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llreader · 01-29-2010, 02:08 PM

I'm not sure a group of people singing Happy Birthday in public isn't a public performance. Is singing Christmas carols at your neighbor's door a public performance? There have been similar rulings in which sheet music could not be used for non-profit musical performances due to copyright issues.

In any case, my point is that in many ways copyright laws, and the laws that have sprung up around it (like the DMCA), have become so abusive and pervasive that they have encouraged widespread flaunting of the laws.

Here in Spain RIAA-type organizations are demanding fees from hairdressers for playing music in their businesses, to the point where they are now asking their customers to bring in their own CDs to listen to because they can afford to pay for music (hairdressers don't make loads of money).

In another thread I commented about this - I am owner of some copyrighted works, some of which I give away, some I would like to sell. I expect them to be widely pirated (if they are even worth reading) because the social contract that copyright is based on has been violated so badly that it has become abusive. The public domain doesn't get anything back, and hasn't for nearly a century, and the restrictions become tighter and tighter (taxes on recordable media, for example) without anything given in return.

I would like to see fair copyright laws, that respect the efforts of creative people but also the public domain and the interests of society as a whole. In the absence of just rules, breaking the rules is perfectly understandable. Most people are now trying to figure out how to find a middle path.

01-29-2010, 02:08 PM	#156
llreader Mesmerist Posts: 331 Karma: 506558 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Spain Device: PRS-600 Silver. Much nicer than I expected.	I'm not sure a group of people singing Happy Birthday in public isn't a public performance. Is singing Christmas carols at your neighbor's door a public performance? There have been similar rulings in which sheet music could not be used for non-profit musical performances due to copyright issues. In any case, my point is that in many ways copyright laws, and the laws that have sprung up around it (like the DMCA), have become so abusive and pervasive that they have encouraged widespread flaunting of the laws. Here in Spain RIAA-type organizations are demanding fees from hairdressers for playing music in their businesses, to the point where they are now asking their customers to bring in their own CDs to listen to because they can afford to pay for music (hairdressers don't make loads of money). In another thread I commented about this - I am owner of some copyrighted works, some of which I give away, some I would like to sell. I expect them to be widely pirated (if they are even worth reading) because the social contract that copyright is based on has been violated so badly that it has become abusive. The public domain doesn't get anything back, and hasn't for nearly a century, and the restrictions become tighter and tighter (taxes on recordable media, for example) without anything given in return. I would like to see fair copyright laws, that respect the efforts of creative people but also the public domain and the interests of society as a whole. In the absence of just rules, breaking the rules is perfectly understandable. Most people are now trying to figure out how to find a middle path.