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Series

Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law

American University Washington College of Law

Copyright and Music

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Law

Copyright’S Creative Hierarchy In The Performing Arts, Michael W. Carroll Jan 2012

Copyright’S Creative Hierarchy In The Performing Arts, Michael W. Carroll

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Copyright law grants authors certain rights of creative control over their works. This Article argues that these rights of creative control are too strong when applied to the performing arts because they fail to take account of the mutual dependence between writers and performers to fully realize the work in performance. This failure is particularly problematic in cases in which the author of a source work, such as a play or a choreographic work, imposes content-based restrictions on how a third party may render the work in performance. This Article then explores how Congress might craft a statutory license to …


The Struggle For Music Copyright, Michael W. Carroll Jan 2005

The Struggle For Music Copyright, Michael W. Carroll

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Inspired by passionate contemporary debates about music copyright, this Article investigates how, when, and why music first came within copyright's domain. Ironically, although music publishers and recording companies are among the most aggressive advocates for strong copyright in music today, music publishers in eighteenth-century England resisted extending copyright to music. This Article sheds light on a series of early legal disputes concerning printed music that yield important insights into original understandings of copyright law and music's role in society. By focusing attention on this understudied episode, this Article demonstrates that the concept of copyright was originally far more circumscribed than …


Whose Music Is It Anyway? How We Came To View Musical Expression As A Form Of Property, Michael W. Carroll Jan 2004

Whose Music Is It Anyway? How We Came To View Musical Expression As A Form Of Property, Michael W. Carroll

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Many participants in the music industry consider unauthorized transmissions of music files over the Internet to be theft of their property. Many Internet users who exchange music files reject this characterization. Prompted by the dispute over unauthorized music distribution, this Article explores how those who create and distribute music first came to look upon music as their property and when in Western history the law first supported this view. By analyzing the economic and legal structures governing music making in Western Europe from the classical period in Greece through the Renaissance, the Article shows that the law first granted some …