Well, having thought about it a little more, now I'm wondering something, so if you dont mind...

I collect old music scores -- obscure works for the stage, mostly: operettas from the 30s and 40s, background music written for old Broadway shows, strange little musicals written for high schools in the 20s through the 50s. And much as I might like to, I cant share this collection online, in any form, because I dont know who owns what anymore.

For example, one of the things in my collection is music that was written for MEDEA, the Robinson Jeffers adaptation that was performed in the mid 40s. It's never been recorded. You used to be able to get the music with the acting script from Samuel French, but the parts werent put in in any real order, which made it a challenge to work with. And now it's been removed from the last few editions as French, like so many others, is looking for ways to cut its printing costs.

About a year ago, I started working with a software called Notion, which allows you to feed a score in and get the actual sound on the other side -- they use samples recorded in London from the London Philharmonic, and the software is amazing in its ability to create a very full, very lush sound. So I translated the music from MEDEA into Notion, and what came out was an amazing piece of 40s atonal composition.

Now, can I share these sound files? Nope. The score is copyrighted by the estate of Robinson Jeffers, and they wont allow it to be shared in that or any other format. They have no intention of actually doing anything with the music; in fact, when I contacted them about it, they had no idea they actually owned it (Jeffers commissioned the music and bought it outright), but now that they do know, they dont want anyone doing anything with it, even though, as I said, they have zero intention of doing anything with it themselves. I might add as well that the printed score available through French was clearly an incomplete one, with parts for oboe and trumpet missing in a few places. The estate couldnt even tell me if a complete score existed because they had no idea where it physically was, just that they owned it because it was on a list somewhere.

I have friends that collect old radio shows, and they're in the same quandry: one has a huge collection of what are called "trascription disks" -- these were pressings done of studio recordings of shows like BURNS AND ALLEN and the original radio version of SUPERMAN, as well as several Metropolitan Opera excerpts, all from the 30s and 40s. And he cant upload these for anyone to enjoy because he has no idea who, if anyone, still owns a piece of them. He tried once, with a series of very obscure radio variety shows and was informed sometime later to stop because the recordings had had their copyrights renewed in the 1960s. Again, the current holder of copyright had no intention of doing anything with them, but he didnt want anyone else to either. And so a lot of our musical heritage is tied up in legalities that make little sense.

I dont think private registries are the way to go either. But we do need something that provides for materials such as the ones mentioned here, things that pretty well have been abandoned from any real utility. That, IMHO, isnt copyright protection. It's incarceration.

docandraider.com -- the collected cartoons of Doc and Raider