[Dixielandjazz] Speaking of copying . . .

[Bill Gunter]

Hi all,

Seems to be much interest in the topic of piracy and copying, etc.

Have we addressed the related issue of Fake Books?

I have at least two (and probably several more) which, I know, have 
copyrighted material in them and yet I know that a huge percentage the songs 
have, in effect, been pirated.

The books contain no information as to their publication ... no author, 
publishing house, date, address ... nothing! They were sold "under the 
counter" by some unnamed music store to the source that passed them along to 
me. I can certainly understand the "built in ambiguity" regarding the source 
of this material . . . who wants to be pursued by the legitimate music 
industry!

Do any of you ever make use of a fake book? Have you ever questioned your 
use of such material in the same vein that we have questioned the use of 
pirated CDs?

Is there any significant difference between ripping off a CD and ripping off 
the intellectual creation of a songwriter?

What am I to do?

1. Find some legitimate agency and ask them how much I owe them?
2. Refuse to use the fake book?
3. Just say "aw, screw it!" and go ahead and check out the melody, chord 
lines and lyrics anyway ?

Respectfully submitted,

Bill "I wanna do what's right" Gunter
jazzboard at hotmail.com