i was wondering about the same thing dan was. I already took a bunch of covers that I redid myself and put them on the internet. However, they are all classical covers and I don't think the Bach family is try to come after me. But let's say I did this with modern music. No one has ever paid for a copy of the songs, yet I put my name on them and list it as a cover of the original artist. Anyone that wants to hear it can download at will. Is there anyway the artists could prevent me from doing this? You might say no because I am not making any money off of it. But what if I did them so well that I became famous? Because of the cover songs, I could make a great deal off of my first original release. Would I owe anyone? Now, could the original artist sell my version of his song without my permission??
What I know is that, theoreticall, you have to ask, and the author has the right to forbid your cover at all. A friend of mine did a Jaques Brel music theatre show at Hamburger Schauspielhaus which eventually was forbidden by the heirs of Jacques Brel. Too bad. With cover songs, I think, it is common practice to play them on stage without asking an then simply including them in the list for, in Germany, GEMA, so that the author gets his share from them. You don't have to fill in this list if you don't take cover for the concert. However, I'm not sure how this works with a publication in the internet or on a CD, and I'd like to know too! One thing, though, I think is clear: this does not depend on your making money with it. At 22:26 04.12.2002 -0500, SonataPathetique@aol.com wrote:
i was wondering about the same thing dan was. I already took a bunch of covers that I redid myself and put them on the internet. However, they are all classical covers and I don't think the Bach family is try to come after me. But let's say I did this with modern music. No one has ever paid for a copy of the songs, yet I put my name on them and list it as a cover of the original artist. Anyone that wants to hear it can download at will. Is there anyway the artists could prevent me from doing this? You might say no because I am not making any money off of it. But what if I did them so well that I became famous? Because of the cover songs, I could make a great deal off of my first original release. Would I owe anyone?
Now, could the original artist sell my version of his song without my permission??
i was wondering about the same thing dan was. I already took a bunch of covers that I redid myself and put them on the internet. However, they are all classical covers and I don't think the Bach family is try to come after me. But let's say I did this with modern music. No one has ever paid for a copy of the songs, yet I put my name on them and list it as a cover of the original artist. Anyone that wants to hear it can download at will. Is there anyway the artists could prevent me from doing this? You might say no because I am not making any money off of it. But what if I did them so well that I became famous? Because of the cover songs, I could make a great deal off of my first original release. Would I owe anyone?
Actually you probably owe somebody right now. US copyright law provides for a compulsory license for recordings of such material. Basically if a musical piece has already been recorded then any other person can make a cover version without the author or copyright holder's permission by paying statutorily determined royalty rates. Whether you are "making any money" has nothing to do with this, as in fact it has almost nothing to do with any issue of copyright (except some limited types of fair use). If you didn't send a notice for the compulsory license then distributing the cover creates the potential for an action for copyright infringement (though the reality is that this won't much matter unless there's--surprise--money involved). There are limitations to a compulsory license such as the new version must be intended for public distribution but private use (so the license doesn't apply to commercials or film use) and there aren't supposed to be fundamental changes to the original (this is naturally a bit vague in practice). You can see details in the US code at Title 17, Chapter 1, section 115. Lang
Lang wrote to zorn:
However, they are all classical covers and I don't think the Bach family is try to come after me.
LT> Actually you probably owe somebody right now. I'm pretty sure Bach wrote all his tunes before 1922. IIRC. -- Jim Flannery newgrange@talmanassociates.com When you can't give anything, you can also receive nothing. Through giving, you also receive. You can never stop giving. When you have nothing more to give, you're dead. -- Mustafa Tettey Addy np: Krakatau, _Alive_ nr: Mervyn Peake, _Titus Alone_
participants (4)
-
Fritz Feger -
Jim Flannery -
Lang Thompson -
SonataPathetique＠aol.com