AbstractsPhilosophy & Theology

Music Licensing Rights and Wrongs

by Kristyna Veitová




Institution: Roskilde University
Department:
Year: 2014
Keywords: Music Licensing; Copyright
Record ID: 1119517
Full text PDF: http://rudar.ruc.dk/handle/1800/13451


Abstract

The project revolves around the issue of copyright and more specifically playing music in public. To shed light on the issue it uses an exemplary case to illustrate its points. The case is an episode that occurred in 1995 where the American Girl Scouts were asked to pay licenses for public performances at their camps. The specific case was chosen because it has clear contradictions between the aspect of law and the aspect of morality. The ideas of several both contemporary and historical theorists will be applied onto the case to gain an understanding of the ethical and philosophical aspects of the case as a whole, as well as to provide a broader perspective of the terms included (copyright, public domain and so forth. The authors use a deductive method on qualitative data to come to their conclusions.) It is clear that there are a lot of ethical and philosophical contradictions when it comes to copyright. In the case ASCAP had the law on their side, but ethically it is a different matter. Both from a deontological and utilitarianistic viewpoint it is impossible to give a definite answer as to whether or not ASCAP acted ethically. According to Lawrence Lessig and Jeremy Rifkin copyright laws are necessary but at the moment they are not sufficient. All in all the project concludes that a change in the current copyright laws is necessary, but it does not conclude exactly what these changes might entail.