Virtual Music Scores and their MIDI Analogs

On May 5, 2003, Columbia Law School's Kernochan Center for Law, Media, and the Arts will sponsor a conference: "Virtual Scores and their MIDI Analogs: Copyright and Licensing Issues." The conference is open to the public, and will provide a forum to an interdisciplinary group of speakers that includes: composers and educators; music score software developers; librarians, music score publishers and distributors; copyright academics and practitioners; and principals of digital scholarly information enterprises in other fields in the humanities.

We anticipate a lively discussion of copyright ambiguities in U.S. and international copyright law raised by the digital creation and distribution of music scores and MIDI files. These issues have not yet been explored at any conference or in published scholarship in law, music or computing technology. We believe that this airing of diverse views on these issues will be a significant first step in clarifying and resolving some of the copyright concerns that currently inhibit more widespread adoption of digital score software and the highly manipulable artifacts that this technology makes possible.

Please visit the conference Web site for brief description of the technology and copyright issues it raises, the program; a partial list of speakers; and information on registration.