Ways in which Music Copyrights are exploited Essay

Ways in which Music Copyrights are exploited - Essay Example Ways in which Music Copyrights are exploited Music began its long relationship with copyrights through the Berne Convention 1886 which established that the moral right of ownership of a property had an effect on the reproduction of a property. This was extended to film through referring to it as a series of pictures in 1911 and in the Copyright Act of 1956 and then in the UK Performers; Protection Acts 1958-1972 began to solve the problems associated with copying protected intellectual property. The Americans would not sign on to the Berne Convention 1886. However, copyright is established as a right under the Constitution which supports a general belief in the concept of ownership. All subsequent American laws are developed from this foundation of law in their Constitution. Emerging sources of income in the early 20th century in the music industry were defined by performance, mechanical, and synchronized income. Performance income is based upon the revenue that is earned through users who create a public performance of the wor k that generates benefit. Performance rights are managed through entities that hold and can allow a performance to be licensed for a fee. Mechanical income comes from users who are reproducing a piece of music through technology of some kind. When other types of media utilize a song, then synchronization income is generated (Gammons 2010: 50). The MCPS (Mechanical Copyright Protection Society) takes on the role of responsibility to administer licensed music. Through the use of a blanket license, the user is permitted use through a variety of forms of mechanical reproduction (Parker 2004: 78). The development of technologies in the 1960s created even more ways in which synchronization could be used to create multiple levels of income. While the film industry had become a well tapped resource for income as music was used liberally in movies, the television industry as it became more and more of a staple offered the music industry a