Something you buy from iTunes is subject to the iTunes license and copyright law. Under US copyright law, you can make copies for your own personal use in basically any format you want. So yes, you could theoretically send an MP3 to Donnie and have him make one copy of a 78 for you. However, you can't transfer ownership of the original (or destroy it) without destroying the copies, and you can't transfer the copies at all; they are tied to the original by law.SteveM wrote:Re: licensing. I need schooling.
If I buy a song on iTunes, for instance, I'm allowed to burn it to cd as many times as I want. I guess I could even put it onto a cassette, if my car had a cassette player. The problem is, I don't have a cassette recorder. Can I get my neighbor to record it onto cassette if I pay him for the cassette and his time? How about if he has a lathe and I don't have a CD player (which I don't : ) or cassette player, but DO have an old phonograph.
In terms of these 78s ... tiny, tiny, numbers ... trying to scrape together as many as 10, even. And for personal use, at that.
I'd gladly buy a song on iTunes and send it to Don and pay him for his time and expenses to put it onto a resin disc that will play it back for me. Just for me.
Where is the disconnect here, that I'm missing? (Honestly asking, in the spirit of learning.)
Since Donnie wants to make copies for sale, he has to get licenses from the copyright holders of both the recording and the composition. Licenses for use of compositions are pretty easy to get. The Harry Fox company handles most of those and they have an easy-to-use online system called Songfile. License fees are set by statute: 9.1 cents per copy for any song less than 5 minutes long. Fox also charges an administration fee on top of that.
Licensing the recording is another story. There's no "clearinghouse" for this, nor is there a set fee or license terms. In other words, if you want to license a recording, you have to find out who owns the recording copyright, then find out who at that company handles licenses, then negotiate with them.
That's it in very broad terms. The problem with copyright is that it varies greatly from country to country, and the rules always have exceptions. Ask more questions if you like and I'll do my best to answer.