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Just thought it'd be fair to be right up front and let everyone know what's been really happening with respect to the subject of MIDI FILES, copyright, and how they directly relate to us and eventually, you.

I represent Heavenly Music Midi Software UK. You have already heard our work as a good number of our files have been floating around a.b.s.m. and other newsgroups over the last few years. We are hardly flattered to see our files attached to a comment extolling the quality of our work when we are not paid for it.

We are a small but highly regarded music software company committed to supplying the MIDI file user with some of the best music data at any price. If it's not good enough for us, (and we're extremely fussy), then we don't release it.

In December of 1994, alot of music publishers deemed it fit to impose a back royalty (to 1992) on all UK MIDI file producers in addition to what had already been paid. The royalty used to be 10% of gross; it is now as high as 17.5% or more in some cases depending on the songs in question.

Furthermore, out of nearly 1000 songs at that time, almost 700 previously licensed titles had to be withdrawn from our catalogue immediately due to lack of clarity regarding copyright by the writers and/or publishers of those titles.

To our own detriment, we even pulled out of the MIDI song file market altogether for a year as it just got too messy asking customers to wait in some cases up to eight weeks before we knew whether they could have a song or not. Believe it when we say that many of our customers went absolutely mental when they heard the news that we had pulled out.

Twenty-five previously licensed 10-song compilations (which is where most of the a.s.b.m stuff came from) had to be withdrawn from all UK shops overnight.

Before we get into a debate over the pricing and/or quality of commercial song files, consider the above mentioned royalty payments, (and they take a huge up front payment every year), advertising, telephone costs, equipment maintenance, labelling, packaging, floppies, stationary, support, general running costs, etc. By the time all this is added up, a £35.00 (approx. $10.00) file leaves us with a rough profit of about £30.45 ($0.85) or there abouts.

We have to SELL a hell of a lot of MIDIs just to break even so we're hardly getting rich off this business, BUT, we have a loyal customer base, (up/downloaders excluded), because our files are not just programmed - they are produced with allot of 'heart'!

The fact that our files are used by many for so called 'live' work makes a mockery of the job if they aren't paying for the files in the first place!

Our Midi Files are not imported from abroad, or from other U.K. companies or nicked in a swapping frenzy. I am personally responsible for the programming of all but 80 or so of our 1,080 Song Files (Mega Trax). I'm almost certain that any real musician will sympathise with the chronic RSI that results from over five solid years (9:30am to perhaps 3:00 the next morning) of this kind of output. Why not hire a team of programmers? As we've already said, we're very fussy, especially if our company name is to go on the product.

We have also produced and toured with some names that most of you would instantly recognise, (no need to name drop), and have also written and released singles and albums on major U.S. labels so we are all too aware of the fact that writers, artistes, record companies and publishers expect (and deserve) their dues.

Unfortunately, a small number of our customers have, over the past few years, deemed it fit to swap and distribute our software and a large amount of it eventually makes it onto the net. I'll give these people the benefit of the doubt and excuse their ignorance of the fact that they are not supposed to upload these files to BBSs, newsgroups - PERIOD.

We know that the majority of good BBS's and Web site operators make it very clear as to what a user should upload, copyright, and the like. Then again, a large number don't give a toss as to what goes through their systems as it is merely a peeing party to see who can pee the highest, (who has the most files). I also know that a fair number of MIDI FILES on any BBS's or web site file list are supposedly Public Domain?

We'll explain the question mark.
Rights attached to a MIDI file of a copyrighted piece of music at present are Mechanical Rights, Graphic Rights, Print Rights, Synchronisation Rights, Re-adaptation Rights and Copyrights (the right to make/distribute copies of the works themselves). These are just the rights we know about and there are most probably other rights attached to a piece of music which become evident when those rights are found to be infringed.

When you sequence 'your own' version of a commercial copyrighted song, you are breaching re-adaptation rights if permission has not been sought prior to distributing this work in any way.

If you program a piece of ORIGINAL music and then upload the song data for distribution as Public Domain, that is PD. Don't moan then, if someone takes it and makes a commercial success of your work if you're giving it away.

If you program a song which is older than 75 years (give or take a decade), as is the case with a lot of classical music, then it is most probably public domain.

If you program a chart hit or any song which is still in copyright, (life of composer plus 75 years), and then upload this to BBS's or the net, this is NOT Public Domain, as the music represented by the file when it is eventually converted from bytes to audio via your equipment, that music is still subject to all of the rights mentioned above even if it is being given away.

Read the back or label on any commercial release, "shall not be transmitted by ANY means," means exactly what it says.

Last scenario.
You my have bought, (or licensed as we like to say), a file from a company like ours then swap a copy (and keep the original) for another commercial file or sell a copy or uploads this file to a BBS or a Usenet group, that's illegal as the writers/publishers have not been paid for their music and WE have not been paid for this file by the people receiving it.

This is happening on such a large scale now (thousands of commercial midi files floating around WORLD WIDE!) and it's made us, (and allot of other excellent programmers we know), very reluctant to program another single midi song file. That's a shame, as a great number of our users would be worse than upset to see us pack up.

This is not just a hobby to us. There are highly professional people out there, (and I'm one of them) making these files for a living and allot of people use these files to make a living.

Microsoft can absorb losses like this, companies like ours can't.

We are not losing sales because of home grown MIDI files, we are losing sales on OUR MIDI files being illegally copied, distributed, swapped, whatever label you wish to attach to it, it is STEALING!

If you program a MIDI file of a copyrighted piece of music and want to give it away, fine, that's between you and the writers and/or publishers of that song. You alone would be accountable for any royalties due.

If you are down/uploading commercial MIDI files from BBSs or Usenet groups, you are a), breaching the composers and publishers copyright, and b), you are breaching the copyright of the person who programmed the original MIDI file and thus would be held accountable to both the composer/publisher and programmer/authorised distributors.

How can you tell a MIDI file is commercial or not?
In some cases, if the file sounds and 'feels' great, we doubt that anyone would put that much work into a file just to give it away, unless they were suffering from severe egorupcy so chances are high that it is a commercial file. The other tell tale sign is that most commercial MIDI file contain a copyright stamp (unless it has been intentionally removed) and is usually accompanied by one or more text files.

If you want commercial MIDI files, buy them. If you're gigging with them, then they're almost free anyway, as they will pay for themselves over and over again.

The point of all this is simply to try to inform those who might be totally unfamiliar with not just copyright, but also, the rights of a composer, programmer or rightful owner of a musical work, original or otherwise.

No doubt a few individuals will not be able to resist the urge to flame us for this message (unless by some miracle, they stop to actually think about it), that's fine too but, what is important is that the better sides of the majority of you will be able to see some reason, and help rescue a small industry that could well go extinct while still in its infancy, instead of continuing to supply new titles. General MIDI is still young. It's still early days and there's much more to program and release .... unless.

Thank you for your time in reading this message. Please feel free to re-post this where everyone can view/download it.

Yours sincerely,
J.R. Ortiz (Heavenly Music Midi Software).

P.S. A BIG thank you goes out to all who posted messages pointing out some of the above. We are bound to be beating our heads against the ill-informed trying their best to justify themselves.