Silence in the Library: From Copyright Collections to Cage

As a musicologist, I research historical legal deposit music collections from the period roughly contemporary with Sir Walter Scott and Jane Austen. Clearly linked to copyright legislation, my interest is in what music was registered, what was deposited in libraries, and how it fared when it got there. Naturally, I’m also interested in any music copyright litigation that crop up in the literature, and the insights that it gives us into the historical development of copyright.
As a music librarian, however, I’m more concerned with ensuring that our readers understand what they can, and can’t do with regard to copyright, whether it’s a question of how much they can copy, whether they can arrange a piece of music, or what the implications of performing rights might be. Recent conversations about one of John Cage’s compositions raise particularly intriguing questions.
My talk is different because it attempts to bridge the gap between historical research and current practice.
Delegates will be encouraged to think about the wider issues concerning intellectual property, and to begin to appreciate how legislation first enacted before the Age of Enlightenment has continued to shape what we do with music to the present day.