(no subject)

[jfb]

Prompted by another visit to Scott Andrew's site (hoping to get my ego stroked, and successful), I finally got around to placing my recordings under a Creative Commons License--allowing others to copy and perform my songs for noncommercial use, provided I get credit. I don't expect the lack of a formal license was stopping anyone, but I feel better having made it official. Of course, my cover songs are still, let's say, questionable.

Comments

[bushmiller.livejournal.com]

hmmmm, i wonder what the legality is of putting cover songs under a creative commons license.

i've been lax in putting together my second "food comics" anthology, and to avoid having to lug around so much paper i'm opting for putting it on the net with a CC license. of course, i've gotten consent from all the contributors but it still feels weird. i'm the "creator" of the collection, but each person still holds copyright on their individual work -- so, does the CC license work as an umbrella and change the copyright for the component works? i'm still not really sure.

but, that's not why i haven't put it out yet, i'm just a lazy bum.

--sean

[jfb.livejournal.com]

As I understand it, there's one copyright that applies to the recording, and another that applies to the song. I could CC my recording of someone else's song--allowing other people to distribute it, make derivative works, etc. But I think I'm already violating their copyright on the song itself by distributing my recording of it without paying the statutory license fee, and I'm sure I can't grant others the right to do anything with the song.

M. Ward didn't seem to mind my distributing a cover version of "Carolina", and I don't think the other people I've posted covers of would mind either. But I won't be putting up an MP3 of my mandolin version of "Dear Prudence", because I don't want to mess with MJ.

Re your compilation copyright, you might want to email the CC folks and ask them. I don't think they can dispense legal advice, but they might be able to offer something.

Is your first anthology still available?