The Logic Off Topic list

>Kool Music said:
><snippity snip snip snip>

Mark Lennox said:
>Jaysus Kool!
>
>Did you ever think of writing an article about this and sending to some
>publication - wired, or some music based publication

No ... I've not done that because, truthfully, I don't think it would do 
much good.
Truth is, I'm working on something a bit more substantive and pro-active 
than that.
In the end, things get done by action. I'm busy putting something together 
that I hope will do a lot more good in getting something done about this 
situation than just a load of articles. Once I've got my idea properly 
formulated, I'm hoping to be able to persuade someone to act on it.



>Incidentally anybody see this yet?
><http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,50625,00.html>http<http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,50625,00.html>://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,50625,00.html

Interesting.

>the plot thickens!
Indeed.

>  If the record companies cant actually prove ownership of
>the copyrights
They don't own copyrights. That's much the point as far as I'm concerned. 
If anyone owns copyrights then it's the original author -- who then assigns 
it to the publisher.

However, although that's the theory, it can be very difficult to make it 
work in practice. Lots of book authors find this. Their book doesn't sell 
as much as the book publisher wants, so the book publisher stops printing 
any more copies. So then the author wants to buy back their rights and get 
someone else to publish the book ... and the publishers don't want to 
release it in case something happens to it sometime over the next 30 years. 
And since the publishing company won't open up its accounts, the authors 
don't really have any information. Nasty business. Point being, the author 
can't go anywhere else until released by the original publisher. So yes, it 
is a bit difficult to decide who owns what. However, what the author wants 
to do is get someone else to publish the book which is a material thing in 
a different form and with a different publisher's name attached. An mp3 
file, however, is not a THING. Or at least ... this is arguable. Also, the 
publishing industry does not have to be taken as a model for the music one. 
It's just convenient for record companies if it's looked at that way.

>it'll set a nice precedent which will hopefully serve to stop
>their attempt to get a throttle hold on music creation, promotion,
>distribution etc...
Quite. I'm not in favour of consumers ripping artists off by copying music 
so freely, but I'm not a fan of record companies either.


>What we really need is for EVERY new artist to refuse to sign away the
>rights to their music.
Well ... they have to concede SOME rights otherwise whoever wants to 
promote them has no way of being recompensed for their efforts. It's just 
what and when and how much. At the moment, it's way too much, way too soon 
in the game, and for not enough moolah.

>Like Arlo Guthrie said, if 1 person does it they'll
>think hes nuts and throw him out, if two people do it they'll think they're
>both nuts and throw them both out, but if EVERYBODY does it they'll realise
>its a movement and they wont be able to throw us all out! ;-)
That makes you an old fogey my son. See you at that Restaurant. You're buying.




>we live in interesting times...
Indeed.

>isn't this a chinese curse??)

Actually ... seems not!!

There are two sources for it's supposed existence as an ancient Chinese curse.

One is when Robert Kennedy "quoted" it in a speech he gave in Cape Town in 
'66. He said: "There is a Chinese curse which says, 'May he live in 
interesting times.' Like it or not, we live in interesting times..."

That was when it started to become a commonplace expression, although to 
this day no Chinese people or scholars have validated it other than by 
saying that it's an expression they frequently hear thrown at them by 
Americans.


It's other known place is in a science fiction story in "Astounding Science 
Fiction" published some time in the '50s. (I've got a more exact reference 
sitting somewhere around here but can't be bothered to find it right now!!).

The story is called "U-Turn" and the lead character is called Mason. His 
life on the planets Venus and Mars is so tedious and humdrum that he's 
decided that assisted suicide is a far better option. He's also worked out 
that the so-called death chambers made available to him are in fact 
transporters that take people to a much better kind of life on Callisto 
which is exciting because it's in the middle of being explored and 
colonized. The authorities don't want this too widely known otherwise there 
would be a mass stampede. They're also called death chambers because 
although Callisto is the actual destination, only a small number of people 
actually survive the new dissociation-reassociation process used in the 
transporter. As his 'death wish' is about to be satisfied, Mason complains 
long and loud about the regulation, the bureaucracy, the order and the 
control under which everyone on Mars and Venus is forced to live. He then says:
"For centuries the Chinese used an ancient curse, 'May you live in 
interesting times!'. With us it isn't a curse any more. It's a blessing". 
I'm afraid I can't remember the rest.

But ... that's apparently the other source for this so-called ancient 
Chinese saying.

(For what it's worth, the "curse" is also apparently mentioned in Jung's 
writings, although nobody's quite sure where or when and if so where he got 
it from!!)



God but I'm a mine of totally USELESS information. Must wash that anorak 
some time!!!

Kool Musick
Keep Musick Kool


_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @... address at http://mail.yahoo.com