i like mixin

Christopher Bobadilla
Professor Astrachan
Compsci 82
06 March 2008
The Legality of the Project

This “mash-up” project uses technology to mix two music songs in order to create a new song. This created song is a new song that is a unique artistic creation. The files in order to make the new song can be legally purchased from i-tunes and other sources. However, the music that goes into the audio mashups maker must be in wave format. Many legally available and public domain files can be used to create new songs. However, with all the copyright confusion that permeates today’s musical industry, some may feel that our endeavor is illegal. I will show the legality of this project by discussing the nature of copyright, fair use, and the DMCA (Digital
Millennium Copyright Act).
In an ideal world, copyright would foster creativity because its owner would be protected form others copying the work and using it to benefit themselves at the expense of the owners. In this world, clear guidelines for fair use would be applicable in order to foster creativity and innovations. However, our world is far from ideal and copyright and fair uses do not often work in this way. There have been several lawsuits over copyright and some such as Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Dimension Films have favored the copyright owner, who did not even create the song that was “copied.” I put “copied” in quotation marks because there no difference recognizable to the unaided ear in that court case. In other cases, whole works were allowed to be copied because they were parodies. Our project does not violate copyright laws because it is simply a “safe harbor” and people using our site can decide whether to use legally or illegally acquired music. We encourage them to use legally acquired music, but there is no effective way due to our technical limitations to enforce proper usage. Many of the songs can also be used because of fair use. In order to make sense of today’s confusing situation and make sure people doe not violate copyright law then it is essential they have an understanding of fair use.
According to the United States Copyright Law of 1976 fair use can be determined using four factors: 1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. (qtd. in Hoffman). These factors are important because they provide a justification for the legality of our project. Our mash-up program is used for educational and scholarly purposes because it is part of an assignment for Compsi 82/182s. Also, even though we may make money off of our ads, our mash-up site does not charge money directly from each user. The second factor is the most controversial for our project since two whole songs may be used; however, they are sued to create a third song that is not a substitute for either song, but an entirely new creation. Also, our mashup program fulfills the third criterion as it has little effect on the market of the copyrighted works.
Additionally, our site does not defy the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) of 1998. This law sought to “update copyright law for electronic commerce and electronic content providers” (www.anti-dmca.org). However, instead of updating copyright law many felt it has made copyright law much more restrictive because of the anti-circumvention provision, which is section 1201of the act. This provision “makes it unlawful to "circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access" to a copyrighted work…A defendant can be liable under Section 1201 even if she did not infringe copyright” (http://www.cs.duke.edu/). Our project does not defy this restrictive act because we do not circumvent anything. Nor do we link to infringing content.
Another reason our project does not defy the DMCA is that the DMCA has “safe harbor” provisions. Our site does not provide the music because it is simply a “safe habor.” The “safe harbor” is an interesting analogy because many types of ships can land in a harbor and if a ship carrying pirated goods lands in the harbor then it is the fault of the ship and not the harbor. Similarly, our site is a “harbor” and we hope only legally acquired music is used on our website.
In conclusion, our site odes not violate copyright as it falls under fair use. It was created for a Compsi 82/182s class and has been created for educational purposes. We simply provide a mashup service and it is the end-users responsibility not ours to ensure that their music is legally acquired. Therefore, our site is a safe harbor. Thus, it is not our fault if the end user uses songs that were illegally acquired. We are also not providing illegal songs and encourage all end users to use legal musical material. If used appropriately; our service can be used in many legal ways as two legal songs can be mashed.


Works Cited
Hoffman, Ivan. 2 Mar. 2008 .
“The DMCA.” Intellectual Property for CS Students. 2 Mar. 2008 .
“What is the DMCA.” Anti-DMCA Website. 3 Mar. 2008 .