Music Users Asked About Garage Band Music Copyright

Somebody posted in Yahoo! Answers a music copyright question concerning GarageBand in Apple computers.

The exchange went this way:

I'm making a film for a film festival, and I was wondering if it causes any copyright issue or something to use music in garageband. In the Apple website, it says xxx However, I don't exactly get what they mean. Does it mean that I can't use a single loop at a time, but more than one loop is fine to use?

The "Best Answer" was given by "ssj6akshat" (a top contributor)

They are saying that you can't sell their loops standalone but you can definitely sell the music you created with those loops.

I find that exchange admirable. It demonstrated a sincere inquiry into the copyright issues concerning the use of music inside the computer that the user owns; and a honest-to-goodness help from someone else whom the music user may not know since Adam.

When people are conscious about music copyright in the things that they do, they give music composers the respect that they deserve in society.

Why is that respect a big deal? It's because music composers need to be accorded the same respect as those we accord to painters and sculptors. They are creators of music. The only difference is that music is an intellectual copyright, not a tangible painting or a statue that everyone sees and say, "Oh, this is an Abueva sculpture" or something like that.

Musical creations do not reach our ears with a name tag that says, this is written by "Juan dela Cruz." In fact, music is usually attributed to the performer, more than to the composer.

The song "Urong Sulong" for instance is usually attributed to Regine Velasquez who simply sang that song. She didn't create it. The one who wrote "Urong Sulong" and who collects the music copyright for that song is Christine Bendebel, a name almost everyone outside of the music industry may not have heard of.

So, it is important that when we use music, we are conscious that someone owns that song; and that just as we are careful not to construct a fence over someone else's property; we should be as conscious about the fact that we don't tamper with someone else's music without that owner's expressed permission.

You may be amused that violators of music copyright include Christian Churches. Praise Music Publishing makes an appeal to frequent users of Christian songs in their services to pay up. If 1,000 Churches pay Php1,000 every month (a very low amount to start with) for music copyright, we're talking here of P1 million collection every month. That money goes to the creators of the music.

When we understand music copyright, we don't say, "Oh, these people are just after the money." What's the right attitude? We say, "Thank you. How much is my bill?" How do you call someone who does not ask that question after eating a great meal in a restaurant?