[Oe List ...] Our songs

[David Dunn]

On 11/30/06 11:43 AM, Roseanne  wrote:

> Does anyone know who the songs belong to? Order, EI or ICA and do I need to
> get anyone's permission to print one in my book? If I can, I want to use the
> Universe Song to Three Blind Mice and part of Believe.

This is more than most of you want to know, so skip to the last paragraph if
you want my opinion in exactly 22 words. [dd]

My bet is that no one could or should claim ownership. The lawyers will have
to weigh in on the technical question of ownership of words and tunes that
have been a part of our oral tradition. My hunch is that since we were not
employees of an organization for whom we were writing lyrics, that the
copyright of the words still, in principle, rests with the poets who wrote
the new words. 

The tunes are a slightly different matter. With one exception that I know
of, we never sought official permission to use tunes that had not yet
entered the public domain, i.e., the actual musical notation that
'describes' the tunes. Since we seldom put the actual music down on paper
for publication, the question of copyright is, I believe, moot.

The one exception is the songbook that Karen Bueno prepared and ICA
informally published that contains the Fifth City Preschool songs. Karen was
using the actual music and sought formal permissions. I honestly don't
recall how that all shook out, but it was a small, informal project with
limited distribution and created little if any legal exposure.

All that said, bottom line, I BELIEVE THAT IT IS PERFECTLY OK to use these
songs from our oral tradition freely and without any anxiety about
permissions. It might be a nice gesture to track down the author or authors
of the words and acknowledge their creativity.

Lawyers: any amendment or further guidance? Karen, any comments?

David
---
David Dunn
740 S Alton Way 9B
Denver, CO 80247
720-221-4661
cell: 720-314-5991
icadunn at igc.org