[eu-gene] Psst...Wanna Buy an Algorithm? (Working Title)

[Rob Myers]

I recommend asking the free art law advisory service at:

     http://www.artquest.org.uk/q&a/form.html

They are England&Wales-specific (well, London-specific by funding). I  
have found them very helpful for copyright questions in the past.

On 15 Oct 2005, at 22:45, alex wrote:

> On Sat, 2005-10-15 at 19:31 +0100, Rob Myers wrote:
>
>> That said, copyright applies to work with a *fixed* form. I'm not
>> sure an algorithmic "improvisation"  would qualify for copyright.
>
> Who or what is improvising in this case?

Errrrrm. Don't know. Possibly the program. Possibly you.

> Sure, but isn't it the same separate issue between rights over a piece
> of music in written form, and rights over a recording of a performance
> of it?

The written work has a fixed form. You get copyright on it. A  
recording of the performance is another fixed form, which is a  
derivative of written work.

If you just have the piece of music in your head, it isn't  
copyrighted. No fixed form.

If you put it into a sequencer, it is copyrighted. Because there is a  
fixed form.

Live art, like dance, cannot be copyrighted unless it is placed in a  
fixed form. Dance notation or video.

(What is the status of jazz improvisation?)

So assuming that a generative *performance* has no fixed form and is  
live, you couldn't claim copyright on it.

I'm guessing that if you get a generative program it to print out its  
next ten minutes of performance or save it to file before performing  
it, you could claim copyright. But I don't know and I Am Not A Lawyer.

Hmm. What if I write a program to generate every 4 bar combination of  
single notes and dump them to the internet archive? Can I claim  
copyright on every piece of music written after that?

Excuse me a moment. ;-)

>> As an aside, the England & Wales copyright act of 1988 had specific
>> provisions for "computer generated work". It got less copyright. I
>> don't know if more recent law has changed this.
>
> That's interesting, I wonder why that happened?

It looks like the Romantic myth of the author's heartfelt creative  
genius may have distorted the terms awarded to more modern technologcy.

You get 50 years, same as music recordings and films. And you don't  
get moral rights, either, apparently.

- Rob.