Protecting Folklore: Copyright for the “Sounds of Traditions”

Abstract

Traditional folk music is a unique cultural manifestation, which cannot be adequately protected as a mere copyrightable work. It is characterized by the characteristics of the music which has to be protected, in order to understand whether it can fall within the schemes of copyright law. This paper aims to analyze the copyrightability of traditional folk music, in light of the opportunity to protect musical expressions as "traditional knowledge" and through the survey of the emerging case-law on the conflicts between the ownership of the composer and the one of the community. A mixed approach, which combines the taxonomy and new elements provided within a sui generis system — such as the PIC — would be the suitable solution to ensure the rights of the holder (for the most part, local communities and groups), balancing them with those of potential authors and performers, such as composers and musicians, interested in producing a derivative work based on traditional folk songs tunes.