CASA - the contemporary a cappella society - Novel Legal Theory May Open Arrangement Library

Novel Legal Theory May Open Arrangement Library

Written by Jonathan A Minkoff

Thursday, 25 August 2005

CASA announces a novel approach to offering arrangements to its members. Jonathan Minkoff, president of CASA, has authored several draft agreements which utilize a previously untapped loophole in the Copyright Act.

While the law normally reserves the right to make arrangements to the author of the song, the loophole Minkoff cites allows persons using compulsory licenses to make recordings, the right to arrange the songs they record. Using compulsory licenses to record songs is universal practice in the music industry. The seemingly simple twist added by CASA is that if these groups have the right to make an arrangement, they can get help from an arrangement library.

CASAs charitable goal is to help the many a cappella groups who have nowhere to turn to for a cappella arrangements. These groups hear songs on the radio and want to perform them. Sadly, the vast majority of songwriters dont ever release notated a cappella arrangements of their music. Thats where CASA hopes an arrangement library can help.

We wont offer any arrangement thats commercially available elsewhere. CASA respects and supports musicians. But where a group has the legal right to arrange a song for themselves, they certainly have every right to ask CASA for help. The best way for CASA to provide that help is through an arrangement library, Minkoff said.

CASA seeks public comment on the agreements posted under the arrangement library section of casa.org before taking further steps toward an arrangement library.