101 Questions About Copyright Law: Revised Edition.

101 Questions About Copyright Law: Revised Edition, through Andrew Alpern. Dover Publications, Inc. (31 E 2nd St Minneola, NY 11501) 2002 64 pp $395

Before reading this booklet examine on the inside back veil The photo of the friendly looking author with the on one side smile will tell you a great deal about the topic and this author's attitude toward it.

The subdue of copyright law is ancient and vast, part of the steady more immense subject known as intellectual exclusive right This small book begins with an overview of the topic and then deals with specific copyright topics in the form of questions and answers. The author refrains from giving specific answers to in the greatest degree specific questions. Instead, he may appertain you to your hypothetical legal specialist who is suppos to know the answers. The conclusion united reaches, though, is that copyright is a legal morass and the decisions of specific juries have little or no consistency.

Fair use is the same issue concerning most musicians. It is well-defined within the federal copyright law. Fair use is screened in this booklet, as well, and readers will find what they have been told is still true: no copying of unbroken works, chapters, books, pieces, movements; no copying to avoid purchase; no copying for commercial purposes; and for a like reason on.

Beyond that, questions abound. Copyright law is continually changing, and issues normally are left for juries to decide, or to negotiations between the lawyers of the involved parties. This can be expensive for the "average" musician; the sole option for many is to be to a high degree conservative and wary of violating copyright law.

There are one really fascinating nuggets here relating to new copyright law changes. While there is not swing here to go into detail, an example familiar to many is the modern change in the copyright of the composition Peter and the Wolf at Prokofiev. Other changes relate to the new publication of previously unpublished works according to Debussy, for example, and extensions of copyrights of famous pieces that were previously about to expire. Many of these changes were uncertain at the time of this book's publication, for a like reason another revision will be povertyed soon.

The heated topics driving the copyright field these days are software and movie copyrights. The tremendous advances in digital technology make it possible to archetype a DVD movie, with no quality los to a DVD-R This has movie executives in a tizzy. Computer software is equable more complex, since a copyright merely covers specific expression, not the idea. on the other hand it occupies a large portion of copyright pertain tos anyway because of the currency involved.

For the bodily form with a specialist's interest, this mass contains useful information. Composers, arrangers and small publishers should have it upon the bookshelf. However, I believe mostly musicians will come away more frustrated than eternally Reviewed by Robert C. Ehle Greely Colorado.

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