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community_studios - [Community_studios] Newsletter Issue #4: April, 2004

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Subject: Discussion of all things related to Public Domain

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  • From: tom poe <tompoe AT amihost.com>
  • To: Community Studios <community_studios AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc: Billy Donald <drummerinterviews AT yahoo.com>
  • Subject: [Community_studios] Newsletter Issue #4: April, 2004
  • Date: 01 Apr 2004 18:44:02 -0800

OPEN STUDIOS: RUNNING BOARD

- - -
"Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence." -- 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.eff.org/IP/Video/HDTV/20040309_eff_pr.php

San Francisco, CA - EFF joined five major library associations,
Public Knowledge, the Consumer Federation of America, and the
Consumers Union in suing the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) last week to block overbroad regulation of next-generation
televisions and related devices.

"The FCC's digital broadcast television mandate is a step in
the wrong direction because it would make digital television
cost more and do less, undermining innovation, fair use, and
competition," said EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney
Fred von Lohmann. "The FCC overstepped its bounds, unduly
restricting consumers and manufacturers, when it issued
its broadcast flag ruling."

The lawsuit, called ALA v. FCC, was filed in the Court of
Appeals in Washington, D.C., and charges that the FCC exceeded
its jurisdiction, acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner,
and failed to point to substantial evidence in adopting a
broadcast flag mandate.

- - -
http://makeashorterlink.com/?S25412EA7
05 Mar 2004
Open recording policy announced

"Fire up your digital audio recorders and start your mp3 engines,
because recording Cohn shows has been officially blessed by Marc and his
forward-looking management company. "
- - -
http://www.eff.org/cgi/tiny?urlID=148
Mar. 1, 2004. 07:22 AM
Ringtones: 10 per cent of the market for music
TYLER HAMILTON

It defies logic.

A 15-year-old is reluctant to pay 99 cents to download a favourite song
from the Internet. On the other hand, this same teenager won't think
twice about spending $1.50, sometimes more, to get a 15-second snippet
of the same song — inferior touchtone blips and beeps, really — as a
ringer for a mobile phone.
- - -
http://news.com.com/2100-1041-5172851.html

Starbucks, HP music cafe percolating
Last modified: March 12, 2004, 11:54 AM PST
By Richard Shim
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

"Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz and HP CEO Carly Fiorina plan to be
in Santa Monica, Calif., to launch the companies' first such shop,
according to an HP advisory. More of these stores, each called Hear
Music Coffeehouse, are expected to open later this year, according to
the Starbucks Web site.

The coffee house customers will be able to create their own music
compilations from a digital library and burn them to CDs. HP Tablet PCs
will be used in the stores, along with listening stations, where
consumers will be able to listen to music before purchasing it."
- - -
http://news.findlaw.com/ap/ht/1700/3-25-2004/20040325053003_33.html
British Campaign to Target Music Piracy
LONDON (AP)
Thursday, March 25, 2004

" LONDON (AP) - More than 7 million people in Britain now download
music from illegal Web sites, causing a drop in music sales in stores,
leaders of Britain's record industry said Thursday as they launched a
campaign to curb music piracy."
- - -
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/36709.html
File sharers not guilty of copyright infringement - Canadian judge
By Tony Smith
Posted: 31/03/2004 at 20:02 GMT

"I cannot see a real difference between a library that places a
photocopy machine in a room full of copyrighted material and a computer
user that places a personal copy on a shared directory linked to a P2P
service," he said.

Judge von Finckenstein
- - -
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.

Did you know that in the future, grandparents will have refrigerators
with computers on the side, the monitor stylishly displaying files from
the Internet? Imagine the grandparents, each morning, walking over to
their refrigerator, loading up the day's drawing made by one of their
grandchildren? Nice, eh?

NO ENTRY THIS MONTH
- - -
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.

NO ENTRY THIS MONTH

- - -
FEATURED ARTISTS:
http://www.geocities.com/drummerinterviews/upandcoming.html
Introducing the all new "Up and Coming" with Billy Donald
drummerinterviews AT yahoo.com

Running Board wishes to present Billy Donald, who has agreed to
syndicate his column (rather his interviews) with us. We hope you will
welcome him with open arms by sending an email to him and visiting his
web site often. Oh, and don't forget to spread the word to your friends
and family. Now, on with Billy:

NO ENTRY THIS MONTH
- - -
COLUMNS:
A] Anatoly Volynets - Culture vs. Copyright
Synopsis of Previous Issues

One of the basic points I stand for is that culture and copyright clash
completely. To illustrate my understanding of culture, I took arts as an
example. In previous issues we discussed the nature of arts,
particularly the main law they live under. In the end, we found that
this law is that of ultimate freedom. One issue was devoted to licensing
in cultural affairs.

