Jason Robert Brown Battles Music Copyright Infringment- Page 3

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 6/30/10 at 10:06pm

The girl's arguments were silly, but JRB does not come across well in that.

Plus I have to agree with the question of how getting the music from the library is any different from downloading a digital copy, as well as the criticism of the screwdriver analogy that he used.

Edit: There's a discussion of the exchange on reddit. Some of the comments make excellent points. http://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/cko6k/theatre_composer_jason_robert_brown_tries_to/

Updated On: 6/30/10 at 10:06 PM

[chellie]

Posted: 6/30/10 at 10:12pm

Plus I have to agree with the question of how getting the music from the library is any different from downloading a digital copy

Because if you're borrowing something from a library, you have it temporarily, legally. If you download something, you're keeping it, illegally.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 6/30/10 at 10:16pm

So I've actually just started reading the actual blog, and I have to say that I think it's just another case of minor theatrical celebrities gone wild.

But I wasn't content to do it with just one user. I started systematically going through the pages, and eventually I wrote to about four hundred users.

That's kinda crazy, no?

[chellie]

Posted: 6/30/10 at 10:20pm

^ YES. I was thinking that when I was reading it...like, wouldn't it be much more productive to just email the webmaster or something?

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 6/30/10 at 10:21pm

He also replied to (as far as I read) every single comment on that blog entry.

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 6/30/10 at 10:23pm

My first thought when she said "THE Jason Robert Brown" was of Everyday Rapture, hahaha...and apparently Eamon Foley thought the same as he tweeted about it after JRB posted the blog.

Anyway I think he's totally in the right here...which isn't to say I haven't illegally photocopied music or downloaded without paying from the internet or done other not-so-legal things but that girl's sense of entitlement was unbelievable.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 6/30/10 at 10:26pm

He's lucky all 400 didn't respond. I don't think his site would have the bandwidth to post all the exchanges!

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/30/10 at 11:19pm

I was wondering when the next Broadway melt down would happen but I never thought it would be so soon!

Keep 'em comin'!!!

Who's next?? I hope it's Montego.

[walkedthroughmany]

Posted: 7/1/10 at 1:09am

"I'm one of the people he contacted...and while I was more than happy to take his music down from my trade list at his request, it was the piano-conductor scores of his four shows - none of which are available commercially. So...kind of hard to buy them, right? I don't trade books that are available for purchase. These are different. As the composer it's certainly within his rights to ask people to stop sharing his printed music because he's losing money - but this is a separate issue since there are no sales to be lost."

Why do you need a conductor's score unless you're planning on mounting a production? That comes with the rights for the show.

All of JRB's shows have vocal selections published. If there's a song you need, and there isn't published music for it, I'm sure JRB would be happy to hear from you -- and find a way to legally get you sheet music.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 7/1/10 at 2:32am

^ One may "need" a conductors score if the song they're hoping to audition with is not available commercially or hasn't been officially published and therefore only available by obtaining a copy of the conductors score. The majority of shows do not offer up every song in the vocal selection books leaving a number of songs unavaialble to the general public for pretty much every show. Updated On: 7/1/10 at 02:32 AM

[lite2shine]

Posted: 7/1/10 at 2:42am

^Here comes the "entitlement." One might "need"??

How about choosing a song from available legal sources for an audition? I mean there are literally thousands of them.

Also re: library comment, JRB didn't say anything about making a photocopy from a loaned sheet music. He said "you can borrow (have) it until the library wants it back." Usually you can borrow a material for three weeks and keep renewing unless somebody else wants to check it out. Updated On: 7/1/10 at 02:42 AM

[DeNada]

Posted: 7/1/10 at 3:46am

One may "need" a conductors score if the song they're hoping to audition with is not available commercially or hasn't been officially published and therefore only available by obtaining a copy of the conductors score. The majority of shows do not offer up every song in the vocal selection books leaving a number of songs unavaialble to the general public for pretty much every show.

True. But this is JRB we're talking about, where every single show he's written has a piano/vocal selection available, there's also the JRB Collection with a few extra songs, he puts bits of sheet music on his website like the I Could Never Rescue You opening to Still Hurting etc etc... there's really not a huge amount missing from his repertoire. Unless you have a craving to audition with Fiddlin' John's sections from The Trial in PARADE or something...

I know it's difficult to find audition songs that haven't been done a million times before because they're what's available. But in that case you're not going to be trying to sing JRB at an audition, given that accompanists don't like playing him and EVERYONE wants to sing those songs.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/1/10 at 9:07am

Also re: library comment, JRB didn't say anything about making a photocopy from a loaned sheet music. He said "you can borrow (have) it until the library wants it back." Usually you can borrow a material for three weeks and keep renewing unless somebody else wants to check it out.

