Development of Creative Commons licenses

["Dana Powers" <dana.powers AT gmail.com>]

Technically, of course, there is still synchronization.  You've got an
audio track which includes a musical work that is timed to play when a
certain scene is displayed visually.  The fact that the two were
recorded simultaneously, or that the video producer did not intend (ex
ante) to include the work seems irrelevant to me.

Doesn't this situation (incidental background recording) still require
synch rights under traditional, commercial licensing systems?  Mad Hot
Ballroom, for example, was a recent documentary about high school kids
taking ball room dance lessons in New York City - a cell phone went
off in one of the scenes with a Rocky theme song ringtone, and (as far
as I know) synch rights still had to be cleared.

Really, I think the fact that the movie and music industries call
pretty much anything that involves reproducing a musical composition
in a movie a "synch right" makes it really hard to carve out any
reliable exception scenarios for the ND license.

dp

On 4/10/07, Andy Kaplan-Myrth <techlaw AT uottawa.ca> wrote:
> Dana Powers wrote:
> > I honestly can't think of how you could digitally combine a musical
> > work with a video without synching.  Even the most basic arrangement,
> > having both start simultaneously, seems to fit the definition.
>
> I think one example would be a film scene with music in the background
> of the scene. Imagine the scene takes place in a restaurant or bar with
> CC-ND music playing in the background -- not as soundtrack that's been
> added to become part of the scene, but music that's just going on in the
> background of the scene. Or music that's on a car stereo in a car scene.
> It hasn't been synchronized in a timed relation with the moving image,
> it's just music going on in the background.
>
> This isn't an adaptation of the song. I think the word "collection" is
> confusing because this doesn't seem like a collection of a song and a
> moving picture, but we should at least be able to agree that this isn't
> an adaptation.
>
> Cheers,
> Andy
>
>
> >
> > dp
> >
> > On 4/10/07, Thinh Nguyen <thinh AT creativecommons.org> wrote:
> >> The key distinction is between "Collections" and "Adaptations"--which is
> >> subject to this "override" sentence: "For the avoidance of doubt, where the
> >> Work is a musical work, performance or phonogram, the synchronization of 
> the
> >> Work in timed-relation with a moving image ("synching") will be considered
> >> an Adaptation for the purpose of this License."
> >>
> >> So if there is "synching" of the musical work to video, then the result is
> >> always an Adaptation, which is not permitted under the ND license. However,
> >> if the video and music are not synched, but instead meets the definition of
> >> Collection (the relevant part of the definition being: "is included in its
> >> entirety in unmodified form along with one or more other contributions, 
> each
> >> constituting separate and independent works in themselves"), then it is a
> >> Collection and is permitted by the license.
> >>
> >> So it would not be accurate to say that the video can only be blank or
> >> noise, or that there are no circumstances under which you can combine video
> >> and an musical work licensed under ND. However, in most circumstances, a
> >> producer will probably want to introduce some element of synching in a
> >> movie, so the ND license may not be the best choice if that is what you
> >> intend the musical work to be used for.
> >>
> >> Thinh Nguyen
> >> Counsel, Science Commons
> >>
> >>
>
> --
> Andy Kaplan-Myrth LL.B., M.A.
> Manager, Law & Technology, University of Ottawa
>
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