Eleanor Selfridge-Field, Consulting Professor, Music and (by Courtesy) Symbolic Systems, "Issues in Music Copyright from the Perspective of Musical Data Representation"
ABSTRACT:
The study of systems of music representation verifies that there is no complete, universal, or entirely logical system of representation for music. Questions of best practice have been constantly debated since the dawn of computer applications in music in the 1960s. These debates have brought to light many issues that are of prospective value in clarifying current issues in music copyright.
Publicized issues in music copyright have heavily emphasized architectures for file sharing and exclusive licenses, but these questions are, from the point of view of the music itself, quite simple in relation to the vexing issues that can be expected to arise from continuous development of musical data and its malleability.
Potential issues arising from the use of musical data of various qualities and levels of completeness will be discussed in relation to agency, ontology, cognition, and collective authorship. Recent cases of a related nature will also be described.