Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T06:59:37.317Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Indigenous Music and the Law: An Analysis of National and International Legislation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2019

Extract

Western music is regarded as a piece of individual property, performed to entertain and appeal to the listener's emotions. With this conception of music, it is understandable when Westerners fail to comprehend, or even openly ridicule, the regulation of music's “power.” Traditional communities, however, frequently ascribe vast powers to their music: the power to heal sickness, create bountiful game, cause lightning to strike, kill, and, in one case, free a man from prison (Von Sturmer 1987). With such immense powers, it is logical to carefully restrict and regulate the use, rather than financial profits, of music. Western law, however, has evolved in tandem with Western music, focusing primarily on the protection of individual property rights and financial profits. Thus, traditional music and Western law clash at the most fundamental level.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 By The International Council for Traditional Music

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1.

The author would like to thank the following individuals: Dieter Christensen, for extensive support, input, editing beyond the call of duty; Ellen Koskoff, Amy Stillman and Joseph Lam and Bonnie Wade for providing inspiration and during the research's raw beginning; and Peter Cramer, whose translation of the Brazilian legislation from Portuguese to English made its inclusion possible.

References

References Cited

Appelbaum, Harvey M. and Schlitt, Lyn M. 1995 The GATT, the WTO, and the Uruguay Round Agreement Act: Understanding the Fundamental Changes. United States: Practicing Law Institute, 912 pp.Google Scholar
Billboard, 1994 Music Charts: Top Albums, 11 June 1994.Google Scholar
1993 Music Charts: Top Albums, 20 November 1993.Google Scholar
1994 Sony: Local Repertoire Responsible for Gains Across Europe, In Brazil, 14 May 1994.Google Scholar
Borzillo, Carrie 1994 U.S. Ad Use Adds to Commercial Success of Deep Forest. Billboard, 11 June 1994.Google Scholar
Bowker, Richard Rogers 1912 Copyright: Its History and Its Law. Littleton: F.B. Rothman, 1986.Google Scholar
Brown, Jerry D. 1995U.S. Copyright Law After GATT: Why A New Chapter 11 Means Bankruptcy to Bootleggers.” Loyola Entertainment Law Journal 16:165.Google Scholar
Cooper, Carol 1994 Bicultural Vocals with an Edge. Billboard, 11 June 1994.Google Scholar
Act, Copyright 1995 U.S. Code, Vol. 17, secs. 101115.Google Scholar
Firth, Simon 1987Copyright and the Music Business.” Popular Music 7/1:5775.Google Scholar
Gasaway, Laura N. and Wiant, Sarah K. 1994 Libraries and Copyright: A Guide to Copyright Law in the 1990s. Washington, D.C.: Special Libraries Association, 271 pp.Google Scholar
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1986 Main Text. Geneva.Google Scholar
Holbein, James R. and Carpentier, Gary 1993Trade Agreements and Dispute Mechanisms in the Western Hemisphere.” Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law. 25 (Summer): 531570.Google Scholar
Holden, Stephen 1990 The Pop Life. The New York Times, 21 November 1990, Section C.Google Scholar
Statute, Indian 1991 Brazil Legal Bill No. Pl 2057/91. (On file with the author).Google Scholar
Janis, Mark W. 1993 An Introduction to International Law. United States: Little Brown & Company, 390 pp.Google Scholar
Knoedelseder, Wm. K. Jr. 1987 Popping Off; Simon and South Africa: Why the Fuss? Los Angeles Times, 18 January 1987, Calendar section.Google Scholar
Moyle, Richard 1979 Songs of the Pintupi: musical life in a central Australian society. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 183 pp., illus.Google Scholar
Ndoye, Babacar 1989Protection of Expressions of Folklore in Senegal.” Copyright 25:12.Google Scholar
Newman, Frank and Weissbrodt, David 1990 International Human Rights: law, policy, and process. Cincinnati: Anderson Publishing Co., 812 pp.Google Scholar
1990 Selected International Human Rights Instruments. Cincinnati: Anderson Publishing Co. 113 pp.Google Scholar
Nimmer, Melville M. and Nimmer, David 1995 Nimmer On Copyright: A Treatise on the Law of Literary, Musical, and Artistic Property, and the Protection of Ideas. United States: Matthew Bender, 6 vols.Google Scholar
Patterson, Gardner and Patterson, Eliza 1994From GATT to MTO.” Minnesota Journal of Global Trade 3:3559.Google Scholar
Porter, Vincent 1991 Beyond the Berne Convention: copyright, broadcasting, and the single European market. London: J. Libbey, 128 pp.Google Scholar
Puri, K. 1992 Australian Aboriginal People and their Folklore. Queensland: University of Queensland, 48 pp.Google Scholar
Sanchez, Michael and Marquet, Eric 1995 Boehme. Sony Music compact disc No. 67115.Google Scholar
1992 Deep Forest. Sony Music compact disc. No. 57840.Google Scholar
Seeger, Anthony 1987 Why Suyas Sing: a musical anthropology of an Amazonian people. New York: Cambridge University Press, 147 pp.Google Scholar
1992Ethnomusicology and Music Law.” Ethnomusicology 36(3):345359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simon, Paul 1992 Rhythm of the Saints. Warner Brothers Cassette No. 426098.Google Scholar
1986 Graceland. Warner Brothers compact disc No. 25447–2.Google Scholar
Spraugue, David 1995 Deep Forest Mines Global for Second Set. Billboard, 18 March 1995.Google Scholar
Standard, & Poor, 1994 Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys, October, 1994. New York: Standard & Poor's.Google Scholar
Stewart, Stephen 1983 International Copyright and Neighbouring Rights. London: Butterworths, 740 pp.Google Scholar
Tai, Linda W. 1995Music Piracy in the Pacific Rim: Applying a Regional Approach Towards The Enforcement Problem of International Conventions.” Loyola Entertainment Law Journal 16:165.Google Scholar
UNESCO and WIPO 1992 Copyright Laws and Treaties of the World. Paris, 1992.Google Scholar
United States Department of Commerce 1994 U.S. Industrial Outlook. Washington D.C.: The Department.Google Scholar
Van Harpen, Robin L. 1995Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys: Reconciling Trade and Cultural Independence.” Minnesota Journal of Global Trade 4:165194.Google Scholar
Von Sturmer, John 1987Aboriginal Singing and Notions of Power.” In, Songs of Aboriginal Australia, ed. Margaret Clunies Ross, Tamsin Donaldson, and Stephen A. Wild. Sydney: University of Sydney.Google Scholar
Wallis, Roger and Malm, Krister 1984 Big Sounds From Small Peoples: The Music Industry In Small Countries. New York: Pendragon Press, 419 pp.Google Scholar
Zemp, Hugo 1996The/An Ethnomusicologist and the Record Business.” Yearbook for Traditional Music 28:3656.CrossRefGoogle Scholar