shofmon88 Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 (edited) I believe this has a lot of relevance to the ongoing copyright woes of DCI. If this is the way these issues are going, I don't think DCI will ever find common ground with copyright holders. Of particular interest is the professor's flow chart that illustrates the music copyright process. Transcript of the article is below, followed by the link. "Sony Music Issues Takedown On Copyright Lecture About Music Copyrights By Harvard Law Professor Oh, the irony. First pointed out by Mathias Schindler, it appears that a copyright lecture about music copyright done by famed copyright expert and Harvard Law professor William Fisher has been taken down due to a copyright claim by Sony Music. Fisher is well-known in copyright circles and has long advocated for a major reform to copyright to effectively spread a compulsive license to other uses, effectively legalizing file sharing, but with systems in place to still have artists paid. He's detailed versions of this proposal in his book, Promises to Keep: Technology, Law, and the Future of Entertainment. That said, this takedown appears to have nothing to do with that whatsoever. The lecture itself appears to be a part of his online course, CopyrightX, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Thankfully, on the CopyrightX website, there are downloadable versions of the lectures, so I was able to download and watch the full lecture to see what the takedown was about. If you want to follow along at home, the lecture is the third one in section 3. Section three goes into detail on the "Subject Matter of Copyright," and the third lecture is about... "Music." You can download it here. The lecture itself is 24 minutes long, and the vast majority of it is dedicated to creating and explaining this chart, which shows (partially) the messy nature of music copyright licensing today (as a side note, I really appreciate that Fisher is so thorough as to include under the table "payola" as a part of this chart): <see link for chart> However, towards the very end of the lecture, Fisher does play a few sound recording clips to demonstrate a point around cover songs and compulsory licenses (along with his personal opinions on the quality of Stevie Ray Vaughn v. Jimi Hendrix). The clips played are all versions of the Jimi Hendrix classic song Little Wing. You've heard it. In the lecture, Fisher plays approximately the first 45 seconds of the song, from 17:44 in his lecture to 18:31. Then, to demonstrate specific points about cover songs, he plays approximately 15 seconds of a cover by Santana and Joe Cocker. Then about 35 seconds of a version by Stevie Ray Vaughn, and finally about 40 seconds of a version by The Corrs. By my count, a little over 2 minutes of the entire 24-minute video are music clips. Let's be clear here: this is unquestionably fair use. It's not entirely clear to me if this was an explicit takedown or merely a YouTube ContentID match, but either way there is no reason for YouTube to have allowed this to be blocked. If you run through the four factors test of fair use, all four suggest that it's fair use. The purpose and character of the use is clearly for educational purposes, which the fair use part of the law explicitly calls out as an example of fair use. The "nature" of the work is a song, but that seems to have little bearing here on the fair use question. The amount and substantiality of the portion taken was fairly small -- basically just enough for Fisher to make his point showing the differences between the songs and how that applies to the compulsory licenses issued for cover songs. And, finally, the effect of the use upon the potential market is nil. No one is listening to Fisher's lecture as a "replacement" for going out and getting the Hendrix song, or any other version of Little Wing. And I don't think there's a huge "market" in "licensing music to copyright lectures." In fact, considering how frequently we hear the RIAA and other copyright system supporters (especially within the recording industry) arguing that what the world really needs is better education on copyright issues so that the public better understands it, it seems particularly stupid to issue a takedown over a free lecture explaining music copyright. But, of course, no one ever suggested that the recording industry is particularly intelligent in how it goes about fighting its peculiar war. This story is reminiscent of when Warner Music issued a DMCA takedown on a presentation by another famed Harvard Law professor, Larry Lessig. Similar things have happened a few times to Lessig, including one case where Lessig sued in response, seeking a declaratory judgment of non-infringement along with damages under DMCA 512(f), which forbid "misrepresentations" in filing DMCA notices. That case eventually settled, with the record label (an Australian label called Liberation Music) paying a sum of money that went to the EFF. It's unclear what Fisher will do in this situation, but I imagine that as this story begins to get attention, both Sony Music and YouTube may want to reconsider the original move to take down the video." https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160214/08293233599/sony-music-issues-takedown-copyright-lecture-about-music-copyrights-harvard-law-professor.shtml Edited February 18, 2016 by shofmon88 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leed17 Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 I'm still trying to stay optimistic with all this, and look forward to seeing DCI announce a release of the 2015 Top 12 video sometime before the Spring or at least before the new 2016 season starts. While I know that DCA and BOA have basically abandoned releasing videos, I truly believe DCI is intent on working this out, paying whatever fees they can possibly afford, and trying to set things right with the publishing companies as best they can. I think DCA just doesn't have the money, and BOA has so many bands its just cost prohibitive to even try (although a finals video with top 12 would be nice from them too). Anyway, I am crossing my fingers that this will be a hiccup for DCI, and next Winter the CD and DVD releases will be less painful and earlier... eternal optimist I guess :) If it doesn't work out and DCI has to abandon videos as well, I think its going to really hurt the whole activity over the next 5 years just when it comes to exposure... