Discussion of all things related to Public Domain

[tom poe <tompoe AT amihost.com>]

OPEN STUDIOS: RUNNING BOARD 

Remember when cars sported running boards out of practical necessity? 
Most roads back then weren't paved like our roads, today. 

The Digital Age, still in its' infancy, requires the use of electronic
running boards.  People are out there that have never used a computer. 
Most people don't understand how computers work [I just raised my hand],
let alone how to make CD's, DVD's, MP3's, OGG, WAV, and the list goes
on. 

And, in the arts and sciences, from musicians to artists to authors, the
knowledge that recordings no longer requires an expensive recording
studio is restricted to just a few.  This newsletter intends to help
musicians, artists, and authors to step out and enter the Digital Age. 
We'll provide the running board to help you avoid the "mud".  If you're
involved in the arts, we hope you'll join us each month for: 
1]  Entertainment news 
2]  The Community Scene 
3]  How They Do It 
4]  Featured Artists, Musicians, and Authors 
5]  Columns 
         a] Anatoly Volynets 
6]  Commons Gallery 
- - - 
"Trust everyone, but cut the cards"  -- Who said that? 
- - - 
Open Studios continues its registration process with states throughout
the country.  As a nonprofit organization, we seek donations and
contributions from the public.  Many states therefore, require that we
register with them.  Some five states permit registration without fees,
or don't require registration at all at this point.  The rest,
apparently, require fees of $10, $15, up to $80 USD or more.  We view
this process as an important and necessary, if not onerous, burden.  Can
you help?  The full story is at:
http://www.ibiblio.org/studioforrecording/statereg.html .  We call it
our SPONSOR A STATE PROJECT. 
- - - 
ENTERTAINMENT NEWS: 
Each month, we'll highlight a few of the previous month's news articles
(hopefully with active links).  Subscribers and supporters are encouragd
to email us with links you found to be interesting.  We'll add them
here.  It's a good way for collecting an archive you can refer to when
you need it as part of your Internet business strategies. 
- - - 

http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index.cfm?section=10&screen=news&news_id=26261
Music City goes to school    By Chris Lewis,
clewis AT nashvillecitypaper.com
September 04, 2003 

"After years of domination by major record labels, the business of
making and selling music is looking brighter for independent artists." 

"That’s the message the former president of Vivendi Universal’s MCA
Records plans to deliver to independent music professionals attending at
the third annual New Music Conference (2NMC) in Nashville next week." 
- - - 

http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index.cfm?section=12&screen=news&news_id=26240
Artists merge mediums at new Arts on the Row    By Will Jordan,
wjordan AT nashvillecitypaper.com
September 04, 2003 

“When we began brainstorming about this last year, we sensed a real
hunger in the arts community for something exciting and new,” said Robin
Vernon, co-owner of Hanging Around. “Although it will be a bit more
organized and less avant garde, Arts on the Row probably bears some
resemblance to the art houses of the 1960s where poets, visual artists,
instrumentalists and other artists gathered for impromptu performances
and conversation.” 
- - - 

http://news.findlaw.com/entertainment/s/20030911/leisurecanadasharifdc.html
Film Legend Omar Sharif Boycotts Stupid Film Roles 
By Amran Abocar 
Thursday, Sept. 11, 2003 
" Film legend Omar Sharif, star of such classics as "Lawrence of Arabia"
and "Dr. Zhivago," is fed up with useless films but acceptable scripts
are just too few and far between." 
- - - 

http://news.findlaw.com/ap/e/1403/9-11-2003/20030911051505_22.html
Music Lawsuit Targets Ind. Karaoke Bar 
Thursday, Sept. 11, 2003 
"  INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - A music licensing agency that represents singers
such as Sheryl Crow and Dolly Parton has filed a federal copyright
lawsuit that could silence karaoke nights in central Indiana. 

In a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis,
Broadcast Music Inc. alleges an eastside bar violated copyright laws by
hosting karaoke and live music shows without paying licensing fees to
use popular songs." 
- - - 
THE COMMUNITY SCENE: 
Open Studios works with communities around the country and around the
world to build and operate community-based recording studios.  You can
keep up with the latest happenings by checking this section each month. 
Learn what others are doing, and get ideas for your community. 

