Talk:Music licensing/Archives/2015

Just a few issues.
A copyright is a form of property. It may be disposed of just like any other property, sold, leased, etc. If an artist dies before the copyright term expires, the rights go to the heirs, the estate, or the legal "successor in interest." E.g., the deceased can leave it in his/her will to a person, foundation, trust established for a specific purpose, etc.. (Of course, such transfers can be made during the person's lifetime as well.) You might pledge your copyright as collateral for a loan. This is a little off the topic, but it's a quirk of copyright law that there is no way to recover "lost" copyrights and place them in the public domain. If the owner, heir or successor in interest can't be found (and the copyright has not reverted to a licensing organization like ASCAP or BMI), the work is still "protected by copyright." What this means for someone who wants to perform the work, adapt it or re-arrange it, or use it in a sound track is anyone's guess (who has standing to enforce the right?).

I think there is some confusion and uncertainty in the area of performance licensing. For example just purchasing the sheet music does not give you permission to perform the work in public. What you purchase is a copy. Performance is a separate license.

Thanks. MW (talk) 17:30, 30 December 2014 (UTC)

I'm working on a section on Performance Licensing (this page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_licensing).

The page is called Music_Licensing, but I'd like to change the name of the page to Performance Licensing, which would more accurately describe the page. How do I do that? How do I make sure the links from other pages (from Copyright main page, for example) remain intact? After re-naming, can I set up flags or hooks in the page so a user searching for "music licensing" will be directed to this page?

Is there a map, or can I create a map of all the pages having to do with copyright: license, enforcement, etc.?

There is a separate, short Wikipedia entry on "Performing Rights" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performing_rights which I think is redundant and superfluous. It refers to some off-topic issues, such as a specific, proposed revision to copyright law, that might be better in a footnote. I'm not authorized to make these changes, but I think the non-redundant material from the "Performing Rights" page could be incorporated into this one, and then the page removed. Any suggestions?

MW (talk) 14:44, 8 January 2015 (UTC)


 * Several things to cover, here...
 * Renaming pages: this is done by moving the page to a new title. The best way to get this done is to follow the process outlined at requested moves. Basically, get consensus here to change the page's name, and then move it to the new title.
 * Fixing backlinks after a move: when the move takes place, it will leave a redirect at the original title, so anyone arriving on the Music licensing page will automatically be taken to the Perfomance licensing page instead. This resolves the immediate problem with backlinks to the original title (these can, if appropriate, be manually fixed later).
 * Maps: the nearest thing we have is categorisation; in this case, Category:Copyright law and it's subcategories should cover what you need. You can add and remove page categories using HotCat.
 * Incorporating other pages: this is done through the merge process. Again, a discussion should take place first to establish that there is consensus for the merge.
 * Hope that helps clear things up. Yunshui 雲 水 15:16, 8 January 2015 (UTC)

US bias
Although there is one mention of the UK PRS this is mostly about US licensing. There is mention of Section 110 "small business exception," which I assume is of a US act. Perhaps this article should be renamed Music licensing in the US (or some such) or rewritten with a global perspective. Chris97 (talk) 07:43, 24 September 2015 (UTC)