Okay, my apologies if my post offended anyone or disrupted the peace and tranquility that is the hallmark of SZ . Instead, I'll just vote for "protected", mainly because with fewer copies around, it should lessen the chance of having to listen to countless identical versions of the same note for note arrangements of the same tired tunes all over America. Other than that, sharing is good.

chas

Frankly, this has been done to death before on SZ many times, boring beyond belief, who started this, anyway it ain't going to change we all know that, so why discuss it. I take it Diki has never copied anything in his life, so good Diki I really admire you immensely, I suppose every copy of Windows XP and Windows 7 are all genuine, get real guys. If they were Bill Gates would be a millionaire I'm not voting either way might get some banging on my front door.

Chas,

Can we vote for both, protected and unprotected that way we can make the pole look good, I haven't tried it, hell what are we going to do with the data anyway ????

what people should be worried about is how long arranger kb's will remain on the market in the future ...period!
I say stock pile what is there now.......

Donny,

This is why some are staying away.

Bye

Excellent point, Larry...it would be quite difficult to stay ahead of hackers, and the styles may actually end up costing more in the long run due to the extra work needed to protect them.

If I take a "protected" style and edit/modify it by adding/removing parts or using parts from other non-protected or protected styles via Yamaha's Style Assembly, would I be able to share the resulting modified style with my friends, and/or copy it and use it in another Yamaha keyboard model I would have, or would restrictions still be applicable?

Also, one would wonder how the style creators are compensated for their work...would they be privy to a percentage of profits made on the amount of styles sold, or are they paid just for the styles they create? Or, perhaps a combination of the two? I've asked a few people I know in the company, and they didn't have any answers.

Perhaps the idea, or objective, of the Premium Styles is not so much to make a profit on the styles, but to create more arranger sales because of the ready availability of additional content?


Ian

That's an interesting point about editing/modifying styles, Ian.

In legal terms, I wonder at what point is an edited/modified style regarded as not being the original work. I suppose it could be argued that changing even one note or beat might be deemed enough to render the edited/modified style different enough as to not infringe any copyright restrictions.

In buying an arranger the costs of original style creation are obviously included in the purchase price, yet the manufacturer includes the facility to edit/modify those styles which, presumably, having been edited/modified by the purchaser, are no longer classed as original and can be freely distributed.

Fascinatin' ain't it? Any copyright/intellectual property lawyers on here?

Yes, and what happens if one takes a "protected" Premium Style, and using Yamaha's own on-board Style Assembly, copies some or every part (overwrite) of that style to an unprotected style?

Will the resulting new style still be protected, or only the parts taken from the protected Premium?

And, as you say, how much (percentage) of the style needs to be edited so as not to infringe copyrights when shared?

Perhaps trying to protect styles is more trouble than it is worth?

And yes, it would be interesting to hear what copyright/intellectual property lawyers have to say on this matter?

Ian

I know one!!!

Okay, Tone, tap him up.