News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Programmers generate every possible melody in MIDI to prevent lawsuits. Parent comment

Re:Programmers generate every possible melody in MIDI to pre... by playpause on Friday February 28, 2020 @04:41AM (#22441643)
It is to avoid FUD. It ensures no one can derail the conversation into a debate about what constitutes being ‘affixed to a physical medium’.

“But are the tunes really affixed to the medium?”

“Yes, this hard drive in my hand literally contains a bunch of MP3 files” is a lot stronger than: “Yes, in a way, because this tune-generating script technically constitutes a self-extracting archive, your honour.”

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Programmers generate every possible melody in MIDI to pre... by C1sc0cat on Friday February 28, 2020 @05:52AM (#22441924)
Presumably musicians/composers using purely electronic tools such as abletron live have no problem asserting copyright already.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Programmers generate every possible melody in MIDI to pre... by willvarfar on Friday February 28, 2020 @06:07AM (#22441970)
The musican has to cut a CD or something phyiscal.

https://www.tunecore.com/guides/copyrights-101 the first paragraph is:

> For a work to be “copyrightable,” it must be original and fixed in tangible form, such as a sound recording recorded (affixed to) on a CD or a literary work printed (affixed to) on paper.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Programmers generate every possible melody in MIDI to pre... by sullyj3 on Friday February 28, 2020 @06:38AM (#22442094)
is a hard drive not a tangible form? Come to think of it, so is a brain, and everything else capable of storing information. That language is atrocious.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Programmers generate every possible melody in MIDI to pre... by jiofih on Sunday March 01, 2020 @06:20AM (#22456389)
It’s about “permanence”, not being able to copyright a live performance that wasn’t recorded for example. It just means you need to be able to distribute / replay the recording, and that means using one of the current common audio technologies.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Programmers generate every possible melody in MIDI to pre... by db48x on Friday February 28, 2020 @11:42AM (#22444034)
It made a lot more sense when it was originally written.
[ Parent | on HN ]