There's a church in Jinja, Uganda.  Mwandha Michael oversees his
parishoners with great enthusiasm and hope.  Several months ago, even
though he cannot afford the high prices of the computer cybercafes, he
decided he needed to try to get our help to start a community-based
recording studio in his community.  Now, this fellow is extremely
perceptive. 

A community-based recording studio would enable him to attract the
interest of the entire community, from those who would use the facility
to record music and make money, to those who would use the facility to
develop multi-media fund-raising campaigns for their organizations, to
those who would use the facility to record photos of their products and
add descriptions and put those on CD's to send to potential customers,
to those who would like to start small businesses that bring revenue
into the community through the Internet.  Yes, the global market place. 

They have great plans to create church sermons, and to create
fund-raising campaigns, and to sell the crafts and products of the
community on the Internet.  Maybe it's a dream.  But, it will happen. 
We are still working to find a way to get a donated computer to them. 
We also hope to find a Users' Group near them that can get interested in
helping. 

Maybe you have some ideas?   Let us know. 
- - - 
HOW THEY DO IT: 
This on-going series explores potential business strategies and ideas
for musicians, artists, and authors interested in pursuing careers
outside mainstream industry practices. 

John, over at http://www.Magnatune.com, is making news these days.  He's
converted to the Creative Commons Project for licensing all the label's
works, and says it is just the greatest.  Check him out for one
entrepreneurial approach that embraces the Digital Age. 

He's busy now, so we didn't get to get some good quotes from him. 
Hopefully, we can come back to him in later months for the details. 
- - - 
FEATURED ARTISTS: 
Got a story to tell?  Want to expand your audience?  Help the world
discover you.  Contact us, today, and we'll feature you here.  

I messed up.  Rachael Sage was due to be this month's featured artist,
but no info to share with you.  Sorry.  I'll set a backup plan for next
month, so we can hear what others' stories are. 
- - - 
COLUMNS: 
A]  Anatoly Volynets - Culture vs. Copyright 
What Is Culture? Specifics of Art. 

I wrote in the previous issue that my position toward the idea of 
intellectual property and, in particular, copyright, is defined by my 
understanding of culture. In short, culture and copyright clash 
completely. Here are some points of my understanding of culture. 

1. Should We Obey the Laws of Nature? 

What is culture? Why should we discuss it? It is interesting, no doubt, 
but is it urgent? The idea of copyright, related laws, practices, 
and institutions, are all components in an attempt to manage culture. 
And it is no secret that this attempt causes great social tension 
nowadays. So what is this culture, which we have been trying to manage 
for more than 300 years? This question is urgent. Ancient Romans said: 
"Natura parendo vincitur", that is "Obeying Nature, one wins". 
In other words, we may get the best fruits of nature if obey to its 
laws. And vise versa, nothing but harm comes out when we try to impose 
our wishes on Nature. Sounds reasonable, doesn't it? I want to ask then:
What about culture? Should we try to obey its inner laws or, say, "laws 
of nature" of culture, while attempting to govern it? The answer seems 
to be obvious: yes, we have to. What are these laws then? 

2. Work of Art = New World 

So, what is culture? The most typical representative of human activity 
within the boundaries of culture is art. What is it then, a piece of 
art? Let's take as an example, say, "Lord of the Rings."  What happens, 
when we read it? At least two things do. Firstly, we accept another 
world, one built by J. R. R. Tolkien, as if it is ours. We identify 
ourselves with heroes; we love and hate, get scared and joyous; we
become sad and happy. It is as if it is us living and acting there:
whatever 
happens there we take close to our hearts. Again, their world becomes in
a sense ours. Secondly, it is a different and strange world. That is why
it is interesting for us. Hence, here we can sum up the first definition
for a work of art: it is a paradox of a new, strange world accepted as 
ours -- Alter Ego of our world. This Alter Ego, in some sense, is less 
real, than the physical world, and in some sense it more real. It is 
less real for it is virtual. Hence, you can get in and out at any time 
at will. It becomes more real when it affects you, draws stronger 
feelings, and influences your decisions in a greater degree than the 
physical world does. One could say that the definition was concluded 
from just one specific example, which was one in the genre of fantasy. 
What about other genres? It is all the same. Let's take the "closest" 
example to physical reality -- say a newspaper article. Extract a list 
of plain facts from there and compare it with the article itself. Which 
one would be more real in terms of influencing the reader? Which one is 
more likely to get noticed? Which one is more likely to get real 
attention, understanding, empathy? It will be the list, processed by the
journalist; the article presenting a conditioned world, which, at the 
same time, becomes more visible and understandable, more real in this 
sense. The journalist has turned it into "more ours" (so it became 
touching), and, at the same time, "more strange" (so it became 
interesting). 

