I'm not quite hearing your point in this post.
Can you tell us what the problem that you've encountered is, and why you are even looking into copyright in the first place. What exactly are you looking to copyright? Or, are you looking to not infringe on other people's copyrighted materials?
I'm confused by this post.

Clarification

There are people I've performed with who we've talked about ethical issues having to do with public performances using someone else's music or video, etc. This topic is based off of those discussions.

Legal copyright issues are important for all artists to understand.
For me there are many reasons, but I've been a lifelong artist and performer. I know how tough it is to make a living off of it and this is based off of many conversations I've had with fellow performers and artists over the years. It is also based off of learning how important this stuff was during my education at the Art Institute of Chicago.

I've been a lifelong advocate for eradicating the starving artist myth so therefore I care about musicians and artists being able to make a living-- myself included as well as all my friends and fellow artists of all types and mediums. It's a HUGE factor in all that I did for PDF, btw. Its a large reason I stepped up to head the Arts Grants stuff, its a large reason why I was invited to be on the BOD of the Creativity Collective (which was to be the first national non-profit to support arts, artists and regionals).... its also why I always chose to build those effigies as much on site as possible... to show others the accessibility to be able to create art. There was always a lot of bitching that I didn't do more of the stuff before PDF, but building on-site was a part of my art and my artistic identity/dialogue and it was a way to communicate without words many of my core beliefs and philosophies.

The copyright topic has to do with those who are interested in finding out what you're legal rights are as far as a being a performer and what other copyright issues come up. I also know that many of you don't care and for many of you its a hobby. I was a performer and a visual artist before I ever was at Burning Man and for me my art isn't a hobby. I care as much about the musicians getting credit or paid as I do.... and I do believe in being able to make a living off of my art. I'm not a hypocrite and anyone who has ever known me knows that.

I know that my sculptures, for instance, are constantly photographed and the photographers rarely give me credit... the PDF ticket from May 2005, I think it was, had a picture of one of my sculptures. The credit for the image said "art by [photographer's name]. That's a small for instance. I've been approached by people who want to use images of my stuff in advertising, etc. At least *they* asked. Many advertizers don't ask and they troll the web looking for things they can use. I happen to care if someone takes one of my images of me or my art and its used to advocate the Republican Party or in a pro-life setting. I care if its used in a scheme. Many of the photographers who took images of my effigies at PDF have placed high resolution images on the web, haven't given me credit and some are being sold. Anyone can take those images and use them in whatever they want. I care if its the background in a porno and I WILL take legal action if teh image is used in something unethical. It is my right as an artist to know where my stuff is being used.

The other side of this is that Artists and performers have an important section of their portfolio/resume where we state where our art is used and who it is in the collection of and/or where and for who we perform for. This is very important information for clients. It is my right to know if an image of me is in a museum... It should go in my bio. I should be able to say who can and who can't use my image. If someone is going to sell my image to an ad agency I am entitled to know and if it makes money I am entitled to take my cut. It is also my right to say that my image or an image of my work should never be sold. It is also my right to know if and when it does. I have the right to say NO. ; )

The inverse is also true. It is a musician's right to ask the same of me. If they don't want me to use their music then it is their right to ask that of me. If they want money for it they should get it.... or I need to find different music if I can't afford it.

Artists shouldn't die from exposure is all I'm saying.
In this day and age of Youtube and cell phones with video cameras and in this day when it gets harder and harder to make a living at what you love or what you're good at in the creative fields these are important issues. Its also important to understand that artists of all types should be supported and valued. I am a professional.

There is also a lot of stuff coming up having to do with some venues having to deal with being fined for not having the musical license to play copyrighted information. This affects me as a performer.

There is also a "hot topic" going around in the Sideshow Industry because of the large influx of people who are stealing acts. Performers work for years to develop acts and someone sees a show and goes "wow, that's cool" and they exactly mimic the act instead of being inspired by it and developing their own act, i.e. dialogue, spin, etc. This has been an issue since the dawn of performance, but the amount has been increasing from what I'm hearing.

