Originally Posted by
Mandobart
Getting back to this subject (been at Wintergrass all weekend!) and this was a question I had. I'm assuming authors like Dix Bruce in "Parking Lot Pickers" and David Brody in "Fiddler's Fakebook" did some diligence when they cite "trad" as the author of a song. Is this a safe assumtion that the song (at least as presented in the book, which for "Parking Lot" includes lyrics) is "safely" in the public domain?
But what about the book itself? Are the book's arrangements now copyright too, just by virtue of being published?
I have a different music book sitting here right next to me, it's a Hal Leonard fake-book called "The Ultimate Christmas Fake Book" (6th edition, red cover) which contains "over 270 songs", and it has this message in the front of the book:
"For all works contained herein: Unauthorized copying, arranging, adapting, recording, internet posting, public performance, or other distribution of the printed music in this publication is an infringement of copyright. Infringers are liable under the law."
Ok so it's a fake-book which is just the basic melody line, lyrics, and someone's ideas as to suggested chord names. No piano part or anything, no guitar tab, just lead-sheets.
In some of these songs, the lyrics and melody are traditional public domain songs that predate this modern copyright nonsense by sometimes hundreds of years.
But that warning blurb outright says that "public performance" of any of the material from the book, is an "infringement of copyright."
So, what exactly, is it that Hal Leonard claims to be copyrighting? The chords? I thought you couldn't copyright chords and chord progressions?
Even if the copyright *was* to protect the chords, I wouldn't use half those chords anyway, some of them sound weird and wrong, like someone was grasping at straws to create a 'different' version just because they could.
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Not trying to pick on or single out just Hal Leonard, as they have other books that I've found to be of at least some usefulness. But the copyright blurb makes a person wonder.
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