Mike Wilson's Blog


I was a MA/MST student at Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Accoustics.

This is my weblog.

Click here for my main page.



2011-08-23

I discovered that Winter Wonderland is actually not in the public
domain, so I have removed my cover from my music page.  Just in case
someone from the ASCAP or Warner Chappell Music, Inc. is reading this,
it was a simple mistake on my part with no malicious intent.  Please
don't sue me!

This is probably a good time to talk about music copyright and
licensing.

Simply put, it's kinda complicated and I don't understand it very
well.  This is a bad place to be for someone who might someday want to
make some money or something off of some music.  When that day comes I
will probably hire a lawyer.

There is a viewpoint that many of these laws are outdated, or overly
restrictive, or that they should be changed.  But laws are laws, and
the way a piece is licensed reflects the wishes of the holder of the
rights to that piece.  Commercial licenses don't mean that you can't
distribute or sell a cover of a song.  Just that it costs money to do
so.

There are now ways to license music that give various degrees of
freedom to other people in how they may use it (such as the Creative
Commons license).  Personally, I am overjoyed if someone wants to make
a cover or remix of one of my pieces, or use it in one of their own
creative works.  However, I want them to credit me and to talk with me
if they want to use one of my pieces for commercial purposes.  I can
use a license that makes that explicit, which is great.

There is still no problem with practicing or recording covers of songs
for personal use (if there were I think we would run out of musicians
and composers).  Like many problems in the digital age this one
appears to revolve around distribution.

This is probably something I should talk with Bruno Ruviaro about.


email mwilson@alumni.caltech.edu
Disclaimer: the views herein are my own and do not represent the views of Stanford University. All material copyright Michael J. Wilson.