On 3/30/99, Patrice A. Lyons <plyons/0003432266[_at_]mcimail.com> wrote:
>
> Let's take this one step further: Is it a "song" when it is made
> available in an Internet environment in the form of structured data?
> When a musical work is converted to a digital format and made available
> on the Internet as a sequence of bits, does it become a literary work?
> It's somewhat like the reverse situation, where a literary work, say a
> novel, is made into a motion picture. While the motion picture is based
> or incorporates the pre-existing literary work, the motion picture is
> recognized as a audiovisual work for copyright management purposes.
>
> An ABA subcommittee I chaired a few years ago [Committee 702,
> Subcommittee E (1995-96)] considered this matter, and tentatively
> proposed a definition of a subcategory of literary work called a
> "digital work," i.e., where the work consists of an ordered set of
> symbols from a discrete alphabet that are capable of behavior when
> processed.
A movie can be considered both a literary work and an audiovisual work because it has aspects of both. A movie has a plot (okay, some movies don't but I don't go see those). It has characters. It has dialog. These are all components of literary works. And they relate to the creative expression that underlies the work.
But embodying music in digital format doesn't make it a literary work just because the manner of embodiment involves symbols. If that were true, why wouldn't sheet music (which is built on a set of symbols) be considered a literary work? Neither the symbols on the sheet music nor the symbols in the digital representation have anything to do with the creative expression. I don't see it.
> If you would like to see the report of this subcommittee, please
> let me know.
I would love to have a copy. Maybe it will change my mind.
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