Who owns all those live recordings?
Ben Challis has helpfully pointed out this article from the online edition of the New York Times. He says:
“This interesting article looks at the complex issue of ownership of archive TV recordings – especially where these now have a substantial value when incorporated into new formats such as DVD, downloads and internet streams and the article touches on the ongoing litigation over internet service ‘Wolfgangs’ Vault’ which is exploiting master tapes previously held in the private archive of legendary US promoter Bill Graham”.
Recordings of live performances are among the more difficult areas of copyright to work out who actually owns what, due to the complex combination of different and often conflicting copyright and contract issues. Anyone that manages to sort out these issues and sell DVDs of treasured recordings of popular artists' performances deserves to get something back. Making these performances available on the internet without all the copyright owners’ consent is, however, not playing the game.
“This interesting article looks at the complex issue of ownership of archive TV recordings – especially where these now have a substantial value when incorporated into new formats such as DVD, downloads and internet streams and the article touches on the ongoing litigation over internet service ‘Wolfgangs’ Vault’ which is exploiting master tapes previously held in the private archive of legendary US promoter Bill Graham”.
Recordings of live performances are among the more difficult areas of copyright to work out who actually owns what, due to the complex combination of different and often conflicting copyright and contract issues. Anyone that manages to sort out these issues and sell DVDs of treasured recordings of popular artists' performances deserves to get something back. Making these performances available on the internet without all the copyright owners’ consent is, however, not playing the game.
