[Wikipedia-l] Copyrighted music on wikipedia.

[James D. Forrester]

On Sunday, May 15, 2005 10:22 AM, Andre Engels <andreengels at gmail.com>
wrote:

> On 5/15/05, Wouter Steenbeek <musiqolog at hotmail.com> wrote:
> > 
> > > We need to have a discussion of how to handle music copyright issues.

[Snip]

> I think it is only the composer and the musicians who have to give
> permission (and the text writer in case of a song). Can someone
> acknowledge or correct me?

This is not entirely correct, AIUI: the act of type-setting the score is not
considered a "mechanical" reproduction of the music, but, instead, an
artistic work worthy of copyright - the manner of scoring can chanage the
tone of the piece, and so the setter has to try to work out what the
composer meant.

This way in which the score is set out is then, in effect, an arrangement of
the original music, and so, when the score is played, the copyright of the
composer, the score-setter, the musicians, and the conductor (if
appropriate) are all taking an artistic part in the creation of copyright,
and so we would need the permission of each of them. Note that most
score-setting is done on a work-for-hire basis for large companies like
Boosey & Hawkes, who are extremely unlikely to give permission for free

However, this is only my understanding, and could be wrong; I will ask a
couple of friends of mine who professionally score-set for their insight.

Yours,
-- 
James D. Forrester -- Wikimedia: [[W:en:User:Jdforrester|James F.]]

Mail: james at jdforrester.org | jon at eh.org | csvla at dcs.warwick.ac.uk
IM  : (MSN) jamesdforrester at hotmail.com