music sharing and intellectual property

[erik l. f. contzius <eriklfc...>]

I have to say i'm rather disappointed at the way this dialogue about
sharing music and purchasing printed music is going. I had initially
commented about the situation taking into consideration "Thou shalt not
steal." In all this commotion about the greater good being to share
music, let us not forget _at least_ to give credit where credit is due
(so often, music which we think is public domain is not--i take it the
"Orthodox melody to Shalom Aleikhem" (from NeilNFW (at) aol(dot)com) is 
referring
to the 'trad.' melody, actually composed by I. Goldfarb) let alone
forget the even greater value--that found in the WORDS of the songs we
teach (the words being Torah).

If you can live with teaching music or songleading for your own
financial gain and _not_ purchase the music (in this case i am referring
to sheet music in print and available) being taught... fine. I'm not
convicting anyone, and to even try to do so would be useless. I just
know too many composers out there who are VERY recitent to sharing their
works or to further compose because they have been hurt by the
photocopying of their compositions, or the lack of sales thereof.

If you have permission from the composer themselves--great. If you're at
a kumsitz sharing tunes--great. but let us not be too hasty with a
defense of our actions until we really think about HOW we are doing what
we do.

(by the way, i really believe this dialogue is a healthy one to have.
this is what listserv's are for!)
-- 
Hazzan Erik L.F. Contzius
http://www.radiks.net/eriklfc/
omaha, nebraska
eriklfc (at) radiks(dot)net