Michael Stutz wrote:
> Here's a summary of my thoughts on this:
>
> - Any work will always have a "source" form or source data; exactly
> what that is depends on the type of work and how it was composed;
>
> - Making an authoritative "source" available is going to be necessary,
> for any kind of copyleft to work;
that depends on the author's goals. People are currently making
beats out of vinyl records that were made from beats on other vinyl
records and so on. Sometimes I think people really don't care about
the source as long as they have something to play with.
> - But it should be done in such a way so that it isn't a great burden
> for a non-commercial party.
right. I should really stop harping on this so much...
(snip)
> But it won't always be easier or as easy to release the source, and
> it's these cases -- where the source is much larger than its object
> form -- that we have to address.
(snip)
> Most people will probably only be interested in sampling the object
> form of these works, anyway (which is why its necessary to make sure
> that both source and object can be modified). So demand for source
> might be low -- but it has to be available for study and use.
OK.
> Would making the source available at a fair cost for transportation and
> media be an acceptable answer?
Yes, but...
> Some "handling" is probably to be expected -- but it should always be
> within some reasonable limit, whatever the acceptable norm is.
This is a bit hard to determine, isn't it?
> It will
> vary depending on the situation -- a $19 cd-r could certainly be
> possible, but if it were from a music label, say, who were selling
> audio CDs for profit at $7 postpaid, even $8 for the source disc might
> be suspect.
Right, but if they're selling CDs for a profit maybe they can afford
to post sources on an ftp server?
It would be so nice if there was a real breakthrough in non-lossy
audio compression. :(
> You could also do what the FSF does and solicit patrons, which is
> especially appropriate for artists: offer a custom "deluxe
> distribution" of your work, in both source and object form.
This is interesting. Maybe the few people who really want the
hypothetical huge amounts of source data wouldn't mind paying $100
or more for a custom nice package for them - hell, it's cheaper than
spending all the time I put into making the source in the first
place!
................ paul winkler ..................
slinkP arts: music, sound, illustration, design, etc.
A member of ARMS -----> http://www.reacharms.com
or http://www.mp3.com/arms or http://www.amp3.net/arms
personal page ----> http://www.ulster.net/~abigoo