As I said earlier, what accompanist is going to want to play out of a big, hardbound book? Virtually every score I've seen in a library has been hardbound. You're going to have to break the binding to get it to stay open.

[sondhead]

Posted: 7/1/10 at 9:14am

"One may "need" a conductors score if the song they're hoping to audition with is not available commercially or hasn't been officially published and therefore only available by obtaining a copy of the conductors score."

OK, see? No. You NEED food, water, air and shelter. You do not NEED one specific song out in the ether.

I'm not saying the people who do this are terrible people. Lord knows many of them give tons of money to theatrical ventures all the time. HOWEVER, there is a side of this coin that far too many don't give consideration, and that's not fair. There also seems to be a rather large group who have decided that since so much music is so easily obtainable now, that they are entitled to it regardless of the composer's wishes. I personally think that opinion is rude, selfish and ridiculous.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 7/1/10 at 9:15am

I don't care how many tangential points you throw out (he's crazy, Xeroxing happens too, he's a douche, conductors' scores aren't available), he's right and she's wrong.

She's also wildly unpleasant, with an almost sociopathic sense of entitlement.

And if I hear this "starving artist" argument--recently touted by our acting teacher friend--once more, I'm going to vomit.




Updated On: 7/1/10 at 09:15 AM

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/1/10 at 9:17am

Oh you're totally right, except that he's wrong in suggesting she get it from the library.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 7/1/10 at 9:19am

Why, Phyl?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/1/10 at 9:21am

Because checking something out of a library doesn't give you the right to use it for performance.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 7/1/10 at 9:22am

Well, nor does buying the sheet music, does it?

I thought that's what the discussion was about; not performance rights.

[DRSisLove]

Posted: 7/1/10 at 9:22am

nm Updated On: 7/1/10 at 09:22 AM

[sondhead]

Posted: 7/1/10 at 9:27am

"And if I hear this "starving artist" argument--recently touted by our acting teacher friend--once more, I'm going to vomit."

Seriously. As someone said in the comments on the BWW News Story, "make sacrifices for your craft; don't expect it to make sacrifices for you."

[newintown]

Posted: 7/1/10 at 9:27am

Big Question: How do you all feel about used book stores? Isn't that the same situation? One person has purchased a book, then it can get re-sold over and over and over, without a cent going to the author or publisher, right? How about garage sales?

Responding to some comments above: any musician worth a hoot knows that conductor scores and vocal selections differ in the same was as as novels and Readers Digest.

Musicians like to read scores like others like to read books. And the full score of a work, with the performance arrangements and extra music, is much more fulfilling to read than simplified reductions.

If the score is not commercially available, and as long as they aren't being used to make a profit, I see no problem in obtaining a copy in other ways.

Regarding a much earlier question - Allee Willis is a hack because she can't read or write music, she can't write alone, and her work (or what we can guess might be her work, since she is always part of a group) is mundane and appeals to the herd's love of mediocrity.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/1/10 at 9:28am

I thought that's what the discussion was about; not performance rights.

True, although the performance of it (at the audition) is part of it. And as I've said, if you get sheet music from the library, you're almost always going to have to make a copy for the accompanist to play it, so what's the difference? That's just as much of stealing as downloading it.

It's not that I think JRB is wrong; it's that the digital advancements are moving faster than copyrights and fair use laws can catch up.

Big Question: How do you all feel about used book stores?

Was it JRB or someone else who just complaining about something being sold on ebay? I'm not sure how the law works with reselling something, but I think technically it's not your right do to so, even though no one ever really thinks about it.

But I agree that this girl is a dipsh*t. I would never suggest that I have never gotten anything illegally via the web, but if I was confronted by the rights owner about it, I'd still be contrite.
Updated On: 7/1/10 at 09:28 AM

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 7/1/10 at 9:31am

Newintown, I'd have no problem with Brenna--sorry, Eleanor--buying the sheet music and then selling that copy. We can do what we like with our physical possessions.

But once she starts digitally distributing it, she's a publisher, and she's publishing without recompense to the author.

IMO.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/1/10 at 9:32am

We can do what we like with our physical possessions.

That's not right, though. You don't own the music itself. You own the right to have it in your possession. Same with me taking a dvd I bought and making you a copy. Technically that's illegal, because I don't own the movie, I own the right to watch it on the dvd.