Along the way I post articles of interest. I registered my band name (Walken) at bandname.com. As a result, they have sent me many interesting articles about the above issues.
They informed me that the work for hire laws have been changed back in the artists favour.
Apparently Universal's MP3 trial is branded 'half hearted'. What a surprise.
Chumbawamba sample Metallica, Madonna and Dr. Dre on a free download and somehow get away with it.
In fact, pages such as the bandname.com news page are everywhere now.
So?...
All the issues I'm interested in are related to greed. The only reason anyone cares about copyright is greed. They want to retain ownership of a piece of art just in case they can make money from it, or in the fear that someone may unfairly make money out of their creation.
Some artists, mainly young unsigned bands, would happily give their songs away for free in order to be heard, but are worried about being ripped off, having their songs 'covered' without recognition. Again, this problem only exists because of the real fear that there are people out there who would happilly take a track and pretend it's theirs without any thought.
I've just finished reading a book entitled 'Overshooot' by Mona Clee. It's a not-that-well-written book about San Francisco in the 2030's. It's full of little how-we-fucked-up-the-world facts, as well a nice chunk of info about Chinese student murders (Tiananmen Square) coupled with the beginnings of the internet.
The book ends with the remaining humans changed. Changed in a way that makes their past stupidity sound horrible. The main characters look back at the past and simply cannot understand why people would ever murder, or hurt anyone or anything.
So often I look at people's actions and wonder why I'm not like them. Israel and the killings there. Here in Melbourne an elderly woman is punched eight times in the face just so someone could get her handbag. At school I was beat up simply for having glasses and not being interested in sport. I'm not one of these people.
But I am. I am greedy. I think that winning $0.25m would suit me just fine, even though I think the money could be better placed.
Where am I going with this? I'm not sure. Mona's book got me thinking a lot. So much of the worlds problems are to do with mistrust and worry over previous deeds. People are killing each other in the middle east for reasons I can't understand that stretch back thousands of years. It seems pretty stupid to me.
As does all this fuss over copyright. I lust for a world where I can write music, let everyone hear it, and have people enjoy it... but here I struggle. I want recognition. I would like people to know I wrote that song. I have no problem with people playing it, changing it a little along the way. But a part of me wants everyone to know I wrote it. I don't know why. I never plan to make much money from these songs, if any.
The Tipster idea appeals to me in that people and will tip for music they like, but music is out there for people to enjoy. If people wern't so greedy, there wouldn't be comments along the lines of 'no-one would pay for music if they didn't have to, don't be stupid'.
Again I rant.
Perhaps my problem is with capitalism?
Meanwhile back in the real world
Fan's of Triple J's Live At The Wireless program will enjoy this huge list of bands and setlists of gigs that have appeared on the show. And for those who might have missed a LATW and want to hear it, check this out.
I played with an MP3 CDr player a few days ago. Despite its cheap appearance it was fantastic. It played everything from 32kbps to 196kbps MP3s (although maybe not variable bit rate, I havn't checked). I loved it and will get one as soon as I can. It even plays normal CDs. Check a review here at Tweak3D.