Copyright, Copywrong

A standard copyright assigned to your work will restrict anyone from distributing it without
your permission. That means many places that would give your music free promotion might fear
you possibly suing them, even if you wouldn’t. Sometimes ending up on a YouTube video that goes
viral can be better than a thousand ad campaigns. But, if you retain the level of control afforded
by a copyright, you’re guaranteed to receive royalties if and when your music is played on the
radio or used in someone’s creation.

As the creator and owner of the work, you decide what kind of copyright to apply to it. If
you would like it to be free for anyone to use for any purpose, you can let it run free into
the public domain. There are other kinds of licenses that allow you to restrict some usages of
your material. These licenses are called Creative Commons, and they come in many flavors, including
some that allow other people to remix or sample your songs and distribute the results as long
as they don’t make any money from your music.

Major record companies like standard copyrights because the system is set up to benefit them.
If they find you using their works without permission, they can demand that you cease, and sue
if you don’t. They are also allowed to restrict access to their products through encryption and
other means, generally referred to as Digital Rights Management (DRM). You can also get sued
if you find ways to bypass DRM.

Many independent record companies have embraced the Creative Commons licensing, especially
labels like Illegal Art that deal mostly in works consisting of samples. Indies don’t generally
have the money to spend on massive marketing campaigns, so allowing people who love the music
they are producing to propagate it further with or without remixing is a cheap, effective strategy
for exposure.

Major record stores like copyright because anything that forces people to buy records improves
their bottom line. Radio, another major distributor of music, is not so sure. Congress voted
to exponentially increase publishing royalties paid by internet radio broadcasters to the owners
of copyrights, leaving many of these online stations looking at huge fees that will almost certainly
cause bankruptcy.

Right now the only thing you can do to save free internet radio broadcasts (webcasting) is
to write to your representatives and ask them to reject the rulings of the Copyright Royalty
Board. The stations, which include local indies KEXP and Rainy Dawg Radio, would have to pay
retroactively to January 2006. The payments for regular FM broadcasting (an industry dominated
by gigantic corporations) are so much lower that you can practically hear the CEOs of those corporations
cackling as they eliminate their competition.

Even if you buy a record, providing the artist his or her proper royalties, you are subject
to prosecution if you share it with your friends over your personal network, or even if you make
a mix tape with it. Copyright also doesn’t allow you to sample or remix another person’s work
without express permission and probably payment. This means that the creepy guy selling bootlegs
on the street could theoretically get the same punishment as the 13-year-old girl singing along
to her favorite Evanescence song in that YouTube video.

You can avoid prosecution by supporting artists who choose Creative Commons licensing, and
making sure to follow that usage agreement. Of course, the record companies usually go after
bigger fish than someone sharing a record with their friends, but that’s only because of infrastructure
issues. If they had the resources to track you down and find you, they would prosecute you.