John Cage's estate alleges copyright infringement over recorded silence

chartattack.com ^ | Thursday July 04, 2002

[HAL9000]

Loose Ends: Did John Cage Invent Silence?

Music copyright infringement can be a fairly tricky thing. Some cases, like the fiasco over the similarity between Huey Lewis' "I Want A New Drug" and the Ghostbusters theme, are reasonable. Others are a little more iffy. For instance, can anyone own a copyright on the sound of silence?

According to the estate of late avant-garde composer John Cage, yes. Cage, as you may remember, perplexed an audience decades ago with a "composition" called "4'33," which featured him sitting in front of a piano, in complete silence, for exactly four minutes and 33 seconds. Now, a classical composer by the name of Mike Batt has put a track called "One Minute's Silence" (which is exactly that) on an album by his protegees, The Planets. According to the British newspaper, The Independent, John Cage's people have served him with a legal document, claiming copyright infringement.

And what does Batt have to say about it? "My Silence is original silence, not a quotation from his silence." Fair enough.

[HAL9000]

"My Silence is original silence, not a quotation from his silence."

That is an affirmative defense.

But can silence be copyrighted in the first place? These lawsuits are getting out of control.

[Illbay]

Actually, I guess they could sue for any aural event that happens to last 4'33".

[JCG]

But can silence be copyrighted in the first place?

I'm sure the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals can tell us.

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[thulldud]

I had the idea that the "composition" was intended to consist of any ambient sounds that happened to occur while Cage sat at the closed piano. (No way you're going to get complete silence in real life outside a sealed anechoic chamber, much less a concert hall.)

If that's actually what it was, then the defense is obvious.

[Dialup Llama]

Musicians steal riffs all the time. That Shannon McNally song If I knew what I know? Think Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, especially in the beginning.

And the way David Bowie lifted that Vannila Ice song.

[ECM]

I think (I hope) he was joking.

[Mycroft Holmes]

About 30 years ago I owned an album (vinyl disk with grooves in it) called _The Best of Marcel Marceau_ (a famous mime). The two sides contained about 20 minutes of silence with a minute of applause at the end of each side. Should the estate of Marceau be suing the estate of Cage? Inquiring minds want to know.

[mountaineer]

Every Wednesday morning I put a can full of John Cage music out on the curb. A large noisy truck comes along, a man hops down, empties the contents of my John Cage music can and those of my meighbors into the back of the truck, and hauls the load off to the landfill.