Songs On Hearme

Subject: Songs On Hearme
From: Dulci46
Date: 01 May 00 - 09:32 AM

Being new at this I don't fully understand copywrite laws, and plagerism. (I think that's spelled right)

How do you know whether you can sing a song on Hearme? Is it ok to sing any song as long as your not being paid for it? Or do you have to be careful which songs you use? And how do you find out which songs are ok to use and which aren't?

I sure don't want to get in trouble ! ! :)

Subject: RE: Songs On Hearme
From: MMario
Date: 01 May 00 - 10:03 AM

I think....(My opinion only) that as the "hearme" room is a more or less private session that just about anything is "legal". I would be more concerned if we were going out "live" over MudCat radio....

Subject: RE: Songs On Hearme
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 01 May 00 - 10:13 AM

Singing on HearMe is not only not a commercial (i.e. paid) performance but it's not even a public performance. The owner of a copyright (not "copywrite) could hardly complain if you sing to your spouse. Okay, so you meet by arrangment with your spouse, say, and your two best friends say in the woods, or somewhere else that outsiders won't be present, and sing. That's no different. And it's not different from letting your (Mudcat) friends know where a few of you are going to get together to sing. Not an invitation to the public at large; not a commercial endeavor.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Songs On Hearme
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 01 May 00 - 12:18 PM

They will have to come and extract royalties from me in person.They might find it very difficult, painfull and unprofitable too. Yours, Aye. Dave

Subject: RE: Songs On Hearme
From: Midchuck
Date: 01 May 00 - 01:54 PM

I suspect that HearMe is a public performance, since anyone can connect and listen, and therefore is in technical violation of the copyright laws. The violation is, in my mind, on the same order as driving 54 mph in a 50 mph zone, or giving your 20-year-old (or 17-year-old in Canada) child a beer in your own home.

In a world with as many laws as we have now, I think that, as a matter of common sense, you have to ask both, "Am I really harming anyone, or depriving anyone of anything they're rightfully entitled to?" and "What real chance is there of my getting caught and prosecuted?" as well as just "Is it against the law?"

Peter. (a lawyer, but not an intellectual property lawyer, and therefore guessing as much as the rest of you.)

Subject: RE: Songs On Hearme
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 01 May 00 - 03:52 PM

I suppose Peter has a point in saying it is a public performance. The reality here is that I have no control over who goes there although my policy is to try to keep it within Mudcat and I don't publicise the page elsewhere.

Having said that, in practice, the room is only used by a group of people who share a common interest in folk music and I view the situation as I would with the folk clubs I have been involved with on "singers nights" - Peters "am I really harming anyone" applies. We are no more than a group of friends that like sharing songs and we simply sing the songs we enjoy singing - let's keep it up and not worry.

Jon

Subject: Copyrights
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 May 00 - 04:45 PM

Gee, you could get ito a great moral/ethical/legal debate on this matter of copyrights. I suppose it's something we've discussed here over and over again, but I think it's a question that does not yet have a satisfactory answer. If you stretch all of this to extremes, it almost ciminalizes the act of singing a song.
There are times when this copyright thing has been taken to extremes, like the restrictions people have to follow on the use of the "Happy Birthday Song," or the Mudcat attacks from the Harry Fox Agency, and the hassle the Scouts had about paying rights for songs sung at camps (although that one came to a fairly equitable solution). It certainly hurts the spontaneity that is such a wonderful and important part of music.
In my more radical moments, I wonder whether we would be better off if musicians were not compensated, and if we all could just sing for the love of song. From a practical standpoint, I wouldn't like to see that - most of the songs I love were written for profit, and the world would be a poorer place if those songs did not exist.
Still, our copyright laws need restructuring, so that they can encourage rather than stifle creativity and our enjoyment of the arts. In the meantime, I'm going to temper the law with a little common sense, and I'm not going to let the remote threat of a lawsuit stop me from singing any song I like, any time I like.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Songs On Hearme
From: Midchuck
Date: 01 May 00 - 05:15 PM

I believe fairly strongly that intellectual property law as we know it can't survive the internet. It's like trying to solve the problem of floods by passing a law forbidding water to run downhill. But Congress responds to the problem by making the law more strict; extending the period of copyright, etc. I suspect that the large music publishing businesses, licensing organizations, etc., are seeing the pattern and are terrified and using all the clout they have to get Congress to protect their monopolies.

At some point, in all probability, they'll try to shut down the internet, and upon finding that it's too late, try to put a tax on all internet connections like what they did on recording tape. But I think there's a momentum in the direction of free circulation of all information, that's going to be very difficult to turn around. I hope.

Peter.