Is a recording of a music box that plays a public domain classical melody copyrighted by the box manufacturer?
I want to use a recording of a music box playing a theme from one of Claude Debussy’s “Arabesques” in Creative Commons-licensed music. Should I be concerned about copyright issues?
I would be recording the sound produced by the music box myself.
The “performance” of a music box is mechanical, and in any case the rights to performance are held solely by the music composer/publisher (usually through ASCAP or BMI), not the device programmer.
only a creative work of original authorship can be copyrighted. The programming of the device, whether mechanical as in punched player piano rolls, or software as midi instructions can be protected only from direct replication, the sounds produced when these programs run is not owned by the programmer.
this issue was resolved in 1909 when the copyright law was clarified to distinguish the rights held by music composers versus the rights held by the patents of mechanical phonographs. This was updated by law in 1972, which allowed that a “recording of a performance” involved creative action that could be protected by copyright in certain instances. However the reversed situation, a performance made from a “recording” (programmed device) is not so protected, being strictly mechanical in origin.
infinity + 1 – classical song by sonic scar (CC)
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