Things That Keep Me Awake All Night, number 382

[gridlore]

Can you download John Cage's 4:33?

And if so, and you make a CD with a few minutes of silence on it, can the RIAA sue you for plagerizing his work?

Comments

As a matter of fact...

[kshandra]

...you can....

Re: As a matter of fact...

[kengr]

The files other than the MIDI are kinda bloated.

I suspect that with the specs handy I could hand create much smaller files that'd properly reproduce the music. :-)

Re: As a matter of fact...

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

And yes, you can get sued:

http://www.cbc.ca/artsCanada/stories/silencea020702

Re: As a matter of fact...

[mdlbear]

Well, ...

It wasn't the RIAA but Cage's publishers. As the article points out, he credited Cage as co-composer; that made it a derivative work, so they sent him their standard mechanical license form.

On a filk album, you'd have a pretty good case that it's covered by the parody exception in US case law.

Re: As a matter of fact...

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know. I just found it somewhat amusing.

[robertprior.livejournal.com]

Well, in Canada you're OK for the downloading part:

http://www.cb-cda.gc.ca/news/c19992000fs-e.html

http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/12/15/HNcanada_1.html