From: be726@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Joseph A. Ellis Jr.)
Newsgroups: rec.music.synth
Subject: Re: MIDI Songs.....
Date: 4 Oct 92 18:16:22 GMT
Reply-To: be726@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Joseph A. Ellis Jr.)
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


In a previous article, davei@comp.lancs.ac.uk (Mr D Ingles) says:

>In article <1ahttiINNb8t@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> be726@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Joseph A. Ellis Jr.) writes:
>
>>BTW, under current US copyright law, a work does NOT have to be registered to
>>be protected, so the ONLY 'safe' things to put on the net are works that 
>>are in public domain, or your own compositions, or something that the b;.owner
>>of the copyright has given you _specific_ permission to post.
>
>OK, how about this.  How can anyone tell if a composition is yours, or
>if it has been copied off someone else ? 
>
>If we think about it for a moment, there are very few notes in a musical
>scale.  Also, anybody who has studied music, will probably notice that
>they tend to study other peoples work.  They will also notice that they
>are taught about musical structure etc.  They will probably also note
>that they are being taught in the same manner has a whole load of other
>people.  It is in my opinion that it is perfectly feasible for two
>people to compose the same piece of music.  Also, if you listen to a lot
>of music, you will subliminally store lots of music structures in your
>head which are bound to come out when you are composing. 
>
 
So? Yes, it's feasable... but the second guy to do it better have a good
laywer, and planty of documentation. It can and does happen. Remember 
George Harrison and his song "My Sweet Lord"? 

Anyway, even though there are "only 12 notes" (which, BTW is why a lot of
composers experiment with OTHER fractional tunings, even though there are
solid accoustical reasons that the 'traditional' scales work...) after you
combine note duration and meter into the equation, there are still millions
of unused combinations. We're a long way from writing everything that is
possible to have been written yet.

>I have noticed this happening with computer programs.  I lot of people
>will write the same progams in the same manner and to do the same
>functions as other people.  Not surprising really is it ? They all
>probably are learning from the same book.  They are probably all
>answering the same tutorial question.  They all have been taught the
>same method of programming. 
>
>I once wrote a short program myself which I then later discovered that
>was written almost line for line in a book that I had never seen before. 
>The book was published after I had written the code and I had never
>released my code to anyone.  Perhaps I should try to sue the publishers. 
>
Lotsa luck! Since you never released the code to anyone, you have no PROOF
that it was written before the book was published. This is why people
_register_ copyrights, in the first place.

You'd be laughed out of court.

>Does anyone else agree with my thinking here ? I would like to know if
>it is just me or not. 
>
>>I run a board for SF and Fantasy related music on a system in Cincinnati, Ohio,
>>and participate in the 'alt.music.filk' panel, and these are the guidelines we
>>use... quite safely, and after discussion with lawyers.
>
>Has anyone been done for holding a MIDI file that when played back sounds like 
>something somebody else has done ?
>

It makes no difference what the format of publication is. MIDI is just as much
a 'machine readable code' or 'electronic storage medium' as ASCII... and is just
as protected under copyright law. Think... an audio tape is no more that a set
of instructions to a speaker to vibrate in certain patterns... and audio tapes
are protected. Midi code is a set of instructions to a machine that causes it
to respond in certain patterns, as well... and it is those ideas and patterns
that are the copyright-protected material! The medium or notation they are 
expressed in is irrelevant.

>Davei
>

-- 
 Joe Ellis  o/~ The Synthetic Filker o/~    |     TesserAct Studios
     Internet:   usr6184a@tso.uc.edu        |       P.O. Box 18577
        GEnie:   J.ELLIS22                  |     Fairfield, OH 45018
    All filked up and no place to sing!     |   New Dimensions In Filk!
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