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Film, Video Facing the Music: Traditional Culture and Copyright

Event video

About this Item

Title

  • Facing the Music: Traditional Culture and Copyright

Summary

  • To what extent should copyright law protect the use and exploitation of traditional culture belonging to indigenous communities? Today's copyright law sadly overlooks and, arguably, discriminates against the interests of the authors of indigenous or traditional musical works - including folk music. As a single example, copyright law asserts that a work must, in effect, be written down for it to be copyrightable; this works against traditional cultures that conventionally transmit their work orally. As a result, traditional and indigenous culture is frequently exploited for profit without any recognition going to the composers or communities who created the works. Bryan Bachner presents musical illustrations and discusses recent cases in South Africa and China that challenge the copyright law status quo - the South African case involves Zulu composer Solomon Linda's "Mbube," an adaptation of an indigenous song that went on to world fame as both "Wimoweh" (recorded by The Weavers) and "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" (recorded by The Tokens)--as part of the Benjamin Botkin Lecture Series sponsored by the American Folklife Center.

Names

  • Library of Congress
  • American Folklife Center, sponsoring body

Created / Published

  • Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress, 2006-05-31.

Headings

  • -  Biography, History
  • -  Culture, Performing Arts
  • -  Culture, Folklife
  • -  Government, Law
  • -  Performing Arts, Music

Notes

  • -  Classification: General Works.
  • -  Classification: Geography, Anthropology, Recreation.
  • -  Classification: Language and Literature.
  • -  Classification: Law.
  • -  Classification: Music and Books on Music.
  • -  Bryan Bachner.
  • -  Recorded on 2006-05-31.
  • -  Librarians, Archivists.
  • -  Researchers.

Medium

  • 1 online resource

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2021687856

Online Format

  • video
  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

While the Library of Congress created most of the videos in this collection, they include copyrighted materials that the Library has permission from rightsholders to present.  Rights assessment is your responsibility.  The written permission of the copyright owners in materials not in the public domain is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. There may also be content that is protected under the copyright or neighboring-rights laws of other nations.  Permissions may additionally be required from holders of other rights (such as publicity and/or privacy rights). Whenever possible, we provide information that we have about copyright owners and related matters in the catalog records, finding aids and other texts that accompany collections. However, the information we have may not be accurate or complete.

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Credit Line: Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Library Of Congress, and Sponsoring Body American Folklife Center. Facing the Music: Traditional Culture and Copyright. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -05-31, 2006. Video. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/2021687856/.

APA citation style:

Library Of Congress & American Folklife Center, S. B. (2006) Facing the Music: Traditional Culture and Copyright. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -05-31. [Video] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/2021687856/.

MLA citation style:

Library Of Congress, and Sponsoring Body American Folklife Center. Facing the Music: Traditional Culture and Copyright. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -05-31, 2006. Video. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <aj.sunback.homes/item/2021687856/>.