Arts and Personality

Prologue

Yes, arts and personality... It is quite a topic. Time and time again I
turned to it and did not know how to approach it. I am not even talking
about a possible solution to the problem. I got desperate and decided to
take the question to my first graders. So, once upon a time I entered
the classroom and threw it down: "Why do we read books?" Silence,
staring eyes... but not for long.

1 Warm up

Alpha. Isn't it obvious? Books teach us to behave.

Beta. Yeah, like Tom Sawyer in Sunday-school.

Kappa. Tom Sawyer is a good boy.

Delta. Who said he isn't?

Gamma. I didn't.

Beta. Me neither.

Kappa. I am not even sure I dislike what he did in the Sunday-school.

Alpha. Well, you may like him personally, but he didn't show a good
example there.

Kappa. So? You do not always show good examples, do you?

Beta. Hey Kappa, do you like Alpha for that?

Kappa. Come on, I am serious here.

Delta. You always are.

Teacher. What about books? Why do we read them?

2 Reaching Closer

Beta. Can we think about looking at paintings as well?

Delta. About theater?

Gamma. Music?

Kappa. Movies!

Alpha. Fashion-shows, heh-heh.

Teacher. Actually...

Delta. I think it doesn't matter!

Alpha. How is that? A book clearly teaches you. You understand it.
However, when you listen to music, you can imagine whatever you want!

Beta. Alpha, what have you learned from Tom Sawyer?

Kappa. How to tease and beat boys in clean clothes, hah-hah.

Delta. How to court girls.

Gamma. To paint fences.

Beta. To take a friend's punishment.

Alpha. See? You guys look after the black side of what Tom was doing
only!

Kappa. Come on, Alpha, we do not.

Alpha. Why then you stress on bad things only?

Delta. To make you think, Alpha.

Alpha. Make yourself!

Beta. We are trying. Frankly, I feel like we're not quite on track yet.

Kappa. Interesting. I have always liked Tom Sawyer, from the very moment
I got to know him. And I knew, of course, about all these bad things he
did, and I've never even thought of criticizing him!

Alpha. You fell in love with him, didn't you?

Kappa. Something like that.

Delta. Yeah, girls love him.

Alpha. I was teasin' Kappa.

Kappa. But I am serious.

Delta. You always are.

Kappa. Stop it, Delta. This is different.

Beta. You know what? I feel rather surprised. I feel like Tom Sawyer is
becoming alive in my mind right now.

Alpha. What is he doing? Knocking at your skull?

Delta. Yeah, Alpha, so that you can learn to do this and repeat after
him.

Kappa. Guys, what has came over you today?

3 Getting on Track

Gamma. We went to a concert yesterday, me and my folks. And I just
listened to the music and liked it mostly, and disliked some. And then
we got out and I forgot it and was thinking how I would play freeciv at
home. Dad was discussing the concert with mom, and my aunt started to
argue, and all that was pretty annoying, but I jumped in at some point,
I don't know why. We were arguing all the way down to our house, and I
almost got in a fight with Becky (Gamma's kid sister--A.V.), and
we all couldn't stop. Mom wanted to cool us down, but dad couldn't stop
either. In the end, all of a sudden, I felt a huge drive to go back and
listen to it again! It's like Beta said, I felt like it became alive in
my mind! I mean, all those things I was imagining while I was arguing:
people, feelings, actions, you know... They kind of crowded my mind,
while I was trying to make my point, ...maybe because of that...

Alpha. I don't follow you. What does it have to do with
our subject today?

Kappa. I know, how that feels! This is exactly what happens every time
we go to a movie theater! We always argue afterwards, and Jimmy (Kappa's
kid brother--A.V.) always speaks against me, because he likes to tease
me, and mom tries to cool us down, and dad jumps in. Dad tries not to
take sides, but he can't help it. And then we go to watch it again
sometimes, not the entire family, but who can or wants to, you know, and
we often buy the video as soon as it shows up. And I am starting to
understand right now, that all of this argument is the best part of it.
I think, I wouldn't pay much attention to many of those movies, if not
for this argument! But I can write books about them now!

Alpha. Wow, what a story! A family fight! How does this relate to our
subject?

Gamma. Don't you see? It is all the same.

Alpha. No, I do not! It is all different! In a movie, you see what you
see. In a book, you cannot see directly, but have to imagine all of its
heros, and landscapes, and action... Everyone imagines it in their own
way! It's like everyone reads a different book while we all read the
same _The Adventures of Tom Sawyer_. And when you listen to music, you
don't even know whether you think of it the same as its composer
does. How can you say it is all the same?

Teacher. If I ask now, why do we read books, watch movies, listen to
music, the answers will be different?..

