Re: need help with recording credits and more

[Kame'a Media <media...>]

Dear Shira:

Thanks for the fine points of US copyright law.

I misunderstood Steve's words, thinking:
he  has a certain recorded arrangement of the song
upon which he wishes to base his own  future version.
Unless he duplicates it note for exact note (and what would be the point of 
that ?),
his recording will become HIS arrangement -- and he need only credit the 
writers.

One seldom sees the same credited arrangement of a song on two different 
records -- except perhaps
for Broadway musicals.  For one, the arranger would most likely be legally 
bound not to allow his
arrangement to be employed  by another artist (at least for a certain length of 
time) so as to not
siphon away potential market share of the product in question.  Second, there 
is the additional
expense incurred by having to compensate the arranger as well as the 
writer/publishers for
exploiting the material.

Why look for trouble?  Make up your own version.


Keep on the sunny side,

Wolf







meydele (at) ix(dot)netcom(dot)com wrote:

> On 09/17/99 15:03:24 Wolf wrote:
> >
> >You can't attempt to copyright an arrangement in the hopes of claiming writer
> >credits.
> >An arrangement itself cannot be copyright unless the song in question is
> >already in the Public Domain.  Then you can attach your name to it.
> >
> As a former copyright lawyer, I have to clarify, as Wolf doesn't have it 
> quite right (sorry,
> Wolf!).  Any NEW material is automatically protected by copyright upon 
> creation - whether the
> arranger has the legal authority to create a new version of someone else's 
> work is another issue
> entirely.  The Copyright Office will not accept registration of an 
> arrangement without evidence
> that it is authorized by the owner of the copyright in the underlying work 
> (i.e., the original
> composer has given permission for the arrangement, which in legal parlance is 
> a "derivative
> work") - but that doesn't mean it's not copyrighted.  The arrangement - 
> authorized or not, legal
> or illegal - is the property of the arranger, and can't be reproduced or 
> taken for use by
> someone else without permission.  No matter what, the arranger is NEVER the 
> author of the
> underlying song he or she did not write originally.  Proper credits are 
> "music by So-and-So,
> arranged by Me".
>
> I don't want to turn this into a legal discussion list - I don't practice 
> copyright law (or any
> law, for that matter) anymore.  But I don't want list members to have 
> misinformation.
>
> Shira Lerner
>



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