I had gotten the link to that blog from a different list
(orchestralist maybe?) and as always am intrigued by the way
that many people seem to think that additional exposure to a
potential wider buying audience is what we musicians want,
whether we be composers or performers. I can't remember how
many requests I've had to perform free for someone "because
of all the exposure you'll get! Think of all the people who
will hear you and are likely to want to hire you!" These
days I've taken to replying "All exposure will get you is
arrested" among other reasons why it's really not in my best
interest to prove to a large number of people that I'm
willing to play for nothing. I sometimes ask what business
they're in and if it's something like real estate or auto
sales, I'll reply by asking for a free house or a free car
and telling them "think of all the exposure you'll be
getting as I drive around in a car with your dealership name
on it!"
The same attitude goes for people wanting to download
copyrighted music without the copyright owners' permission,
as if we have an inherent right as Americans (or maybe even
as human beings) to be able to listen to or perform any and
all music ever written and never have to help the composers
earn a living so they can write more great music.
The whole intellectual property issue needs to be addressed
more specifically and certainly more clearly by the U.S.
copyright law, where "fair use" is more clearly defined so
that it isn't one incomprehensible gray area which keeps
lawyers in business.
And it also needs to be addressed much more by knowledgeable
teachers in the public and private schools long before
students reach the middle school age.
David H. Bailey
David W. Fenton wrote:
This was on the NY Times website today (I didn't see it in the
printed paper):
http://tinyurl.com/29wzmx9 =>
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/08/no-easy-answers-in-the-
copyright-debate/
It refers to a blog post from a Broadway composer, Jason Robert
Brown, and his interaction with a teenager who felt it was her right
to download his music.
On my FaceBook page I made this comment:
I did find the quotation from Michael Hawley of MIT to be extremely
problematic. There is no issue with public domain sheet music, but
many public domain editions are inferior to the new ones that are
under copyright. The availability of the public domain editions will
serve to depress the market for new, improved editions.
But there's also a real... See More issue with the Classical music
world that the vast majority of the standard repertory that people
want to play is over 100 years old, and the original editions in the
public domain. There just isn't that much new music that's getting a
wide audience.
Broadway is a completely different animal, of course, so the
comparison made by Hawley seems to me to be completely inapplicable.
--
David H. Bailey
[email protected]
_______________________________________________
Finale mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