Alpha. ...Well, that's not what I meant. I don't know why do we do all
these things. My point was that they are very different, that's all.

Beta. Thus, you don't know any more?

Alpha. What do you mean?

Delta. Beta is reminding you that you had the answer about books,
remember?

Alpha. Actually, I think that books, and, movies, and music...

Kappa. And fashions?

Gamma. Hold it!

Alpha. ...do the same thing to us. They teach us, but in different
ways... And everyone learns what they see, or can see, or...

Delta. Or want?

Beta. Well, if you learn from Tom Sawyer how to defend your girl, and
the other guy learns to smoke, and someone concludes that Indians are
bad guys because there was a bad Indian Joe there... Then how can we
tell that books teach us?

Alpha. I told you, everyone learns what they see.

Delta. Listen, Alpha, if books are to learn from, then writers are to
teach?

Alpha. So?

Delta. Is that a yes or a no?

Alpha. Come on, we are not in a court room.

Delta. Why don't you answer?

Kappa. Ok, Ok. Suppose they are to teach us, what is your point?

Gamma. Delta is just picking up on what Beta is getting at: if books are
to learn from, their authors are to teach, but if everyone learns
different things, then what are the authors teaching? Did I get it
right, guys?

Beta. Well yes, you're even getting ahead of me now.

Kappa. Well, I don't know what Mark Twain was trying to teach us, but I
was never the same after I read _The Adventures of Tom Sawyer_.

Beta. I have a feeling that I'll never be the same after this
discussion.

Teacher. Me too, I think.

Alpha. What are you guys talking about? Are you going to paint fences
from now on?

Gamma. That was meant to be a joke. Everyone is laughing, hah-hah-hah.

Alpha. Gamma, you may cry, if you wish.

Gamma. Well, thank you! Now I feel like I live in a free country.

Kappa. Oh there it goes again.

Delta. But, we were being all deep about these matters and I don't get
why Alpha has to play this down like this.

Alpha. Ah, Delta can be serious too!

Teacher. Can we do a little summary now? It will not look like final
answers. I cannot even say we have some answers. However, certain things
were definitely said.

4 The First Summary

Teacher. Firstly, books, movies, music, et cetera do something similar
to us (Gamma and Alpha were close on that, we just are not sure what
this does to us). Secondly, they do it in different ways (Alpha stressed
this). Thirdly, arts change us (this was Kappa's point). Fourthly,
argument magnifies the influence of art (this point was a joint venture
of Beta, Gamma and Kappa)...

5 Getting Deeper

Kappa. You know what? I think now, I argued a lot with many different
people while I was reading about Tom Sawyer!

Beta. Do you mean aunt Polly, Sid?

Kappa. No... Well, yes... Well, I don't know. It was like, say, I didn't
like what Sid did, but, at the same time, I felt like it was my brother
Jimmy, you know...

Gamma. Actually, when you are deep in a book, or music, --it does not
matter what art we are talking about, you forget yourself in a way. I
realize very clearly that I felt like I was Tom Sawyer... and all of his
adventures... it was me there. And, maybe, if it was me, my folks were
with me... somewhere around, you know? It felt sometimes like I was
talking to my dad, or mom, or Becky (I mean my sister). And when it was
about Becky Thatcher, then, for me it was like talking to.. some other
girl.

Delta. I agree. I never thought about this, but I agree. Other people,
those you know, they are like shadows that are always there, wherever
you are, either in a real place, or in a book.

Kappa. Yeah! And they can be heros from other books also!

Alpha. Yeah, Pinocchio fighting with Tom Sawyer! Guys, get real. We do
not live in books.

Kappa. But this is true! If you love Tom Sawyer as much as a real
person, you talk to him a thousand times a day, then he is around
wherever you go! Delta is one hundred percent right! It is one hundred
percent so!

Alpha. Hey, someone's a little too excited here, don't you think?

Kappa. Wait, Alpha, don't you understand? This is just great! You always
have your folks with you! Real ones and art heros! You always have them!

Teacher. Actually, when you say "real ones," you don't mean "physical
ones," correct?

Beta. Wow!

Delta. What?

Gamma. I got it.

Kappa. What?

Alpha. People, it is all your fantasy, and has nothing to do with _real_
reality. I'm telling you, get real. After all, we got the question to
answer: why do we read books? I don't feel that we are one step closer
to an answer.

Beta. Wow and wow.

Alpha. Have you lost your speech?

Gamma. I am saying _Wow_ too.

Teacher. Thank you, students.

Kappa. What is this? Some sort of a plot! Say something already!

Gamma. Wait, I am thinking.

Beta. It is tasty.

Kappa. Come on, both of you! Let us in on it!

