The Music Business

What is Copyright?

Ah…this is a basic yet complicated question about which all creators need to be informed. There are so many issues involved, the details can be overwhelming. Below is a link to Copyright Basics, written by James Kendrick,* a nationally recognized lawyer who specializes in US copyright law for musicians. This short article provides a wealth of general information including: copyright ownership, obtaining a copyright, registration, exclusive rights, infringement, length of copyright, protection, and many other important items.

Copyright Basics
(Copyright Basics is a segment from the AMC’s Tuning Up Your Career professional development workshop Every Composer’s Business: Essentials for Your Career)

PLEASE NOTE: THE MATERIALS AND FORMS PROVIDED ARE PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. THEY ARE NOT INTENDED TO BE A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. MANY FACTORS CAN AFFECT YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS AND REMEDIES. YOU ARE URGED TO SEEK PROFESSIONAL ADVICE FOR ANY IMPORTANT LEGAL MATTER.

For more copyright information, log on the US Copyright Office website at: www.copyright.gov.

Should you have questions about other legal information, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts (VLA) is an organization that provides advocacy, legal services, educational programs and information to thousands of members in the arts community each year. VLA has a national office in New York and regional chapters throughout the country.

Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts
The Payley Building
One East 53rd Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10022
Phone: 212-319-2787 ext. 1
Fax: 212-752-6575
Email: vlany@vlany.org
Web: www.vlany.org

Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts was founded to provide the arts community with free legal assistance and comprehensive legal education. Artists and arts organizations that cannot afford private counsel are eligible for VLA’s legal services. Nearly 800 attorneys in the New York metropolitan area, as well as affiliates in cities across the United States, devote their services to artists. VLA issues publications on performing, founding and managing non-profit organizations, copyright, trademark licensing, artists’ housing, etc.

Also, see: www.starvingartistslaw.com/help/volunteer%20lawyers.htm for a listing of regional volunteer legal services.

The following documents are additional segments from the AMC’s Tuning Up Your Career professional development workshop Every Composer's Business: Essentials for Your Career.

* James Kendrick, a partner in the New York law firm of Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner LLP, specializes in intellectual property licensing and has more than 20 years of experience in this field. In addition to his legal practice, he previously served as Chief Executive Officer of Boosey & Hawkes, Inc., and since 2002 is the Acting President of Schott Music Corporation and European American Music Distributors LLC. Kendrick has substantial experience representing individual composers, authors, estates, music publishers and music performing organizations, as well as producers of film and television programs, in a wide variety of transactions. He is counsel to the Music Publishers Association of the United States, and also serves as Secretary and counsel to The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., The Amphion Foundation, Inc., the Virgil Thomson Foundation Ltd., The Koussevitzky music foundations, and The Charles Ives Society, Inc. (1996-present). He received his J.D. with highest honors from Rutgers Law School, and was a member of the American Bar Association and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. He is admitted to the New Jersey and New York State Bars. He also holds degrees from The Manhattan School of Music and The Juilliard School, where he was trained as an oboist and English hornist.