme is to distribute his games virally on various web-portals and widget platforms. In addition, John writes weekly product reviews and blogs (over ten years old) for www.gamedev.net from his home office where he lives with his wife and daughter in their home in the woods near Lake Grapevine in Texas.
Different laws? They have their own copyright (as in each has protection from the date it was created) but they are all under the same law (copyright law).
I think what John is getting at is despite the fact they are both covered by copyright law that there are other laws, regulations and precendents from court rulings that have come into play over the years that make recordings and sheet music different things in practice from a legal point of view.
A minor example: even though they are both covered by copyright law the royalty structure for each are different.
If you are going to use other people's work (whether it's music, art, or anything else) in your work document where you got everything in question and talk to a lawyer first. It should save you some headaches.
---CyberbrineDreamsSuspected implementation of the Windows idle loop: void idle_loop() { *((char*)rand()) = 0; }
A good example. All sheet printed on or before 1922 is in the public domain. Not so for sound recordings. Sound recordings are such a maze of state and national laws that you've gotta do a pretty extensive search to figure it out.
(my byline from the Gamedev Collection series, which I co-edited) John Hattan has been working steadily in the casual game-space since the TRS-80 days and professionally since 1990. After seeing his small-format games turned down for what turned out to be Tandy's last PC release, he took them independent, eventually releasing them as several discount game-packs through a couple of publishers. The packs are actually still available on store-shelves, although you'll need a keen eye to find them nowadays. He continues to work in the casual game-space as an independent developer, largely working on games in Flash for his website, The Code Zone (www.thecodezone.com). His current scheme is to distribute his games virally on various web-portals and widget platforms. In addition, John writes weekly product reviews and blogs (over ten years old) for www.gamedev.net from his home office where he lives with his wife and daughter in their home in the woods near Lake Grapevine in Texas.
"Covers are legal because the creator of the cover pays a royalty to the copyright owner " Wow so the guy signing kareoke at the local bar last night technically owes Dave Matthews, Counting Crows and a few other bands royalties? interesting.
Quote:Original post by Anonymous Poster "Covers are legal because the creator of the cover pays a royalty to the copyright owner " Wow so the guy signing kareoke at the local bar last night technically owes Dave Matthews, Counting Crows and a few other bands royalties? interesting.
Errr no of course not. But the company who makes and sells the disks will have had to arrange a special license that allows for the songs to be used in that way.
