As artists are constantly at odds with those who download, a legal issue is copywriting music. While thats the easy part, combating piracy is another. I-tunes makes it virtually impossible to file share, withough purchasing, napser isn’t the free site the late 90′s teens and college kids grew to love and reek the benefits from. Copyright laws exist and are constantly being chanted and reevaluated. Here are some interesting tidbits that have revolutionzed copyright law in music as a whole. Fines up to thousands of dollars and jail time are the penalities for the act of downloading, even on a small scale.
The following is the exact definition of Music Copyright
“Music copyright law has separate copyrights for the vocal or instrumental recordings of a composition or performance and the copyright of the written lyrics and music. Standard music copyrighting practices usually entail that the writer of the song retains the rights to the right to the music composition which the studio that did the recording of the music holds the rights of the recording. Music copyright law can get very complicated. It can involve negotiations with the writers, producers, agents, heirs and more.”
- Every time a new technology comes along that affects the music industry it changes the industry. Piper Jaffray found 72% of teens own an MP3 player, and 79% of those are iPods.
- Unfortunately, copyrights eventually expire and the owner has no exclusive rights. This is public domain, which also leads to downloading anything for free for public domain as well.
- US copyright law is found in Title 17 of the United States Code and is administered by the US Copyright Office. ” Terms for Copyright Protection”, a U.S. Government publication, summarizes the current duration of copyright protection for published works as follows:
- Works created after 1/1/1978 - life of the longest surviving author plus 70 years - earliest possible PD date is 1/1/2048
- Works registered before 1/1/1978 - 95 years from the date copyright was secured.
- Works registered before 1/1/1923 – Copyright protection for 75 years has expired and these works are in the public domain.
There is alot to keep in mind when it comes to copyrighting and laws surrounding music.A broad topic I hope to narrow down.
