[ Jody wrote to Rowland Lee --
 [
 [ "Although this wasn't part of the original discussion regarding
 [ YouTube, your knowledge on this subject inspires me to ask about
 [ music roll and music box disc duplication.  Presumably the composer
 [ or whoever owns the rights to the composition would have been paid
 [ when the rolls were first made or sold.  Is it possible for someone
 [ who wants to duplicate a music roll or music box disc to pay the
 [ royalty to the composer for the new copy?  I'm assuming here that
 [ the publisher of the original roll or disc is long gone."

Hi Jody,  Thank you so much for your kind email; I found it very
difficult trying to encapsulate the basics of copyright in one essay!
Hopefully some people will find this useful.  Perhaps also it will help
people to realise that the monies generated via YouTube form part of
a legitimate income portfolio for living composers, lyricists and their
dependents, rather than being some sort of hidden taxation imposed by
a huge corporation as some seem to think.

Regarding your query regarding roll and music box disc duplication --
Hmmm!  There is no easy answer.  I planned to send you a couple of
paragraphs on this subject, but it has grown into another hefty essay.
I hope some or all of it might be of interest, so here goes:

When music rolls and music box discs were originally sold, the
composers and publishers would theoretically have been remunerated in
some way for each individual copy manufactured (although unfortunately
this may not have been the case before around 1910 or so, when the
first mechanical copyright laws came into being).

Modern copies of these rolls or discs should undoubtedly be subject to
a mechanical royalty where copyright still exists, although it might
successfully be argued that this would not apply to single copies in the
case of a like-for-like replacement of an individual damaged rare roll
or rusted music box disc.

If anyone wants to make copies of existing rolls or discs, they should
firstly try to find out if the music (or lyrics, even if they are not
printed on the roll) are still in copyright, and secondly who
administers or publishes that copyright.  This is not as difficult as
it might seem, especially as we have the resources of the Internet at
our fingertips.  Try to find out the names of the composer, lyricist
and publisher.  All these should feature on the sheet music, if you can
find it.

Once you have found the names of the composer and lyricist, try to
establish if they are still alive, or the date of their death if
deceased.  If they passed away more than 75 years ago, then your work
is done, as the music and lyrics which they created have now 'entered
the public domain' and are owned by all of us, free of copyright.

Beware, however, of different works with similar titles.  Beware also
as copyright may exist in certain editions or arrangements of a work
which will have been prepared especially in order to extend the
ownership of a work by a certain publisher or arranger, so you may
have to prove that your own version of the music uses a copyright-free
source edition.  As an example, there are two available versions of the
poem, 'Piano', by D.H. Lawrence, one in copyright and one in the public
domain.  The difference is the punctuation in one line.

Unfortunately and unaccountably, many rolls of popular music omit
the names of the writers and just have that of the publisher (QRS in
particular was notorious in this respect).  Many of the publishers
who flourished in the early 20th Century no longer exist, though the
works which they published (their 'catalogue') will have most likely
been sold on to another publisher, then another, and so forth.  These
works were saleable commodities just like real estate or stocks and
it should be possible to find the current owner.  Although many early
20th century publishers were based in just one country, most of their
modern-day equivalents are multinational concerns.

In the UK, the best way to ascertain ownership of a piece of music
is to contact the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS).
You don't have to be a member.  If you can quote to them the accurate
title of a piece, plus as much additional information as you may have
regarding names of writers, date of publication, name of the first
publisher, etc., then usually they will be able to tell you if the
piece is still in copyright and, if so, who owns that copyright.

Once that has been established, the MCPS will tell you if they are
enabled to grant you the permissions which you need, on behalf of the
copyright holders, or how to proceed if that is not the case.  The
MCPS is only too happy to assist in facilitating potential new income
streams for its members! I would imagine that in the US the BMI will
serve a similar function.

Once you have 'done the right thing' in contacting the copyright
holders and explaining to them that you want to produce 20 copies of
something which will retail for around $15 a time, one would hope that
sanity will prevail and that they will give you their blessing to
proceed without payment, in return for an adequate credit on the
leader, or similar.

If they insist on a royalty, as would be their right, then I personally
would offer them a royalty of 5%-10% of the price of the roll.  The
royalty would normally be paid on the units made, rather than units
sold (though that is a contentious area).  The copyright holders are
under no obligation to give you permission to proceed, though not to
do so would be most unusual.

Bear in mind that when composers become a member of the PRS or the
MCPS, they assign to these societies the administration of performance
and mechanical rights, so it is these bodies, not individual members,
with whom you would be dealing.  As far as I know, the situation in the
US is similar.

Rowland Lee
Lincolnshire, UK
http://www.rowlandlee.com/