Re: sovereign nations & copyright law

On Thu, Jul 20, 2000, Jayne Sebby <jsebby[_at_]unlnotes.unl.edu> wrote:
>
> Are citizens of sovereign nations within the U.S. (ie: the various
> Indian Tribes) subject to U.S. copyright law? Does it make any
> difference whether the material is created and fixed within
> reservation land or on U.S. soil?
>
> We've had an interesting question come up at work -- a client wants
> to use some native music, recorded during a recent pow wow, on a
> videotape that will be used as a fund-raiser for a non-profit native
> educational entity ("We'll send you a CD of the song."). While we
> have not yet heard the recording, we believe it is traditional
> music, probably composed a long, long time ago and passed along
> through the generations. Allegedly it is neither sacred music nor
> specific to any particular tribe or group. We don't know the
> circumstances under which the recording was made or what rights the
> producer actually holds (although we are working to track that down).
> The client claims he's covered under the "fair use" exception to
> U.S. copyright law. My first question was does U.S. copyright law
> even apply here?
>
> I'd appreciate any information anyone can give me.

This is top of the head, so beware. My sense of Indian sovereignty is that it is limited sovereignty and that Indians are generally subject to most federal laws. In some sense, they are roughly equal to the states in sovereignty in that both are under the federal government and their laws have an often complicated interaction with each other.

I can put you in touch with someone here in Seattle who does a lot of work for Indian tribes if that would help.

Harold Federow
<haroldf[_at_]bsquare.com> Received on Fri Jul 21 2000 - 15:59:09 GMT