Dealing with Talking Girls and Dangerous Mice: an Assessment of Mashups and Their Place in Copyright in Canada
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Dealing with Talking Girls and Dangerous Mice: An Assessment of Mashups and their Place in Copyright in Canada by Michael J. Hughes A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Laws University of Toronto © Copyright by Michael J. Hughes, 2011 Dealing with Talking Girls and Dangerous Mice: An Assessment of Mashups and their Place in Copyright in Canada Michael J. Hughes Master of Laws Faculty of Law University of Toronto 2011 Abstract Mashups are a controversial form of music as they frequently infringe copyright in the songs they sample and these composite works are not likely to be saved by the “fair dealing” copyright exemption. Moreover, those who attempt to produce mashups legitimately by obtaining licenses to music samples encounter numerous problems, including high license fees and a complex licensing system. In light of these issues and the fact that mashups are a particularly beneficial form of music in several respects, a change to the current legal/licensing status quo would be prudent. The introduction of a compulsory licensing regime for samples would facilitate mashup creation while still protecting the interests of the underlying copyright holders, which helps strike a better balance between the copyright goals of ensuring just rewards for creators and encouraging the dissemination of creative works. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................. 1 1 MASHUP BACKGROUND .......................................................................................................... 3 1.1 Mashups Defined/History.....................................................................................................................3 1.2 The Artistic/Musical Legitimacy of Mashups ..................................................................................7 1.3 Mashups and Musical Borrowing.......................................................................................................9 2 MASHUPS AS WORKS PARTICULARLY WORTH ENCOURAGING......................11 2.1 Mashups as Enhancing Exposure to Music................................................................................... 11 2.2 Mashups as Beneficial for the Music Industry ............................................................................. 12 2.3 Mashups as User-Generated Content ............................................................................................. 14 3 MASHUPS AND COPYRIGHT ................................................................................................15 3.1 Canada................................................................................................................................................... 15 3.1.1 Infringement ..................................................................................................................................................... 15 3.1.2 Fair Dealing..................................................................................................................................................... 20 3.2 The United States ................................................................................................................................ 23 3.2.1 Infringement ..................................................................................................................................................... 23 3.2.2 Fair Use/Parody ............................................................................................................................................. 26 4 ARTICULATION OF THE PROBLEM .................................................................................29 4.1 Constraints on Mashup Creation..................................................................................................... 29 4.1.1 Licensed Mashups .......................................................................................................................................... 29 4.1.2 Unlicensed Mashups...................................................................................................................................... 33 4.2 The Mashup Status Quo and Balance in Copyright.................................................................... 35 5 CANADIAN COMPULSORY LICENSING REGIME........................................................38 5.1 Compulsory Licensing Background................................................................................................ 38 5.2 Proposed Canadian Compulsory Licensing Regime ................................................................... 39 5.3 Benefits of Compulsory Licensing ................................................................................................... 43 5.4 Compulsory Licensing of Music Samples and Moral Rights..................................................... 45 5.5 The Reach of Compulsory Licensing? ............................................................................................ 47 5.6 Alternatives to Compulsory Licensing—Potential Expansion of Fair Dealing ..................... 47 CONCLUSION .....................................................................................................................................51 iii BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................53 iv 1 INTRODUCTION The digital age has entailed several fundamental changes to the music industry, frequently involving significant legal implications. Over the past decade, courts and legislators have for the most part been preoccupied with modes of distribution of digital music, such as the spread of peer-to-peer file sharing, rather than the very creation of music.1 Musical mashups,2 one relatively new form of musical creation, however, are worthy of further examination in light of the legal questions they present. These controversial musical works will frequently infringe the copyright of the songs of which they are composed, but, paradoxically, they themselves are also creative works, and, as such, their creation should arguably be promoted under the Canadian copyright system. Nevertheless, the current business and legal landscape does not encourage the production of mashups, and, therefore, changes to the regime should be considered in order to facilitate the production of more mashups. The introduction of a system of compulsory licensing for the samples used in the creation of mashups is an attractive option for amendment to the current scheme, wherein mashups would be encouraged while other important interests under copyright would also be considered and respected. Part 1 of this thesis opens with a description and brief history of mashups and an argument with respect to the legitimacy of mashups as art, particularly given that they are part of an extensive tradition of musical borrowing. Part 2 advances the contention that mashups are a form of art that is particularly worthy of encouragement for several reasons: they expose listeners to a wide variety of music, they have the potential to create significant benefits for the music industry and they are a form of “user-generated content” which have the effect of democratizing the production of music. 1 Urs Gasser and Silke Ernst, “From Shakespeare to DJ Danger Mouse: A Quick Look at Copyright and User Creativity in the Digital Age” Berkman Center Research Publication No. 2006-05, online: <http://ssrn.com/abstract=909223> at 16. 2 My subsequent references to musical mashups will not include the musical qualifier, although it should be noted that there are various different kinds of mashups beyond the strictly musical realm, such as combination of audio and video or software combinations, as discussed in Robert S. Gerber, “Mixing It up on the Web: Legal Issues Arising from Internet ‘Mashups’” (2006) 18: 8 IP & TL J 11. 2 Next, Part 3 discusses copyright issues associated with mashups arising from their reliance on samples of pre-existing copyrighted musical works. This Part concludes that under both Canadian and American copyright law many forms of mashups are likely to be infringing works that cannot be saved under exemptions for unlicensed use of copyrighted material via fair dealing in Canada nor by fair use in the United States. These copyright problems contribute to the central difficulty addressed in this thesis, as discussed in Part 4, namely, that the current legal and licensing system for music samples dissuades potential mashup creators. This Part also includes a discussion of other difficulties encountered by potential mashup creators, such as the convoluted nature of the current licensing scheme and the power imbalance in sample negotiations. Such constraints on the production of mashups are particularly troubling in light of the Canadian copyright goal of balance between just rewards for creators’ works and dissemination of the greatest possible number of creative works, as the status quo disproportionately favours the former part of that balance. Given the multiple positive aspects of mashups and the fact that the current copyright system constrains their creation, reform may be necessary, as discussed in the recommendation for a Canadian compulsory licensing regime for mashup samples set out in Part 5. Such a compulsory licensing system acknowledges the importance of creators of existing musical works and the significance of financial incentives