[Dixielandjazz] Guitar Frets: Environmental Enforcement Leaves Musicians in Fear entering--two comments

[Norman Vickers]

To: DJML
From:  Norman Vickers, Jazz Society of Pensacola

This note was posted on Musicians and Jazzfans list.  At request of our
esteemed moderator, Mr. Ringwald, I am also posting here.
Two comments are appended.  Thanks all.

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> From: Norman Vickers [mailto:nvickers1 at cox.net] 
> Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2011 11:26 AM
> 
> 
> 
> Musicians & Jazzfans list
> 
> From:  Norman
> 
> 
> 
> Found on Trad Jazz list.  Thanks.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Wall Street Journal August 26, 2011-08-27
> 
> 
> 
> Guitar Frets: Environmental Enforcement Leaves Musicians in Fear entering
> 
> USA. 
> 
> 
> 
> Federal agents swooped in on Gibson Guitar Wednesday, raiding factories
and
> 
> offices in Memphis and Nashville, seizing several pallets of wood,
> 
> electronic files and guitars. The Feds are keeping mum, but in a statement
> 
> yesterday Gibson's chairman and CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz, defended his
> 
> company's manufacturing policies, accusing the Justice Department of
> 
> bullying the company. "The wood the government seized Wednesday is from a
> 
> Forest Stewardship Council certified supplier," he said, suggesting the
Feds
> 
> are using the aggressive enforcement of overly broad laws to make the
> 
> company cry uncle.
> 
> 
> 
> It isn't the first time that agents of the Fish and Wildlife Service have
> 
> come knocking at the storied maker of such iconic instruments as the Les
> 
> Paul electric guitar, the J-160E acoustic-electric John Lennon played, and
> 
> essential jazz-boxes such as Charlie Christian's ES-150. In 2009 the Feds
> 
> seized several guitars and pallets of wood from a Gibson factory, and both
> 
> sides have been wrangling over the goods in a case with the delightful
name
> 
> "United States of America v. Ebony Wood in Various Forms."
> 
> 
> 
> The question in the first raid seemed to be whether Gibson had been buying
> 
> illegally harvested hardwoods from protected forests, such as the
Madagascar
> 
> ebony that makes for such lovely fret boards. And if Gibson did knowingly
> 
> import illegally harvested ebony from Madagascar, that wouldn't be a
> 
> negligible offense. Peter Lowry, ebony and rosewood expert at the Missouri
> 
> Botanical Garden, calls the Madagascar wood trade the "equivalent of
> 
> Africa's blood diamonds." But with the new raid, the government seems to
be
> 
> questioning whether some wood sourced from India met every regulatory jot
> 
> and tittle.
> 
> 
> 
> It isn't just Gibson that is sweating. Musicians who play vintage guitars
> 
> and other instruments made of environmentally protected materials are
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> worried the authorities may be coming for them next.
> 
> 
> 
> If you are the lucky owner of a 1920s Martin guitar, it may well be made,
in
> 
> part, of Brazilian rosewood. Cross an international border with an
> 
> instrument made of that now-restricted wood, and you better have correct
and
> 
> complete documentation proving the age of the instrument. Otherwise, you
> 
> could lose it to a zealous customs agent?not to mention face fines and
> 
> prosecution.
> 
> 
> 
> John Thomas, a law professor at Quinnipiac University and a blues and
> 
> ragtime guitarist, says "there's a lot of anxiety, and it's well
justified."
> 
> Once upon a time, he would have taken one of his vintage guitars on his
> 
> travels. Now, "I don't go out of the country with a wooden guitar." 
> 
> 
> 
> The tangled intersection of international laws is enforced through a
thicket
> 
> of paperwork. Recent revisions to 1900's Lacey Act require that anyone
> 
> crossing the U.S. border declare every bit of flora or fauna being brought
> 
> into the country. One is under "strict liability" to fill out the
> 
> paperwork?and without any mistakes. 
> 
> 
> 
> It's not enough to know that the body of your old guitar is made of spruce
> 
> and maple: What's the bridge made of? If it's ebony, do you have the
> 
> paperwork to show when and where that wood was harvested and when and
where
> 
> it was made into a bridge? Is the nut holding the strings at the guitar's
> 
> headstock bone, or could it be ivory? "Even if you have no
knowledge?despite
> 
> Herculean efforts to obtain it?that some piece of your guitar, no matter
how
> 
> small, was obtained illegally, you lose your guitar forever," Prof. Thomas
> 
> has written. "Oh, and you'll be fined $250 for that false (or missing)
> 
> information in your Lacey Act Import Declaration."
> 
> 
> 
> Consider the recent experience of Pascal Vieillard, whose Atlanta-area
> 
> company, A-440 Pianos, imported several antique B?sendorfers. Mr.
Vieillard
> 
> asked officials at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
> 
> Species how to fill out the correct paperwork?which simply encouraged them
> 
> to alert U.S. Customs to give his shipment added scrutiny. 
> 
> 
> 
> There was never any question that the instruments were old enough to have
> 
> grandfathered ivory keys. But Mr. Vieillard didn't have his paperwork
> 
> straight when two-dozen federal agents came calling. 
> 
> 
> 
> Facing criminal charges that might have put him in prison for years, Mr.
> 
> Vieillard pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of violating the Lacey
Act,
> 
> and was handed a $17,500 fine and three years probation. 
> 
> 
> 
> Given the risks, why don't musicians just settle for the safety of carbon
> 
> fiber? Some do?when concert pianist Jeffrey Sharkey moved to England two
> 
> decades ago, he had Steinway replace the ivories on his piano with
plastic.
> 
> 
> 
> Still, musicians cling to the old materials. Last year, Dick Boak,
director
> 
> of artist relations for C.F. Martin & Co., complained to Mother Nature
News
> 
> about the difficulty of getting elite guitarists to switch to instruments
> 
> made from sustainable materials. "Surprisingly, musicians, who represent
> 
> some of the most savvy, ecologically minded people around, are resistant
to
> 
> anything about changing the tone of their guitars," he said. 
> 
> 
> 
> You could mark that up to hypocrisy?artsy do-gooders only too eager to
tell
> 
> others what kind of light bulbs they have to buy won't make sacrifices
when
> 
> it comes to their own passions. Then again, maybe it isn't hypocrisy to
> 
> recognize that art makes claims significant enough to compete with
> 
> environmentalists' agendas.
> 
> 
> 
> ?Write to me at EricFelten at WSJPostmodern.com.
> 
> 
> -_______________________________________________________________




> Musicians & Jazzfans
> 
> From: Norman
> 
> 
> 
> Janie Lynch writes:  As per Usual, a valid environmental concern is
twisted
> and turned and enforced with heavy-handedness, and non-existent
> thoughtfulness.  I just LOVE (not) the bureaucratic mentality...just as I
> love (again, NOT) any zealotry in religion, politics, etc.
> 
> 
> 
> Janie
> 
> janie39 at socal.rr.com
> 
> janiemc39 at yahoo.com
> 
> 
> 
> There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life...music and cats.
--
> Albert Schweitzer
> 
> 
> 
> Don Jones writes:
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> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Appalling and senseless government intrusion!! 
> 
>    Are all trees never to be harvested? 
> 
>    Of all the users of wood, the makers of musical instruments 
> 
> are surely protective of the sole product that makes their instruments 
> 
> possible and of unique value to humanity.
> 
> d.j.
> 
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