Greetings Zooks76:
There are copyright laws protecting the composers of music used for
Karaoke performances. The author of the site
http://www.karaokeanonymous.com/legal.html writes "The only time in
which it is ok to make a copy of a copyrighted work is if you are the
legal owner of the disc, and wish to change formats. For example, if
you have a cd player in your home, and a cassette player in your car,
you are allowed to make one copy from a disc to a cassette for your
own use."
If you listen closely to Karaoke CDs, you will hear subtle differences
from the original arrangements but they are not easy to spot. For
instance, in original Carpenter's tunes, the back-up voices were Karen
and/or Richard Carpenter doubling and tripling vocal traks. In
Karaoke CDs, the "Carpenter's" background vocals are not Karen or
Richard but professional vocalists striving to reproduce The
Carpenters sound.
An anit-piracy site devoted to karaoke is located at
http://www.karaokeantipiracyagency.com/ and it is written there:
"Every music label is suffering from lost revenue because of illegally
copied CDs. All of these music labels manufacture hundreds of
thousands of each CD title that they produce. In the Karaoke industry,
each music manufacturer generally produces only a few hundred to a few
thousand of each title...The loss of just a few sold copies because of
piracy has a very dramatic impact on each of these manufacturing
companies. Karaoke discs already cost more to produce than a "regular"
CD because the production costs have to be spread over just a few
hundred copies instead of thousands or millions."
You may read the entire copyright law in a PDF download from
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/
Also from http://www.karaokeantipiracyagency.com/info-law.html#info is
"Mechanical Rights - a license fee - a flat fee called the Statutory
Rate set by the Copyright Royal Tribunal (US Government) that sets the
rate (currently at .075 per song per copy) for every time a song is
“mechanically fixed” in a medium ( i.e. CD, CD+G, records, cassettes,
video tapes, etc.). The main clearing house for mechanical licenses is
the Harry Fox Agency in New York City."
Seeing the above royalty amount should clue you in on just how much a
songwriter makes per record, Unless a songwriter has many pop hits or
writes what is known as a standard (a song that is recorded by many
artists, EX: Smoke gets in Your Eyes) then being a songwriter is not
the most lucrative occupation. Most vocals artists and bands try
desperately to write their own material because they recieve a larger
share of royalties that way. Not much larger, for certain, but every
little bit helps. :)
Also, let's say a Karaoke CD business places a collection of songs on
one CD. They don't use the identical music of the original - they
make their own arrangements. While they would not own the copyrights
to the songs, they could copyright the arrangements of the songs.
Then, if any other CD company copied their musical arrangements, the
Karaoke CD business could sue for copyright infrimgement of the
arrangements. Their arrangements would qualify as derivative works.
See http://www.artslaw.org/DERIV.HTM for an explanation of derivative
works.
A little known fact about copyrighting is that any time anyone creates
a song, poem -any creative work- it is automatically copyrighted.
However, one must *register* the copyright with the US copyright
office to be able to legally pursue any infringement.
"The Copyright Act grants five rights to a copyright owner:
the right to reproduce the copyrighted work;
the right to prepare derivative works based upon the work;
the right to distribute copies of the work to the public;
the right to perform the copyrighted work publicly; and
the right to display the copyrighted work publicly."
From http://www.bitlaw.com/copyright/scope.html
From http://www.loc.gov/copyright/circs/circ14.pdf comes "A
'derivative work,' that is, a work that is based on (or derived from)
one or more already existing works, is copyrightable if it includes
what the copyright law calls an 'original work of authorship.'
Derivative works, also known as 'new versions,' include such works as
translations, musical arrangements, dramatizations, fictionalizations,
art reproductions, and condensations. Any work in which the editorial
revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications
represent, as a whole, an original work of authorship is a 'derivative
work' or 'new version.'"
An interesting bit of copyright infringement history is the faux pas
committed by George Harrison, one of the Fab Four, the Beatles. On
November 28, 1970, a song he wrote titled "My Sweet Lord" was released
and went on to become a huge hit. Turns out it was almost exactly the
same music as the old song "He's So Fine" - see "The 'My Sweet
Lord'/'He's So Fine' Plagiarism Suit" at
http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/mysweet.htm to learn more details.
Should you require clarification of any of the links or information I
have provided, please request it and I will be happy to respond.
Best regards,
journalist-ga
SEARCH STRATEGY:
karaoke copyright
karaoke licensing
copyright derivative works
george harrison my sweet lord he's so fine |
Clarification of Answer by
journalist-ga
on
31 May 2003 14:57 PDT
Greetings again:
I'm delighted you are pleased with my answer. :) To address your
additional questions:
"I understand that karaoke songs and vocals are not quite the same
as the original. Does this protect that song from being a copyright
infringment?"
Slightly altering an arrangement protects the person altering it and
they may choose to pursue or not to pursue a copyright registration.
If an original arrangement is used, then permission must be secured
from the original arranger OR owner of the arrangement (which is many
times the producer) before anyone may reproduce it. otherwise, it's
copyright infringement.
Regarding sampling an existing song, if Vanilla Ice used any part of
the exact recording of the original without first securing permission,
then it was a copyright infringement.
"Is this the same application as for instance, a local band singing a
famous song? Are they legal, or, theoretically those local bands
would be breaking the law, but its just that no one would take the
trouble or cost to pursue those infringments?"
If a band is *accepting payment* to perform while playing someone
else's copyrighted songs, then they should be paying royalties to the
songwriters. However, what you stated is the reality: "its just that
no one would take the trouble or cost to pursue those infringments."
"What to make of when a band/singer remakes an old song and they ride
on the
song's fame to become a radio hit(i.e. Alien Ant Farm and their song
"smooth criminal" among others)?"
That's known as "excellent marketing strategy." :) The song is
familiar to listeners so subsequent recordings of it already have a
"market share" of listeners. Plus, as I alluded to in my answer
above, it really is every songwriter's dream to compose a standard.
The more a song is recorded, the more money the songwriter makes.
On a side note, if you are interested in the music business generally,
you may find the site http://www.mosesavalon.com/ quite interesting.
It's the site of Moses Avalon who wrote "Confessions of a Record
Producer" which is an expose' of the music business. For more legal
information on the music business, check out the book "This Business
of Music: The Definitive Guide to the Music Industry" from a local
library. It has sample contracts and a wealth of excellent
contractual advice.
Another interesting fact about songwriters copyrighting songs is that
an individual registration is costly, about $20. So
composers/lyricists will copyright a collection of perhaps 5-10 songs.
Then, when they list the copyright, it reads "Name of Song, c 2003,
from Collection One" or something similar. Saving $20 per song can
mean a lot to a struggling writer's food budget. ;) the same may be
done with short stories, poems, etc. "Collection" copyrighting saves
big bucks.
Should you require further clarification, please request it and I will
be happy to respond.
Best regards,
journalist-ga, formerly in the music business
PS My favorite quote about the music business comes from writer
Hunter S. Thompson:
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long
plastic hallway where pimps and thieves run free and good men die like
dogs. There's also a negative side."
|
,
0 Comments
)