Can You Copyright Silence? And Other Lawyer Stuff.

[Anhar_Miah]

Erm of course there is no true silence, even static white "noise" is in actual fact the remains of the aftermath of the big bang. So no one can claim that they own a copyright to white noise because it is a natural occurring phenomenon.

For a copyright one of the parameters as I understand it is that it needs to be original, in that sense white noise or silence can not be original since it existed before humans existed.

 

[Herman Witkam]

Here's a legal "silence" question - can you copyright an impulse reverb recording? It's silence, but a "particular" silence. Curious thought....

Sure - you can copyright an impulse reverb. You can't copyright the environment used though. Also, physically, an impulse reverb is not silence, but a transient sound recording that is used to represent the acoustic properties of a space (or something like that)

I think its the conceptual aspect that is being exploited. They are trying to protect John Cage's intellectual property that is embodied by "4:33". The silence is a means to an artistic end. But its the IDEA, not the form, that makes that work great.

I was going to bring up 4'33 too, but too late. You can't copyright the background sounds that the silence comes with at a single 'performance' of 4'33 though.

Btw - Did you ever hear the orchestra version?