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

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.