Hypothetically, who's on first?

A member of the TRDEV-L list (focus: training and development issues) wanted an audio recording of the Abbott and Costello "who's on first?" routine. She received several suggestions, including a web site run by the A & C fan club, http://www.city-net.com/abbottandcostellofc/index.html. The home page opens with this statement: "The families of Bud and Lou want to welcome you to the official Abbott & Costello Home Page." The site includes audio clips (wav files) of several A&C routines, including the "who's on first?" sketch.

I haven't been able to find a copyright notice on the site, nor language indicating that the "families of Bud and Lou" own the rights to these works.

I am interested, as is the original poster of the question on the TRDEV list, in having educated opinion (since I wouldn't ask for free legal advice in this forum) on whether trainers and the companies who employ them could make use of audio files from such a site. The interest has more to do with audio available from the web in general, rather than Abbott and Costello audio specifically.

(1) As part of training activity in a business setting (in this

    particular case, a session on communications), could an instructor     in a classroom setting have students connect to such a web site and     listen to the audio? (This seems reasonable to me, but my lurking on     the copyright list has made me hesitant about relying on     reasonability.)

(2) What difference would it make, in terms of any liability to the

    organization sponsoring the training, if the web site did NOT have     permission to make the audio available? (E.g., what if the A & C fan     site lacked such permission? How would the typical web visitor     know?)

(3) Can individual visitors to a site like the A&C site legitimately

    download copies of audio files in the absence of explicit language     granting permission to do so? The "audio clips" page on the A&C     site (http://www.city-net.com/abbottandcostellofc/sounds.html)     includes language like that after the 3.2 megabyte "who's on first?"     file: "This is for you hardcore A&C fans; this will take some time     to download."

(4) Same situation as (3), except that the visitors are employees of a

    company who visit the site and download the audio for subsequent     listening as part of either preparation for a training session, or     as a self-paced activity?

(5) It's my impression that things would be even more complicated if the

    recordings were of instrumental music, or of songs, with the likely     need to secure synchronization rights and other permissions. Is     that correct?

(Bud Abbott: "Now that's the first thing you've said right." Lou Costello: "I don't even know what I'm talking about!")

I'd like to share any opinions I receive with the TRDEV list, stating clearly that these were opinions offered in response to hypothetical questions, and not legal advice. If you offer such an opinion, please let me know whether I might pass it along.

Regards,
Dave

> David Ferguson
> GE Information Services / Sales & Services Training
> 100 Edison Park Drive, 5-4B2
> Gaithersburg MD 20878
> (301) 340-5690; fax: -5551; david.ferguson[_at_]geis.ge.com
> ...my opinions, not GE's...
>
>
Received on Tue Apr 20 1999 - 13:10:00 GMT