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cc-licenses - Re: derivative works question: "cover" songs

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Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

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  • From: Sal Randolph <sal AT highlala.com>
  • To: Discussion on the Creative Commons license drafts <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: derivative works question: "cover" songs
  • Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 16:24:27 -0500


I'm not a lawyer (and not part of cc) but I'm pretty sure you can't distribute covers of copyrighted material except under the terms of the blanket compulsory license mentioned previously (meaning you pay a fixed royalty based on your use), and I don't believe you can distribute these covers under a cc license at all.

It's basically because you are not the copyright holder for all of the material (in this case they lyrics/composition), simple as that.

You can certainly cover and cc license anything that's in the public domain, from Beethoven to traditional songs.

The rule of thumb is simply whether someone else owns part or all of the copyright.

best,

Sal


On Mar 24, 2004, at 4:01 PM, William Morgan wrote:

Excerpts (reformatted) from Greg London's mail of 24 Mar 2004 (EST):
William Morgan said:
What about songs (instrumentals or with lyrics) in the public domain?
Can we still distribute recordings under a CC license?

You can cover Beethoven to your heart's content.
If someone performs beethoven and records it, that's their property.
but a recording of your own performance of beethoven is your property.

Ok. I was just uncertain of whether, seeing as we don't own copyrights
on the lyrics or composition, we could still license these recordings in
the same way that we license recordings of original tunes.

Thanks for your help.

--
William <wmorgan-cc-licenses AT masanjin.net>
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