In a piece of art (whatever it is: painting, fiction, poetry, song, 
sculpture, drama. . .) the artist creates a new world, a strange and 
real one, and he also creates some more new things, which pop up out of 
necessity. New forms of expression, new elements of human language, new 
human attitudes, new understanding of human dignity. . . generally 
speaking, new humanity. And at the same time, the artist creates his own
alter ego (the one that understands all the above listed). . . And, 
respectively, he creates new audience (the people, who will understand 
all these new things). Whatever "creates" means here, the fact of the 
matter is that something new does appear in all said layers of reality 
with every single piece of art. 

3. People-to-Art Relations 

Thus, a piece of art addresses an audience, which, in turn, is supposed 
to understand it. This means the piece of art bears another duty and 
thus another definition: it is a message to be heard, understood and 
responded to. Which means, furthermore, a true artwork comes out when 
the artist has something to say about  something that  touches him 
personally. One could remind me that art-for-order or even art-for-hire 
does exist. Yes, it does, but it is an artist's talent to really 
understand and empathize with what other people could and should really 
feel in the virtual world he is ordered or hired to create. 

Now, what happens on the reader's side? It is fact that we love, hate, 
feel compassion to, and are afraid of the heros of the works of art. As 
we said already, that new world is a real one in a sense. It is unique, 
it is unusual, it is specific, it is virtual and it is real. We allow 
ourselves to engage in this reality . . .if we do, that is. And for 
those who don't, art simply doesn't exist. Despite the fact that you are
free to engage and disengage with the world represented in an art piece,
when you are engaged, everything happening with its heros touches you. 
Shortly, we develop real human-to-human relations with heros of the 
virtual worlds. The only difference here is the consequences. Remember 
how we have to sometimes convince ourselves that it is not real, when a 
movie becomes too chilling? Remember your tears when you listen to 
music, sometimes? Remember the deep feelings, the tempests of thoughts 
while reading? These are all very human feelings, aren't they? And these
feelings are directed at and are invoked by those images of people, 
shaped by the artist, writer, signer, composer. . . Interestingly 
enough, the same thing happens when it comes to real people and events 
we are not involved with directly. Often they become truly real if are 
"processed" by art. A message in a newspaper that something happened may
pass unnoticed by the public. It is the art of journalism to make 
something real, something captivating out of a factual event so that the
audience notice and accept it as an important one, gets engaged in 
human-to-human relations. 

Having said this, we can derive another layer of individual relations
with a work of art. Let's turn to our example again. Say, one day you 
discovered "Lord of the Rings." You may have borrowed it from a friend 
or took from a library, read and decided that you want this book on your
shelf, so that you can read and re-read it, and talk to its heros, and 
listen to them, and enjoy their adventures, and be afraid of their 
dangers, and discover new countless details, possibilities, beauties and
challenges of that another world time and time again. Then you went to a
bookstore and did not find it. Would you tell to yourself something like
"Well, there is no "Lord of the Rings" here, I can buy something else?" 
This attitude wouldn't be normal, although it is possible here. If you 
want "Lord of the Rings" it is personal. It is not the same when you are
going to buy a car. In later case you need something to drive. Even if 
you want a very certain car, it can be substituted. Lord of the Rings - 
cannot. Another book will never be the same to you. In that exactly 
manner like one person will never be the same as another one. 

I consider the last point to be extremely important. Let's deliberate a 
few more examples. One can say something like: 
"I need something to eat," or 
"I need something to drive," or 
"I want something to read," or 
"I want to marry," or 
"I need to talk to somebody." 
You can also say something, like: 
"I want rack of lamb Irish style," or 
"I want a blue Cadillac," or 
"I need Lord of the Rings," or 
"I love Miriam and want to marry her," or 
"I miss Tom and want to talk to him." 
What is the difference between the two groups? The first one contains
impersonal statements which represent, generally speaking, the "consumer
attitude." The second one consists of personal statements, which
represent a humane, passionate attitude. Let's pay close attention to
the first one. The "consumer attitude" in some of these statements
should be taken with a grain of salt. Even when you just want to marry,
you normally foresee individual human-to-human relations, so even though
this wish is expressed in general terms, it is not necessarily a
consumer one. Same story happens with your wish to talk to somebody.
This normally implies someone able to listen to you, understand,
probably help in some personal humane manner. Further, if you want to
read something, normally you pretaste human-to-human like relations with
book heroes and this is exactly what attracts you. 

