Re: copyright of "collected" folk songs

On 27 April 1998, Michael Cooney <mcooney[_at_]midcoast.com> wrote:
>
> Well I still can't seem to disengage from this list. How 'bout becoming
> boring and pedantic for a while so I can get something done?
>
>
> Here's a question that's always bothered me: Folksong "collectors" go
> out in the field and collect songs from Real Folk. Then they put 'em in
> books with copyright notices on 'em, in THEIR names. This wouldn't
> really stand up, would it?
>
> Some collectors put "...with new words and music by [themselves]" in
> there somewhere. Sometimes they HAVE changed a word or two, a note or
> two, sometimes not. (Is any progress being made toward allowing people
> to copyright ONLY their changes in this country [USA]?)
>
> A fellow I knew came to me during the bicentennial because his uncle, a
> composer, had used some songs from a certain "bicentennial songs" book
> to make a sound track for some educational children's tv shows. The
> person who had put together the book hit the network with an injunction
> the day before the airing of the shows because he had, he said (changed
> slightly and) copyrighted all the songs. (Sounds like extortion to me.)
> The network paid, and deducted the money from what they owed the
> composer. The part that angered me was that the "author" of the book
> had SAID these were genuine historical songs (including songs like "God
> Save The King") -- either he lied, or he HADN'T changed 'em. He lied in
> any case, hm?
>
> As a singer of old songs, I donate the "authors royalties" from any
> "traditional" songs I record to the Library of Congress Friends of the
> Folk Archive fund (which was started with my first check), and I've
> always maintained that no-one should "own" those songs or "versions" of
> 'em. Nobody's sued me yet. (Though I admit [sigh], there would be no
> money in it.)
>
> And no-one ever mentions the ORIGINAL sources -- the "folk". Did
> Leadbelly (or his heirs) ever get any money for "Goodnight Irene" -- the
> song that still has the record for longest at #1 (it's in the Guinness
> Book of Records)? Or did the Lomaxes, who "collected" it from him (and
> copyrighted it -- "words and music by Huddie Ledbetter with new words
> and music by John A. and Alan Lomax") get all the money?
>
> I'm getting close to a tirade. I'll stop.
>
> Yankee Doodle, keep it up...

This area is something of a minefield. I speak from experience in that it's my thesis topic. For a basic run-down of the issues involved there are a number of articles that are useful if you're interested in digging them up

Mills, Sherylle. "Indigenous Music and the Law: an analysis of national and international legislation." as published in the 1996 Yearbook for Traditional Music.

Blaukopf, Kurt. "Legal Policies for the Safeguarding of Traditional Music: Are They Utopian?" as published in The World of Music Vol. xxxii No. 1 - 1990

Seeger, Anthony. "Singing Other Peoples' Songs" as published in Cultural Survival Quarterly, Summer 1991 (and elsewhere)

Seeger, Anthony. "Ethnomusicology and the Law" as published in Ethnomusicology, Vol. 36 no. 3, Fall 1992.

Also check out the links from my webpage.

Beir bua

Anthony McCann
University of Limerick
http://www.ul.ie/~iwmc/research/anthonymccann/index.html <anthony.mccann[_at_]ul.ie> Received on Wed Apr 29 1998 - 09:15:04 GMT