blickstein@orphan.DEC (Dave Blickstein) (08/08/84)
I think Dave Taylors idea for a sheet-music swapping club is a shameful idea!
I'd like to discourage everyone from participating.
You've probably heard this before but the vast majority of musicians, including
those fortunate enough to be published, don't make a lot of money. Even if
they have a couple good years, it's almost never enough to support them for
a lifetime. They should never be cheated out of their rightful due.
There is an unfortunate problem in our society that discourages art because
it is seldom economically feasible to be an artist. It's particularly bad
in the area of music, which as Mr. Taylor well knows can be copied extremely
easily (tape recorders, copying machines, etc.) without paying any royalty
to the artist. It is depressing to think of the potential number of
talented people we will never hear because of this economic discouragement
of art. I refuse to contribute in any way to this situation.
Your analagy between taking a book out of the library, and copying music is
full of wholes. Firstly, people do not typically photocopy every page of books
they borrow. Secondly, you seem to have lost sight of the fact that what the
library does is legal, and what you are proposing is ILLEGAL.
I'd like to convince you that you shouldn't do this by an analogy of my own
that perhaps you can empathize with.
Suppose you made your bread and butter by selling your own computer software.
You have invested YOUR money and time (and perhaps heart and soul) into
developing the software. Your income is solely derived from the sale of
your software. Now suppose you heard about this computer club that swaps
software and low and behold, your programs are among what's being swapped.
You talk to me (a member of this club) and I tell you that I do buy a certain
amount of software, but the realities of life are that I can't afford all
that I want so I copied yours. No harm done right? I'm sure, you'd say
"Oh, well in that case it's ok....". My guess is that you wouldn't, because
your proposal indicates a lack of consideration for others which is usally
accompanied by a self-centered attitude, and my guess is that because of that
attitude, if someone was STEALING your software you'd be unusually vocal about
that.
None of us are guilt-free. I have a few tapes of albums I don't own. Usually
I do it to see if I like the album sufficiently to buy it (which I do if I
like the music). But I don't go around proposing organizations that cheat
artists out of royalties.
Dave Blickstein
(UUCP) {decvax, ucbvax, allegra}!decwrl!rhea!orphan!blickstein
(ARPA) decwrl!rhea!orphan!blickstein@Berkeley
decwrl!rhea!orphan!blickstein@SU-Shastajtm@syteka.UUCP (Jim T. McCrae) (08/09/84)
why not bypass this copyright issue by learning to play by ear? who really reads music anyway? i figured sheet music was for remedial church organ lessons. you have to get the music on paper to get it copyrighted but you dont need the paper to learn the music. uh oh!! hear come the flames!! AARRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!! jim mccrae ...!hplabs!sytek!jtm
smd@cvl.UUCP (Stanley Dunn) (08/13/84)
It is not clear to me that trading books is in violation of copyright laws. I will be the first to admit that I violate it by copying the sheet music for each member of our group. We do perform some songs from arrangements picked up from the radio, but it is not always that easy. Especially trying to get SATB parts for songs originally performed solo. This stuff is available, but on paper. There is nothing wrong with trading, right?
wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler) (08/15/84)
You can trade music all you want, BUT, and this is a very big BUT, you can get into a lot of hot water if you copy and perform musical works. There has been a spate of law suits against church groups of late charging that they copied music and performed the music. Music writers are getting very sensative about their work. There have been more court cases lately than you can shake a stick at. I'm sure that if you were to write a song and get it published, you would want to be certain that you receive the royalties that were due. T. C. Wheeler