I'm not sure if this ever made it out to the newsgroup, so with disregard to the possible flames I may receive I post it again- I wish my server was a bit more dependable. Matthew H. Fields wrote: > > Dearmad's screed doesn't change the fact that if you register > copyright before sharing examples, you're at least minimally protected > and can sue if e.g. Atari rips off your music for their game---unless, > of course, for you the effort is a mere "exercise" and you intend to > abandon copyright. > The letter of the law on MIDI files passed through e-mail is: > vague at best. There's scant evidence that a legal copyright exists > for such files if their content has not been embodied on paper somehow. > See http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright for more info. > I have plenty of MIDI files at my web site, all for music which I > own, all for copyrights that I've registered. I'm not sure what "screed" meant, and I can't really decipher it- did you mean "screen" or "greed"? And ah well. I hope some will participate. And yes, your "excersise" paragraph at least hits nearer to the mark of what I am speaking about. I wasn't expecting finished professional products (check out my own music, which is certainly not professional and not very polished), but nearer works which would take a day or two to improvise together, to reflect upon yourself how you and others' musically interpreted an idea. SMALL is BIG here, and sketch more useful to you I think than polish. However, if copyright of polished works is one's main concern, I would not expect them to join in anyway, as they should probably be seeking publishers, publishing, performance, and the company of better composers than myself. I consider myself nowhere near to that level of musicality, and thought this method would help me and thereby, if others wanted to join in, it would probably help them as well. -sigh- still trying. -- All typos are copyright 1996, Dearmad Productions, to be used solely in the production of Dearmad missives. Any violators (those who use SIMILAR typos) will be punished to the fiullest extent of the lew!