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Detweiler Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 The worst part about this is that the corps seem to be doing everything right. Obtaining permission to arrange, etc. It seems the governing bodies (DCI, DCA, BOA) are the ones that have dropped the ball. The real losers in this are the members that will never have the professional recordings to remember their hard efforts by. DCI may still hold out hope, but for those of us in DCA, the memories of last year's performances will remain forever lost. Dan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leed17 Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 The worst part about this is that the corps seem to be doing everything right. Obtaining permission to arrange, etc. It seems the governing bodies (DCI, DCA, BOA) are the ones that have dropped the ball. The real losers in this are the members that will never have the professional recordings to remember their hard efforts by. DCI may still hold out hope, but for those of us in DCA, the memories of last year's performances will remain forever lost. Dan Definitely agree with that - and it looks like all of the older videos from previous years of DCA will never be released again either...unless DCA has plans that we don't know about. Thats what bothers me the most about all of this - being a band director and seeing Seniors in my high school marching band go thru a whole season, and because of the various circuits abandoning videos due to the cost of the sync licenses, those same Seniors never getting a professional recording to remember their final marching band competition. I know some people don't care as much, but I will be heartbroken when my daughter is a Senior in her high school in about 5 years, and the only video we will have could possibly be parent videos from the stands using phones. Something is inherently wrong with that, even though I know the publishing companies have the right to make money for these various pieces of music that the bands and corps are using. I know back in the day that most bands, and even DCI and DCA were probably not paying any copyright fees (arranging, performance, sync or any other), so I understand why the publishing companies are cracking down. But, something needs to be worked out so that all can benefit. Because right now, what is happening is benefitting no one... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 The worst part about this is that the corps seem to be doing everything right. Obtaining permission to arrange, etc. It seems the governing bodies (DCI, DCA, BOA) are the ones that have dropped the ball. The real losers in this are the members that will never have the professional recordings to remember their hard efforts by. DCI may still hold out hope, but for those of us in DCA, the memories of last year's performances will remain forever lost. Dan I can't speak to DCA, but that's not what I hear coming through the DCI carrier pigeons. I'm hearing that at least part of the hangup is corps, not DCI specifically, having to own up to past sins of arranging new music midway through the season but dumping the synch rights on DCI to accomplish prior to cutting the media in the fall. I can't spill details but my understanding is that DCI was ordered by its BOD to "produce now and worry later". In that case it looks like DCI is guilty when, in fact, it's the corps that were the genesis of the problem today. If there was any loosie-goosie going on I suspect many new and likely share guilt. Is it really possible for DCI to do something without its BOD either knowing or signing off on it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 Is it really possible for DCI to do something without its BOD either knowing or signing off on it? Why not? Happens all the time with those in business or government. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 Why not? Happens all the time with those in business or government. Ahhh, but you see those organizations are usually run or audited by independent auditors. DCI is a dysfunctional family of elbows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HornTeacher Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 (edited) Ahhh, but you see those organizations are usually run or audited by independent auditors. DCI is a dysfunctional family of elbows. Never disregard the pasta-bilities out of hand. Edited February 18, 2016 by HornTeacher 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
84BDsop Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 Never disregard the pasta-bilities out of hand. Wow....you really had to stretch for THAT one, Mr. Fantastic! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamarag Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 (edited) The worst part about this is that the corps seem to be doing everything right. Obtaining permission to arrange, etc. It seems the governing bodies (DCI, DCA, BOA) are the ones that have dropped the ball. The real losers in this are the members that will never have the professional recordings to remember their hard efforts by. DCI may still hold out hope, but for those of us in DCA, the memories of last year's performances will remain forever lost. Dan The problem isn't the governing bodies, it's the producer of the media (you know, the ones that have to secure the rights...amd honestly, they aren't even the problem). Right now, the producers are the governing bodies. If DCI/DCA/BOA contracted out completely, we'd still not have media, for the same reasons. No one has "dropped the ball". They've just done competent cost/benefit analysis. Edited February 18, 2016 by Kamarag Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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