[Dixielandjazz] Jazz 1919 - piracy

[PATRICK LADD]

<<There has to be a middle ground where a kid can tape something off the air 
or a musician play a tune and not have the moralists scream thief >>

Hi, I am sure you are right. I don`t think that anyone will find it 
practical to chase up someone who is downloading a few tunes or even a lot. 
The people who are being prosecuted are those making a business out of 
uploading stuff onto the net 24 hours a day. That cannot be right.

The copyright problem seems also to be  amatter of degree. My Rotary Club 
play Christmas carol tapes while collecting for charity for about a week 
each year. We have to have a performing right license. I have never thought 
to ask where the money goes but I assume that it goes back to the music 
industry in some shape or form.
Copyright laws are there to protect the intellectual rights of the composer, 
artist, writer or whatever. That seems reasonable, how else can `the source` 
protect its income, which is what this is all about. Whether the mechanics 
of doing so are effecient or not is beside the point.
There is a statutary term during which the copywrite can be enforced, in 
theory, after that anyone can use it. If Disney wish to extend that right 
they have to go to court to do so.
Usually an artist, of whatever sort, sells his work by either relinquishing 
all rights to it for a certain sum or retains certain rights, for a lesser 
sum. I have just commisioned a picture. The price is £300 but if |I give the 
artist the right to sell prints I can buy original for £200. Perfectly 
reasonable I should say.
A musician sells his wares in the market place and gets the best deal from 
the record producer that he can. Probably a lump sum plus commission on 
sales. The price paid by the record company is based on an assesment of the 
number of records which will be sold. If sales only reach  50% of that 
figure through free downloading, the record company and the musician are out 
of pocket.
I fail to see what difference there is between stealing what is on a record 
and stealing bags of sugar from the supermaket. Or perhaps that doesn`t 
matter either

Cheers

Pat