What a lot of people new to performing don't get is that by mimicking someone's act you are in fact stealing their market and therefore stealing their ability to make a living. A lot of performers who are beginning or who aren't trying to make a living off of performing don't get the side effects of their actions... or they don't care.... they don't want to see the impact. This kind of topic is to help them as well.

Back to performing to music for dance based performers such as us:
Legally ASCAP, BMI and the other musicical licensing (short term memory blank) place do care. Musician's are lucky in that they have organizations and foundations like that. Performers should be so lucky!! If you're not performing to live music it is important to know if the music you are performing to is copyrighted. If you have permission from a friend to use their music then you don't have to worry about it. Sometimes if the friend is mixing music there are still copyright issues you will have to deal with. You have a legal obligation if you perform professionally. Many performers aren't aware of some of these legal obligations and I'm sure many of us on here have never even thought that there might be legal or copyright issues to deal with. Being an artist is hard work and there's lots of stuff one needs to know from financial to contractural, etc.

The workshops with Maryland Lawyers for the Arts that I'm trying to make happen here will deal with copyright, legal and contractural issues for performing artists and time based media (performing sculptures).

I *love* collaborating with other artists and I *love* the collaborative process with improving to live music. I can't always do that, though. Some venues don't have the budgets to be able to do this and sometimes the space doesn't allow. I also love having content instead of just being "eye-candy" so I will often pull together pop-culture based music because of the different themes or messages it conveys and combine it with other stuff so that I can pull together different textures and have different emotions and genres to play with physically. I am character improv based with a HUGE background in pantomime.

I've also always cared about being ethical so this is important stuff, IMHO.
I've always been a fan of symbiotic relationships over predatory ones. That's why I care.

I also care because I know art to be valuable and we live in a culture which doesn't value it as much.
I did get my B.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and I've got the student loans to prove it. I also have a mortgage and living expenses like everyone else. With the amount of time and money I've invested in being an artist I can't afford to die from exposure. It is not right to ask that of anyone. A prototype in the business world costs far more than a reproduction. Its unfair that our society still thinks that they should get good art for slave-labor made in china prices and people need to learn that they should budget for performers and for musicians and artists. Its that simple.

I believe it is my right to chose and I believe in others right to chose.
I have my things that are an investment and that I am supporting, but I can't afford for my life

Sorry about the confusion
I will try to get the rest of my notes on here soon.
Kate
aka Sensoriel

Kate with all respects:

what your are talking about is privacy rights, in a private event. News photographers are allowed to photograph artists for news worthy events.

www.asmp.org/commerce/legal/releases/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_rights

www.rcfp.org/photoguide/intro.html

www.rcfp.org/photoguide/ninekeys.html

copyright primer:

fairuse.stanford.edu/

fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyrig...dex.html

Photgraphers do have rights to photograph performers in a public setting. If they use it for commercial purposes the performer has recourse.

exposurecompensation.wordpress.com/2007/10/31/photography-and-law-legal-rights-and-limitations-of-photographers/

There are also ways to submit patterened shows as scripts or choreographies to have them protected by that copyright as well. It's a sad truth, but we've had to do it after we had a public show videotaped only to see a horrible imitation appear later that year.

I do Sideshow and see it all the time, which is so disgusting. I have a story NYC. My friend was doing a really amazing off broadway show he worked years on, and it was doing well. He charged typical off broadway fees- $60 or so a ticket but it was really worth it. I saw my friends show and later the same night paid $15 to watch a different group perform. They took all of my friends skits and did them horribly, including burning themselves on his fire breathing routine. We demanded our money back at the intermission and left. The encore run of my friends show was long over before he could get the legal action through to force the others to stop performing his material. At the 2006 Sideshow Gathering it was turned into a huge joke the first night of performances.

My point? Protect yourself every way you can, but don't expect immediate results when you have to act on it. I still advocate doing it, but the results are rarely as speedy as we'd like. Sadly.

Excellent points and wonderful research Kate.
Thanks for sharing.

Fair Use doctrine

A good example is the Obama poster, this is worth listening to:

www.npr.org/templates/ru...s/rundown.php

more on copyrighting, performance photography thread:

tribes.tribe.net/performan...c325bff91e