Music Education and Copyright Law

Abstract

Music teachers are constantly faced with the problem of interpreting the Federal copyright law, related legislation, and court decisions that protect composers, musicians, publishers, and their music. Many young people as well, who are interested in careers in music, find there is little specific information available on the legal hazards they may encounter. As an aid to understanding this complex subject, the Music Educators Journal is beginning, with this issue, a series of articles on the legal protection of music materials that will cite actual court cases as examples. The author of the series is Lee Eliot Berk, an attorney and Vice-President of the Berklee College of Music, Boston, Massachusetts. He is legal advisor to the National Association of Jazz Educators and author of Legal Protection for the Creative Musician ( Boston: Berklee Press, 1970).