Copyrights Of Arrangements

[gcoover]

In getting permission for a previously published tune from Alfred Music Publishing for the upcoming "Anglo Concertina in the Harmonic Style" tutor, I noticed this clause in their "Sub-Out License Agreement":

 

"our signature below, together with yours, shall assign to us all of our rights in the arrangement and the copyright in the arrangement, together with the sole right of registering the copyright as a work made for hire in our name or the name of our designee"

 

Is this normal, to claim someone's arrangement as belonging to the original publisher? Or am I missing something?

 

Not that there's a huge market for concertina arrangements (yet!), but it seems the arranger would have some rights.

 

 

Gary

 

[Ransom]

It's quite normal to claim whatever you can get away with. The reason publishers invented copyrights was so that they could claim them.

 

Strike it and send it back. If they want to insist that it's a "work made for hire", then demand your salary. =)

[asdormire]

I hate to say it, but it is a lot more common then we would like to believe, and in more than one publishing area. I agree with Ransom, strike it out.

 

Alan

[JimLucas]

... but it seems the arranger would have some rights.

Not if (s)he signs them away, which is what the original publisher is asking you to do.

[gcoover]

Thanks for your excellent advice. I noticed that the paragraph in question in the contract is the only one that has a very limited right click MS Word menu, and no access to the "font" command for strikeouts, etc. But the select and delete function works just fine!

 

Gary