In a message dated 4/15/2006 2:53:11 AM Eastern Standard Time, clifflamere@nycap.rr.com writes: The author of an email holds the copyright, but also holds the distribution rights. When a person writes to a mailing list, it is with the assumption that the email will be distributed. ---- Getting back to the original question at hand...My point is that he doesn't hold the right to distribution once he agrees to the recording--he's given the right away to the company who does the reocording. No company would agree to record a presentation if it wasn't for the specific purpose of having the right to distribute/sell it. The only way the lecturer would possess the right to distribute his lecture is if he recorded it himself. Remember that the mere presentation of a live lecture doesn't create a copyright. Placing that lecture/content into a fixed medium creates the copyright--therefore, before the recording in many cases there would be no copyrighted content for anyone to possess. Joan

Joan said: >No company would agree to record a presentation if it wasn't for the >specific purpose of having the >right to distribute/sell it. I did -- and I just confirmed it to Dick in the original thread. Bob Velke Wholly Genes Software -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.4.1/311 - Release Date: 4/13/2006

At 03:07 AM 4/15/2006, you wrote: >Getting back to the original question at hand...My point is that he doesn't >hold the right to distribution once he agrees to the recording--he's given >the right away to the company who does the reocording. No company >would agree >to record a presentation if it wasn't for the specific purpose of having the >right to distribute/sell it. The only way the lecturer would possess the >right to distribute his lecture is if he recorded it himself. Remember >that the >mere presentation of a live lecture doesn't create a copyright. Placing >that >lecture/content into a fixed medium creates the copyright--therefore, before >the recording in many cases there would be no copyrighted content for anyone >to possess. Joan, Cliff is correct. Unless the right to distribution was granted exclusively (which must be in writing) the speaker/author still retains the right to distribute in other ways and/or to other markets. The copyright in an audio recording of an extemporaneous speech is separate and apart from the copyright iin the speech itself. The speaker is the author of the words. The person making the recording is the author of the recording. Stephen Fishman says: "If the speech was given extemporaneously (improvised, not written down in advance) but recorded with the speaker's permission, the author/speaker usually owns the copyright in the speech itself, the same way as if it was written down. But the recording of the speech belongs to the people who recorded it." Pat

Pat Asher <pasher@ee.net> wrote: > Stephen Fishman says: > "If the speech was given extemporaneously (improvised, not written down in > advance) but recorded with the speaker's permission, the author/speaker > usually owns the copyright in the speech itself, the same way as if it was > written down. But the recording of the speech belongs to the people who > recorded it." Thanks, Pat. The above is probably about as close as we are going to come in getting the "correct" answer. Richard