Thinking About The Law: Part Two
Occasional musings on legal issues in the music business This series will attempt to cover a wide-range of legal topics relevant to the music business in short, manageable chunks. Please ask questions by commenting on these posts. Lessig on “opting out” v. “opting in” In my most recent post on the subject of copyright I made the point that you don’t have to register your work to obtain copyright, but rather once you create an original work and “fix” it in a tangible medium by recording it or writing it down, you automatically “opt out,” and gain the bundle of rights associated with copyright. Prior to 1976, when the laws were changed, you had to “opt in,” and register your work in order to be granted copyright. If you didn’t register, your work entered the public domain (or the “creative commons,” as Lessig would refer to it), and thus be freely available for others to use, elaborate on, etc. Lessig argues that that this change to the “opt out” system goes against the “traditional contour of copyright protection,” and thus should be reversed. If such a reversal were to take place it would radically change the nature of the record industry. Read more about this interesting issue on Lessig’s blog. GH  
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