Now, the personal statements also go cum grana salis. When you say: 
"I want to drive a blue Cadillac", it is personalization of a functional
thing, which bears no soul. To sum it up, a human can develop a personal
attitude toward any thing and may treat other human beings like consumer
goods (an extreme case, for instance, is slavery). The question is, 
"what is natural here?" When you wanted to read "Lord of the Rings" it
was personal by nature, like if you wanted to meet someone you heard of,
or listened to, or read of, you name it. . . And this is not an
irrelevant analogy, or surprising at all. If a work of art is another
real world, with its heroes, events, laws, and if this other world talks
to your soul, then you cannot treat it like a food to consume or even a
tool to use. It is quite different. You do feel a kind of personal
engagement, much like one with other people. This human-to-human face of
a work of art makes it exceptionally important for us as individuals and
as a society, as well. 

To be continued. Topics to be covered: Form and Content in a Work of 
Art, Rules for Creator, Creation as Dialogue, How Culture Grows? Culture
and Freedom, Culture and Humanity, Reality of Art and Civilization, 
Culture and Creativity, and others. 
Anatoly Volynets, Board member of Open Studios, and President of
Total-knowledge.com, will continue his thoughts next month about the
copyright implications on culture.  You can contact Anatoly at: 
av AT total-knowledge.com
*** 
This article licensed under Authoright: 
http://www.culturedialogue.org/ 
*** 
Literary editing by Alexandra Volynets 
*** 
- - - 
COMMONS GALLERY BEST OF THE BEST: 
The Creative Commons Project offers musicians, artists, and authors a
nifty way to meet their legal needs for licensing their works for
distribution across the Internet.  If readers discover interesting
material that sports the Creative Commons tag, let us know, and we'll
link it here.  Attach your photo with your suggested link, to be added
to the gallery.  Let's spread the word! 

You won't believe this!   Lisa Rein was slotted for this section, and,
as with Rachael, it didn't happen.  I got caught twice without backup. 
I apologize, and next month will be lots better. 
- - - 
OPEN STUDIOS:SONG STORM is now in alpha mode, scheduled for November 15,
2003 Launch.  You can take a look at:
http://www.ibiblio.org/studioforrecording/php/testhomeplaylist.php  . 
Please visit soon, and comment on what features we should add.  SONG
STORM is a project designed to go straight at the RIAA.  Want a fight? 
Get on the winning side, OURS!  It's a playlist contest.  Submit your
favorite non-RIAA song sets, and win a prize.  Sound good?  Enjoy! 
- - - 
OPEN STUDIOS:RUNNING BOARD is available as a loose-leaf binder
subscription for your home or office.  Tastefully done, I might add, to
impress your friends and visitors, or to give as a lovely gift to
friends and relatives.  Help support Open Studios by ordering your
subscription, today.  Visit our online gift shop at:
http://www.ibiblio.org/studioforrecording/onlineshop.html
- - - 
To subscribe or unsubscribe to Open Studios email list: 
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/community_studios
- - - 
To subscribe to RUNNING BOARD newsletter ONLY: 
send email to tompoe AT studioforrecording.org
- - - 
Open Studios home page: 
http://www.studioforrecording.org/
- - - 
We're looking for volunteers to work on the newsletter.  Send an email
and let us know what you'd like to do. 
- - - 
Won't you help support Open Studios, today?  Please visit our homepage
and click on the DONATE NOW link.  Or, if you prefer, send a check or
money order to: 
Open Studios 
241 Crampton 
Reno, NV 89502-2438 
NOTE:  Check our wish list for contributions we need:
http://www.ibiblio.org/studioforrecording/wishlist.html
- - - 
Licensed as Public Domain with the Creative Commons Project, August 1,
2003. 
- - -