The $ounds of $ilence LONDON -- There's a copyright infringement case in the works -- involving silence. British composer Mike Batt's newest CD, "Classical Graffiti," includes the composition "A Minute's Silence." It's a minute of -- you guessed it -- silence. As a salute to avant-garde composer John Cage -- who in 1952 composed "4' 33" " (yup, 4 1/2 minutes of silence) -- Batt credited his track to "Batt/Cage." Now, Cage's publisher wants its percentage of the royalties. "When the record company registered the track with the MCPS it was credited to Mike Batt and John Cage, so royalties would have been due to John Cage," a spokesman for the publisher told BBC News Online. Batt told the BBC his silence is an original work. "I certainly wasn't quoting his silence. I claim my silence is original silence," he said. Both tracks were performed in court, the BBC reported.

re-tart-ed when are people going to get a life (and a clue)? How in the world do you copyright silence anyways? Might as well copyright an area of space as a sculpture. Lets go ahead and make my imaginary friend a citizen too, while we're at it.

did you see that a company has now claimed that JPEG compression is theirs? They are working out a nice licensing agreement for every company and website that uses jpeg files! It's on slashdot today if you want to read about it.

LOL Thanks for posting this Kattman! I think what happened here is that Batt has electronically sampled loops from Cage's original performance! ;-) Trust the lawyer's to swoop on something so ridiculous!...And "playing" it in court too??!! Dave :-) PS Isn't Mike Batt that Womble's dude??!!

I don't know, was the quality of the silence the same? I would expect that what the court heard was a record that through time might have some pops and whistles. Cleaning it up digitally would be altering that version to infringe on the new version. LOL But actually this could be the arguement or are they arguing that the idea of recording silence is the copyright, not the actual silence. I can't believe the court actually listened to compare. Maybe it's the heat.

I'm moving this over to the OT forum. I don't see any Poser content here at all.

heh, not a problem bushi. I just thought this was funny as 7734 (go ahead turn your monitor uomp apisdn to read that). Next thing you know they will start banning dancing here in the states. Oh wait they are already trying to do that also.

Isn't Mike Batt that Womble's dude??!! Yes. For him to claim parity with John Cage is an outrage of the first order. Sampled Cage? It's obviously a straight rip-off. A blatant exercise in copy-catting. Batt has neither the talent nor the wit to compose anything in that league. I say ALL the royalties should go to Cage.

" " BLANK POST (c) 2002 CAGE

"And the people bowed and prayed To the neon Gods they made... " Sound of Silence - Simon and Garfunkle. (?)

Is John Cage's publisher a subsidiary of Daz? ;-) Take care and be well. casamerica

I have just created my first non-existant character and copyrighted it fully so as to require any derivatives to pay me 75% of all royalties. As all models start from a balank slate this now means I get 75% royalties on all 3-D models created from this point forward! I'll let you know when I reach my first billion.

How do you "compose silence?" I just thought you sit somewhere, and "don't speak, don't make a peep."

KattMan - funny you should mention that... I had been laboring for weeks on a new character for Mike called 'The Man Who Never Was' - as you can guess, it's all based on a sixties, espionage type thriller character. He would of course be invisible, and have lots of funky add on espionage kits (also invisible). All was going well until last week, when I had to restart the computer - when I came to resume work - I couldn't see any of the damn files!!! :)

There goes my patents on "Hushaboom". Ratz. Er... is this thread going anywheres? It's important y'know. ;]

naaa, not going anywhere. I just found it interesting that someone would try to claim copyright. Although if you read the article carefully you can see the real issue. Batt credited Cage on the album and as such should have paid royalties to Cage's publishers. If Cage was never mentioned this might not have ever become an issue.

Good. Cause if it's going somewhere, I need to know where so I can find it again to post later... ;] I dunno Katt. It's going to be interesting to see if it goes to trial, and if so, who wins. If they find in favor of copyrighting silence, will that mean that Music CD's can no longer have any dead air space... ???

But if it is going somewhere, where is that? And are we in agreement on where it is going? Should we post a map or something so that those who are not going where this is going can meet us later when we get to where we are going? And what is the possibility of getting lost while we are following this where it is going? Should we leave bread crumbs or a trail of string in case we want to backtrack to where we started or if we decide we don't like where it is going and want to stop going where it is going? Hmmm... I haven't the foggiest idea where I'm going with this... Take care and be well. casamerica

Oddly enough - I was just at the Glass Museum in Seattle on Wednesday. One of the featured artists in the gallery was Mike Cage - I got to see the actual sheet music that this piece was written on. Truly! And truly bizarre in its unique way. G

On the plaque that explains the piece - it says that each 'playing' of the 4'33" piece is original - the 'song' sonsists of the sounds that occur throughout the room (arena/theatre/whatever) - ppl coughing, paper and clothes rustling, speaker hiss, feet moving, chairs squeaking,etc - so whatever sounds occurred within the time frame were within the composition of the song.

Just thought I'd add that in. :)

L_F

At the risk of bringing up warez issues, can either "A Minute's Silence" or "4' 33" be downloaded as MP3's? What does a one-minute "silent" MP3 sound like? And if it has no sound, how do you know it it's playing? (Does it make the same sound as if your speakers weren't working?) Never mind- forget I mentioned it. Regular MP3's have their own copyright issues to worry about- "slient" ones would just make things worse! --John

What volume should it be played at?

I like my silence loud of course! Turn it all the way up and enjoy it. Not sure if earplugs are required though.

"Play that funky silence, white boy... Play that funky silence loud! Play that funky silence, whit boys... And lay down and boogie and play that funky silence til you die." ;] Here's a "Old Fogies Identification" Pop Quiz: what did I just parody and who performed the origional? grin

It was of course "Play that funky music" by Wild Cherry in 1976. Do I win a prize?

No.... but you do have the satisfaction of knowing that "You're one of Us". ;]