Re: Towards a better license for Mutopia

[Bernd Warken]

On Thu, Feb 22, 2001 at 04:37:26PM +0100, Han-Wen Nienhuys wrote:
> Legally spoken none of them is. We're talking about copyright, so it
> can only be copyright infringement to begin with.

Exactly.
 
> I am afraid that you're still missing my point.  It has been accepted
> practice to "steal" music from the public domain for a long time:
> Stravinsky was very famous for creative ways that he adapted baroque
> and classicistic music. Enigma puts a beat-box under gregorian chant
> and can call that original. Rappers compose songs by scratching and
> sampling other music.

I do not speak about composition, but on score editing, for that's what
Mutopia is about.  In former times, the composers were betrayed by the
publishers who made most of the money because they took over the
copyright.  With free editing of old scores, the publishers loose their
position.  A dealer for musical scores told me that there are tons of
good old music that is held by some obscure publishers.  With a good
license, it is easy to edit this and release into the public.
> 
> This might not comply with your feeling of "original" art,
> nevertheless I think this is a valuable way to create music, and
> should not be stifled.

I even think that the sole editing of scores that someone else has 
composed is a creative act, tho usually not artwork.  I do not at
all worry about the composition, that's not part of Mutopia.
> 
> I think that a musical license should reflect the reality that it is
> perfectly well accepted to take a piece of PD music (author died more
> than 70 years ago), make some small modifications, and treat it is a
> new original work. Transplanting this to digitally printed music: I
> should be able to take a mutopia score, make a few twiddles here and
> there, and publish it as an original work.

The freeness of music of composers who died more than 70 years ago is
regulated by special laws.  In Germany, they are not PD.
> 
> IMNSHO, keeping this possibility open is much more important than
> trying to stop others from making a honest or dishonest buck.
> 
In Germany, it does not exist, it has no legal implication.  The same
is true for the disclaimer paragraph.  But the PD concept is known with 
most people interested in computers.
 
Bernd Warken <address@hidden>