help on copyright for educational purposes...

General copyright-related issues and discussions

Moderator: Copyright Reviewers

Post Reply
nikolas
regular poster
Posts: 29
Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2007 6:10 am

help on copyright for educational purposes...

Post by nikolas »

Hi,

Long time member, almost new in posting.

I'm very much in favor of 'free education' (as in freeware, or open source in software) and I was thinking of working some 'tutorials', or 'articles' on composing, harmony, etc. (I hold a PhD in composition, btw).

So my question.

I will be using examples. Most from PD, or my own, but still I may need to use some small examples from composers whose works are still copyrighted!

The articles will be free to the public (or donationware, anyways), so non commercial. The amount used (score) will be tiny really (for example 5 bars from Messiaen Quator pour la fin du tump. I mean this is something like 1% in the so many bars and length of the whole work), and I would be doing my own recordings for each case (so no (P) would be affected).

Does this fall, clearly under fair use of copyright?

The readings I've done indicate that:
a. not commercial
b. For educational purposes
c. (very) small amount of the original work
seem to go towards fair use.

Any ideas, examples, and the such, please?
Philidor
Groundskeeper
Posts: 504
Joined: Mon Sep 21, 2009 1:32 pm
notabot: 42
notabot2: Human
Location: London, England
Contact:

Re: help on copyright for educational purposes...

Post by Philidor »

An expert will surely be along to give authoritative guidance, but if you stick to what you describe the chances of anyone suing you are low to non-existent. They'd look so daft, the newspapers would take them to pieces, and you'd end up a folk hero. Indeed, it would be excellent publicity for your tutorials!
Carolus
Site Admin
Posts: 2249
Joined: Sun Dec 10, 2006 11:18 pm
notabot: 42
notabot2: Human
Contact:

Re: help on copyright for educational purposes...

Post by Carolus »

Your tiny example would probably fall under fair use in the USA. I can't say what the situation would be in other countries. It would probably be a good idea to talk with a copyright attorney familiar with fair use before proceeding, however.
Post Reply