Re: [disklavier] Uploads
2000-04-14 by Todd Muncy
Let's put this copyright issue to bed, once and for all. I spent a little time (expensive) with a lawyer and got some guidance for this group, that is more than anecdotal. Here we go: DON'TS Do not upload or otherwise share copies midi files that are sold commercially. These would be copyrighted performances, which are, and should be, patently illegal to share. If you want it, buy it. GRAY AREA Public domain performances of copyrighted songs, made available for free on open web sites is a gray area, yet to be resolved in court. The Harry Fox Agency (representing the composers of about 55% of copyrighted songs) has been attacking these sites with scary letters from lawyers threatening lawsuits for huge amounts of money. Since virtually none of these sites make any money, they aren't in a position to fight the legal battle and cave in. That is why the supply of this type of midi file has dried up dramatically as a result. Many of the good ones left are outside the US. WHY WE ARE OK The whole reason this group got started was because of the sudden lack of web sites with popular music midi files. Most of us have built up some decent collections over the last few years, invested time in screening, editing, balancing volume levels, etc. A vehicle to share this material amongst ourselves did, and still does, make a lot of sense. There is a well established exception to the copyright law, which entitles people to share free private performances of copyrighted material with their friends. Although there are no absolutes with lawyers and courts, my legal beagles say that they see no problem with this group qualifying under this exception since it is a small members-only club swapping public domain performances. The song copyrights should not be an issue if we are not charging each other for the files. It is also unlikely that Harry Fox will ever stumble across our site, because you need a member's password to get in. Their notorious web crawler programs can't get in to scan us. Even if they did attack us legally, the worst case possibility is that they would convince egroups to shut us down. In that event, I keep fresh email membership lists on my hard drive, along with a mirror image of the vault. I could set up another group with a non-musical name (bagel-lovers@egroups.com), restock the vault, and pre-enroll all current members in an hour or two. With about 225 members, we are large enough to stop soliciting members on DUG and elsewhere and remain extremely low profile. The current plan is business as usual, but stop drawing attention to ourselves on DUG. Any questions? Todd Muncy disklavier-owner@egroups.com Check out my family web site. It contains some fun disklavier stuff. http://MuncyFamily.com
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----- Original Message ----- From: <jwelsh2141@...> To: <disklavier@egroups.com> Sent: Friday, April 14, 2000 8:14 AM Subject: [disklavier] Uploads > Hello all; > > I have posted my rendition of Ebb Tide to the Popular piano folder. > > However, after reading many of the older posts on this site, I find there > is some concern over copyright issues. I Have no idea if this song is still > under copyright. If it is I guess it will have to be deleted. > > Thanx > > Jim > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Free E-Cards, Screensavers, and Digital Pictures! > Corbis.com: > http://click.egroups.com/1/3358/2/_/156037/_/955714489/ > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > To Post a message, send it to: disklavier@... > > To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: disklavier-unsubscribe@... > >