[cc-community] MP3 blogs & the copyright conundrum
Richard Silverstein
richards1052 at comcast.net
Sun Dec 19 21:50:04 EST 2004
I'm writing to you because I'm grappling with copyright issues as they
relate to my mp3 blog,
<http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/folk_and_world_music/index.htm
l> Tikun Olam, which features world & folk music. Because my blog is a
non-commercial, 1 person operation I have not sought permission to use the
songs I upload from copyright owners (though I would immediately remove any
song after being asked to do so by a copyright holder). In my blog, I've
made clear that I want people to buy the music. Every post is accompanied
by a link to purchase the song or record.
Many musicians & record labels that strongly object to mp3 blogs (I
know--I've heard from some of them!) on the grounds that they give listeners
a short cut to get the music w/o supporting the artists who make it. I
don't agree with this perspective. But there's no way 'round the fact that
we mp3 bloggers may be on shaky ground in terms of conventional copyright.
I'm facing a conundrum: I want to do the right thing regarding copyright,
but I don't have the time, energy or wherewithal to research who holds
copyright & then negotiate for permission to use the song. Besides, most
record labels would prob. want to charge me a fee for doing this even if
they'd allow it at all.
I wonder if CC's given any thought to creating a CC license by which record
labels and mp3 bloggers could license the music for use in the blogs. I'm
hoping there are some forward-thinking world/folk music record labels which
might see that mp3 blogs are potentially a tremendous marketing tool for
their artists, rather than an economic threat to their survival.
I'm eager to hear if anyone has any thoughts about this issue.
Richard Silverstein
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