Week 1 Comment 2

Joseph Brightman writes in MAC BLOG

Being a music teacher, I’ve dealt with the issue of copyright for most of my career.  Can I copy this sheet music we are working on?  Am I allowed to send home a copy of the CD of the song we are learning?  Am I allowed to record my kids’ performances and sell them to parents as a fundraiser for the band?  For the most part, the answer to these questions has always been no.  Copyright ensures that the original creators of a work maintains control of its use, and makes an effort to ensure that the creators get paid for their work.  So for music teachers, when the question shifts to ask if we should pay for what we use, the answer quickly turns to yes.  Yes, you must purchase more copies of sheet music, and yes, your student must buy their own copy of the CD, and yes, you can record your students’ performances and sell them to raise funds, (but of course, you’ve got to send a previously negotiated portion of the proceeds to the publisher of the sheet music.)

But, there are some checks and balances placed on copyright law that help the school band or choir director as well as the starving artist from being thrown away in “copyright jail”, or rather, being sued by a recording company.  For example, if you record your students’ performance of a copyrighted work without selling it, and the director keeps only one copy of the recording, then the recording is considered an archive of the performance groups’ progress, and is legal.  In a similar manner, filmmakers and media organizations have put much time and effort into defining a legal defensive position called Fair Use.  If one is taken to court for copyright infringement, depending on the context of the content use, as well as the amount of material taken and its effect on the original work, Fair Use can defend a teacher, reporter, comic, or critic from legal penalties.

So what does this mean for us, the busy creators of new media, whose deadlines prevent us from creating every pixel and sound used in our projects?  Or, the artist who seeks to base her work in the history of what was created before?  Should we shy away from all copyrighted work in fear of a lawsuit, or should we use what we want and attempt to blatantly throw loopholes in the face of the law?  Personally, I think that finding a happy balance between the two is most likely the healthiest approach.  Below is my personal approach when it comes to seeking the right media and staying out of court.

First: Use copyright-free sources.

A simple Google search reveals a slew of resources where works licensed for reuse can be found, such as MorgueFile, Creative Commons, OpSound and many more.  Using media that’s already licensed for reuse, or whose copyright is expired is completely fair and legal, and you may be surprised by the quality of the work that’s out there for free.

Second:  Make it yourself.

If there is a photo you’d like to use, or a song that you just can’t live without, download it, and attempt to recreate something just like it through your own personal resources.  For example, if you wanted to use an instrumental portion of a copyrighted song, using Logic Pro, you can recreate the beat of the song with a similar drum machine, then find or create loops that had a similar feel to the song you are attempting to emulate.  Or for images, study a photo, then find something similar, and attempt to get a good quality shot of it.  Creating media similar to copyrighted works not forces you to study the original works, but then helps you develop your own skills by going out and creating your own work.

Third:  If you can’t live without it, use it respectfully and carefully.

If there is a snippet of media that your project absolutely can’t exist without, Fair Use does exist as a defensible standpoint in a court of law for specifically for this purpose.  So, as long as long as you are careful with regard to the amount of media you use, the nature and purpose of your new work, and its commercial effect on the original work, if you are ever dragged into court you should at least have a case.  The law surrounding Fair Use is a very grey area; so personally, I’d stay on the conservative side of using copyrighted material.  But, since Art itself evolves based on its roots, it only makes sense that we need to be able to build new works based on old ones.  Although I’ve steered away from copyrighted material so far in all of my work, I wouldn’t be surprised if some popped up in the near future.

My reply was:

Glenn Shelton

Joe,
I agree with the majority of your ideas, but I take opposition to creating your own work based on the original. However, I teach my students that they must cite ideas of an author in a research paper. What is the difference between what you propose and using an author's ideas in a paper. I'm ignorant when it comes to the area of media creation so help me understand.

Sunday, November 27, 2011 - 04:15 PM