Real Book Ethics

Jack

Hi all,

I ran across a site today that features over a dozen Real Books broken up, by song, into pdf files for download. I don't feel right giving the address, but I wonder what you all think of sites like this? I ask because most of what's available there is also freely available at any good library for photocopying (which is where I built most of my own collection years ago) yet having it online seems very different. I think my photocopying was legal--I'd like to hear if it wasn't, though--yet I'm almost 100% certain that making the same material available online is not.

Oddly, it seems like the site is someone's student project, though I could be wrong. It's tough to think that teachers would turn a blind eye to something like that, yet it wasn't so long ago that Michael's Gypsy Picking turned up online in what appeared to be another student project.

Finally, there's a twist: the person running the site makes mention of planning to sell DVDs of the content sometime soon. This is obviously illegal for much of what's up there--it's not all jazz, but also includes classical pieces and other genres, some of which may be public domain, I don't know--but somehow I doubt the DVDs will be limited to legal works. This I don't agree with at all, and I can't imagine there's any way to defend it.

I guess my question with regard to ethics is what makes for legal vs. illegal distribution. If I copy stuff at the local library and give it to the band, is that legal? If someone downloads the same charts from the site mentioned and gives them to his band, is that illegal? (My guess is yes on both counts, but I'm wondering where the distinction lies.) Last question--what if they're personal transcriptions instead of reproductions of a published book? Does that change anything--and if not, what does that say about our own (seemingly stalled) Fake Book project?

Thanks for thinking about all this.

best,
Jack.

brandoneon

Dear Jack,

If you're referring to the original Real Book series (not the Hal Leonard publications, or the New Real Book), then these are already illegal by virtue of the fact that they violate copyright law - none of the transcriptions are licensed (so the composers receive no royalties). So I guess the damage is already done - photocopy away! If it is a legitimate publication that's being freely spread on the internet, that's another story - I would be against it for the artists' sake.

I guess there's also the question of a lesser crime being perpetrated here - flooding us with "fake book" transcriptions that are not always accurate. I have used these in the past but these don't always resemble the artists' compositions. These books are a real double-edged sword: they're a great way to learn the skeletal form of a song, but you need to break away from them and change things like the harmonies, lest you end up sounding like countless other jazz bands with that "Real Book" vibe.

These are good questions that straddle gray areas that musicians often face!

best,
Brandon

pallopenna

Jack,

I thought about this for a while today, and while my feeling is that one shouldn't post copyrighted material for free public consumption (assuming that the copyrights actually are generating revenue for the composers involved), it started my wondering about the limits of protecting copyrights. Here are the hypotheticals I considered:

1. Someone (let's say Romane) publishes a song, records it, and a music publisher prints it in a book and sells it. Now I buy the book, copy the sheet music and post it on the web, is that wrong (I know that it's illegal)?

2. Romane publishes a song, records it, and a music publisher prints it in a book and sells it. Now I buy the book, memorize the book and teach the song (by ear) to a group of people at a jam. Is that wrong?

3. Romane publishes a song, records it, and a music publisher prints it in a book and sells it. Now I buy the CD, transcribe the song by ear, and subsequently teach what I've learned to a group of people at a jam. Is that wrong?

I know that these may seem like trivial examples, and I know how I'd answer each of the instances (and even my rationalizations for my answers), but I'm not at all sure that my answers are "correct." In any event, the idle thoughts of an idle fellow...(which by the way is the title of a book by Jerome K. Jerome...).

-Paul

BluesBop Harry

I've been thinking for a while of doing a youtube version of songs from the real books...
Take any song read the changes and play them on camera with simple voicings, while calling out the chord names. Same with the melody.
There are too many songs for one person alone, but maybe we can do it together for Gypsy jazz tunes?
I don't think that'd be illegal, would it?