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Re: Copyrighting Improvised Music



Let me posit a query for discussion on this then.  The big music publishers (and the not-so-big ones) with catalogues to protect have people on-board that listen to new releases, in the event someone has sampled something from their catalog without permission.  They wouldn’t do this without the expectation that as the owners-as-such of the work, they have the right (and the lawyer power of course) to go after anyone infringing their Intellectual Property.
 
From our viewpoint, consider that we make our own recordings, and in them bits and pieces that will be used in future compositions, perhaps... but they’re still our recordings, and under our copyright umbrella-as-such.  So the aspect of ‘improvised vs composed’ is almost irrelevant for the purposes of protecting your property.  In some situations this might have to be argued in court, but it remains to be seen.  And there have been rare occasions where a case has actually been brought forward, so what do you think?
 
Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2012 12:22 PM
Subject: Re: Copyrighting Improvised Music
 
On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 1:09 PM, Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com> wrote:
<per>
...you need to register improvisations as compositions.
</per>

Interestingly this might not be the case from one country to another, however Per. The US does use a quite different system from us I believe. There is no doubt that COPYRIGHT, exists for you the moment you record or write a piece, but thats not what we´re talking about is it?

In so far as Performing rights is concerned, I just recently registered a bunch of recordings with my Perfoming Rights society here in Norway. Thats TONO (Same for you Per?) they have a little checkbox for IMPROVISED . Now I DIDNT click it, and funnily enough, yesterday got a mail from them inquiering if a couple were really compositions OR were they in fact improvisations, they had noticed the running time, 45 minutes. Now Im STILL not sure what that means in terms of what money I may or may not recieve if anyone used that piece for something, the same I think, but why categorize it differently...?

So I have to say that I gave a waffelly reply, that although the pieces could be said to contain parts of an improvisational nature, they pieces were carefully researched and often heavily edited afterwards. This is true, many pieces start as an improv, but I often overdub new material... cut out the crap... snip bits... reverse bits... overlap bits...

All I know is that there is an unknown sneaky video editor at NRK (Norwegian TV channel) who is using some of my music on an ident... obviously one of my friends, but who..? and they need to pay me!!!


MArk



On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 1:09 PM, Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com> wrote:
On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 5:46 AM, Gmail <k3zz21@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've always, for one, wondered how the process of copyrighting your music goes. But I also wonder is it worth copyrighting something totally improvised?


About receiving compensation as the creator when your improvised works
are being used:

I talked to both my PRO and independent publishing partners about this
and the rule in all territories (countries) is that you need to
register improvisations as compositions. This may seem weird at first,
but If thinking about it there isn't something like a defined border
between composition and improvisation. A composition can very well
contain  directions for an improvisation to be carried out, like for
example the extreme "play anything". A registered composition needs to
have a name and a duration time. Some genre tagging may also be asked
for.

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.perboysen.com
http://www.youtube.com/perboysen




--
Mark Francombe
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