Joe Gratz has a nice, short copyright analysis of an unusual sampling case involving a NATO radio station for classified communications (In Which Joe Defends A Big Record Company):
Here’s the story. Irdial put out a CD full of recordings of shortwave “numbers stations” called The Conet Project. The numbers stations are broadcast anonymously and more or less everyone acknowledges they have something to do with international espionage. For this reason, the recordings themselves are probably either not covered by copyright at all (in the case of recordings made by the United States government) or are protected by rights that are extremely unlikely to be enforced, since doing so would blow the broadcaster’s cover. [emphasis, links in original]
Go. Read. And, Joe, Bravo Zulu.
via Furdlog
Category: IP Use
Numbers stations aren't intended so much to protect the broadcaster's anonymity, as the recipient's. It's not THAT hard to locate a transmitter. But the spies receiving the transmission, with ordinary consumer portable shortwave receivers, can be anywhere in the world. I have a suspicion that this is why the US Govt is so hot to implement broadband over power lines, because it pretty much destroys shortwave reception.
Permalink to CommentThe recording in question is not from a "NATO radio station". It is from an unnatributed clandestine Numbers Station. Irdial doesnt claim that The Conet Project owns the underlying recording, but it does claim (and rightly) the ownership in the recording containing the transmitted signal. It also absolutely and unquestionably owns the copyright in the discs it makes. This is what WEA infringes when it sells copys of Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and it is why they settled.
This particular transmission is believed to be made by MOSSAD, who are the security service from Isreal. The law used to win this case was UK Copyright law, and the transmission was from (so they say) Isreal. It really doesnt have anything to do with the USA at all.
Permalink to CommentHello.
I've been looking around and came across your site by accident. The information you link to from your home page is quite informative so thanks for taking the time to post it.
Tracked on June 23, 2004 10:03 AM