Quote:
Originally posted by Timber Loftis:
Yorick, thanks for the Aussie law articles. For the US, what you would want to research is what's known as the "fair use doctrine."
Oh, and in the US, IIRC, performing the work in public DOES create a copyright issue.
While it's a printing/publishing concern more than a RIAA concern, the biggest copyright infringers are university professors. Just think about all those photocopies you were distributed in school.
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I am a major believer in the 'fair use' doctrine as it is currently provided for in British laws. (I'm less familiar with US rules, but according to your descriptions they don't look much different) - I would hate to see Aussie rules (as described by Yorik) applied in the EU\US.
Under the fair use principle, creative works continue to be owned and controlled by the originator. The artist/author will continue to be paid and will have full powers to exercise control over the public distribution and permformance of his work and will have the rights to claim royalities.
At the same time, the users are not hamstrung by restrictive rules which may prevent their ENJOYMENT of that work and thus deter them from purchasing or EXPOSING that work to their friends.
For example, if I throw a private party to a 100 friends, I wouldn't play music at that party if I had to pay royalties for every song I played. This would deny the artist vital exposure.
Copyright is a tricky area of law and society has to strike a balance between protecting the work to encourage continuing creativity - but not be so heavy handed as to stifle inovation and prevent the work from gaining exposure. What would be the state of music today if the person that invented the electric guitar exercised control over all persons who wished to use one?...
What if the Wright Brothers had patented both the bi-plane and single wing plane design?
I believe (as you do) that we have struck a good balance in both the US/EU - I very much hope that Austrailia follows suit so that the number of its home grown successful artists can increase to that of the UK. The world would be a richer place for it.
[ 02-06-2004, 12:31 AM: Message edited by: Skunk ]