“If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. . . .”

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Isaac McPherson (Aug. 1813), reprinted in VI WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, at 180-181

 

On some levels, copyright law is perverse. It goes against what people naturally want to do with ideas and concepts. People like to take what they've seen and heard before, blend it with other ideas, play with it, and then share it again. If you make an album, it's your responsibility to make sure that every piece of music that you're using does not infringe on someone else's rights to their music. If you unconsciously take something you've heard, and put it in your music, you're infringing. It was a lesson for George Harrison back in the 1970s and you don't need to repeat it. Do you like sampling? BE CAREFUL, because you could easily be sued.

 

And, as you now know, if you write a song, and copyright it, it's yours, and that of your estate, for 70 years past the date of your death. The original idea in the constitution of the US was for 14 years after you wrote it. Congress passed extension upon extension to extend it to this new limit. There are more than a few people that find this to be untenable, and there was a very interesting court case on this one called Eldred vs. Ashcroft, but the extension was upheld by the Supreme Court. (See eldred.cc for a background of this case.)

 

What's really strange is that patents - a type of copyright for inventions and useful technology - only last for 19 or 20 years (depending on a morass of laws, the amount of times varies.) So you could formulate a method of performing cold fusion, and it would revolutionize civilization as we know it, providing cheap energy for all mankind, making you rich all the while, and it would only be protected for just nineteen years. But your song "21st Century Man" and "21st Century Woman" will be protected for decades upon decades (depending on how long you live even 100 years more) - long after your cold fusion method passes into the public domain.

 

Some people want music to be shared, and they created some easy-to-use licenses for all creative people that use copyright law to make their creation more available, not less, allowing other bands to sample it, and other people to make other creative works from it. Some of them allow you to do this as long as it's not for money, and other people allow you to do what you want with it, even letting you make money from it, as long as you give them credit for their contribution to your work. The general idea is to take lawyers out of the creative process.

 

We have licensed The Survival Guide under one of these licenses, and we have released this website and the songs that you find within it under a derivative form of one of the licenses from the Creative Commons. The Creative Commons is an organization that created some standard licenses that make clear to people that you will allow them to use your work to make their own creative sounds. If you find a song that is covered under the Creative Commons license (which are easily found from the creativecommons.org website), you don't even need to ask the creator of that music if you can use their song, let alone any lawyers. The rights are spelled out in a license for you. Normally, most bands say that you can use their music as long as you attribute the song to them. And if you make money off of it, you should talk to them. Some don't even mind if you profit from it, as long as you attribute their song to them.

 

We recommend that independent bands release their music under one of these licenses as we, and many other bands, have decided to do. Music is meant to be shared. Copyright is a concept that was only applied to music recently, and as you can tell by all of the rights listed in this Copyright section, it is done in such a clumsy way that it's counter to the way that most people express their creativity. It really takes a lawyer to sort things out and that process can take a long time.

 

If you are interested in the topics of copyright, including its history, and expression, we highly recommend reading the book Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig, which is available for free from here (under one of the Creative Commons licenses!)

 

 

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“If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. . . .”

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Isaac McPherson (Aug. 1813), reprinted in VI WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, at 180-181

On some levels, copyright law is perverse. It goes against what people naturally want to do with ideas and concepts. People like to take what they've seen and heard before, blend it with other ideas, play with it, and then share it again. If you make an album, it's your responsibility to make sure that every piece of music that you're using does not infringe on someone else's rights to their music. If you unconsciously take something you've heard, and put it in your music, you're infringing. It was a lesson for George Harrison back in the 1970s and you don't need to repeat it. Do you like sampling? BE CAREFUL, because you could easily be sued.

And, as you now know, if you write a song, and copyright it, it's yours, and that of your estate, for 70 years past the date of your death. The original idea in the constitution of the US was for 14 years after you wrote it. Congress passed extension upon extension to extend it to this new limit. There are more than a few people that find this to be untenable, and there was a very interesting court case on this one called Eldred vs. Ashcroft, but the extension was upheld by the Supreme Court. (See eldred.cc for a background of this case.)

What's really strange is that patents - a type of copyright for inventions and useful technology - only last for 19 or 20 years (depending on a morass of laws, the amount of times varies.) So you could formulate a method of performing cold fusion, and it would revolutionize civilization as we know it, providing cheap energy for all mankind, making you rich all the while, and it would only be protected for just nineteen years. But your song "21st Century Man" and "21st Century Woman" will be protected for decades upon decades (depending on how long you live even 100 years more) - long after your cold fusion method passes into the public domain.

Some people want music to be shared, and they created some easy-to-use licenses for all creative people that use copyright law to make their creation more available, not less, allowing other bands to sample it, and other people to make other creative works from it. Some of them allow you to do this as long as it's not for money, and other people allow you to do what you want with it, even letting you make money from it, as long as you give them credit for their contribution to your work. The general idea is to take lawyers out of the creative process.

We have licensed The Survival Guide under one of these licenses, and we have released this website and the songs that you find within it under a derivative form of one of the licenses from the Creative Commons. The Creative Commons is an organization that created some standard licenses that make clear to people that you will allow them to use your work to make their own creative sounds. If you find a song that is covered under the Creative Commons license (which are easily found from the creativecommons.org website), you don't even need to ask the creator of that music if you can use their song, let alone any lawyers. The rights are spelled out in a license for you. Normally, most bands say that you can use their music as long as you attribute the song to them. And if you make money off of it, you should talk to them. Some don't even mind if you profit from it, as long as you attribute their song to them.

We recommend that independent bands release their music under one of these licenses as we, and many other bands, have decided to do. Music is meant to be shared. Copyright is a concept that was only applied to music recently, and as you can tell by all of the rights listed in this Copyright section, it is done in such a clumsy way that it's counter to the way that most people express their creativity. It really takes a lawyer to sort things out and that process can take a long time.

If you are interested in the topics of copyright, including its history, and expression, we highly recommend reading the book Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig, which is available for free from here (under one of the Creative Commons licenses!)