Week 1 Peer Blog Comment 2

Jenney posted on her blog:

How do cover bands work? Are they all obtaining permission to perform and book gigs (often paying gigs)? And all the Elvi in Vegas, who do they get permission from to copy the King?

Where does this leave us? Do we need to change our summer reading to include copyright laws? As a teacher I see a LOT of plagiarism and a collective knowledge process of thought among my students. With the use of internet and having information at his fingertips, I had one student tell me that it was all "free for the taking." While I internally went ballistic, I tried to think of where he was coming from. It is my opinion that all the copyright issues were dealt with behind the scenes; therefore, creating a "I didn't know that happened" mentality among the students (general public). At the heart of the copyright issues, IMHO, is this "knowledge of the collective" or "all for one; one for all".

I'm hoping that I have confused the poo out of you, because this issue is SO complicated and SO extensive, that the is a fabulously large grey area where the balance between creative expression and legal rights need to be weighed out, challenged, questioned, thrown out, etc etc etc.

My comment:

I believe you can play and sing other people’s music without their permission as long as you do not replay their performances or recordings of their music.  This is how cover bands operate. It is also seen when church choirs and congregation sing hymns and other material created by others.

All the legal mumbo jumbo needs to be in plain English and brought to the public instead of fear and intimidation by legal action...education before prosecution.