Gamma. All right. You know, who is your President?

Kappa. Our President, today?

Gamma. Yes.

Alpha. It is Trumpet. So?

Gamma. Is he a good or a bad guy?

Alpha. How should I know?

Beta. But you have to have some attitude, some understanding, some
feelings about him, don't you?

Kappa. I do. I don't want him for the second term.

Gamma. Good! Tell us now, how it happened to be that you think that!

Alpha. I see, where you are heading. It is all newspapers, TV, radio,
leaflets, Internet... So?

Kappa. Ah! It is all artificial! President Trumpet is as much real to me
as Tom Sawyer is! And all my likes and dislikes relate to stories I
read, movies I watched, music I listened to, et cetera!

Teacher. Well, there is something there that was done by real people,
like me, or your loving parents, or your smart classmates...

Kappa. But now, I don't even know who did what and who did more?

Beta. All life long... This happens all life long. We don't know what
are we made of? Is it our parents who read us tales, or is this the
_tales_ that were read to us by our parents?

Delta. Is it President Trumpet, cooked up by a journalist, or is it the
journalist who shows his attitude writing about President Trumpet?

Gamma. Is it music, written by a composer, or the composer who writes
the music?

Alpha. Ok, I can play this game too: Tom Sawyer or Mark Twain, right?

Beta. Or yourself, when you read it.

Teacher. Or your classmates you are arguing with.

Beta. Or ideas, we are arguing about?

Gamma. Told you? Wow!

Kappa. You sure did! I join in: Wow!

Alpha. Everyone--one, two three: Wow!

Delta. So you _do_ join in, Alpha?

Alpha. Join what?

6 The Second Summary

Beta. Hold it, hold it! I have a question. Our mind is like a play where
images of real people and heros of artistic works all act out their
roles. Can we sum up it this way?

Teacher. It is an intriguing summary!

7 Climbing to the Peak

Beta. Ok. Now, I read a book and feel compassion to a hero, let's say
Tom Sawyer again... Or, wait... a thought is sneaking around. Ok, give
me a second...

Alpha. And what are we going to do while Beta is conducting his
research?

Kappa. I feel exhausted.

Beta. Actually, I'm ready. Remember the last thing I said? That we don't
know what really affects our mind: a person that argues pro some idea,
or the idea that is argued for by that person?

Delta. Well, it was not exactly that, but in a sense,
yes, you said that.

Alpha. Huh? Now, it is not enough for you all to treat literary
personages like real people? You want an idea to be a like a person too?

Teacher. Let's call it a quasi-personality.

Alpha. Are you serious?

Gamma. Listen, Alpha, hold on. Let Beta tell us his new story.

Beta. Thanks. Quite frankly, it is not that clear to me yet.

Teacher. That's all right. Go on.

Beta. OK. As I said, I don't have a theory, just some kind of feeling to
describe.

Kappa. Go ahead.

Beta. Say, I read _The Adventures of Tom Sawyer_. I feel like Tom
Sawyer, I relate to other characters, I feel compassion to some of them,
anger at others, I get scared, make up my mind about something...

Alpha. Those are not new discoveries.

Beta. No, they are not. I am trying to grasp a theme here. And I
understand that Mark Twain loves this boy and makes us love him as well.

Kappa. Yes, exactly! He does not teach us a thing! He just makes us love
him! This is it, this is just it, this is the word!

Delta. Does Mark Twain like Sid?

Gamma. I do not have theory either, but it seems to me, an author cannot
dislike his characters.

Kappa. Thus, Mark Twain likes Sid and Indian Joe?

Gamma. I believe so.

Kappa. Do they like him?

Alpha. What? People, you got derailed completely.

Beta. Why? Remember, I said I felt like Tom Sawyer was coming alive in
my mind. He still is. The more we talk, the more alive he becomes.

Alpha. Ah, I remember, he was knocking at your skull. He did succeed, I
admit.

Delta. Well, Alpha, if he did succeed then he is alive after all?

Kappa. All right, is everyone done joking? I am not sure Beta finished
his idea.

Beta. I didn't... Where did I stop?

Teacher. You said Mark Twain made us love Tom Sawyer.

Beta. Yes, and this is it about Tom Sawyer. Now, when I said, that ideas
affect us like people do, I did not actually know, what I meant. It just
jumped off of my tongue. But now, I'm starting to see it better. I want
to move on to _The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn._

Alpha. Just another one of the same kind.

Beta. Yes, but I want to single out one moment. That is when two crooks
sold Jim back into slavery for forty bucks. I felt like I was going to
cry along with Huck!

Alpha. Ok, slavery is bad. What's your point?

Beta. My point now is closer to yours, in a way. It is not that Mark
Twain tought me that slavery is bad, but he made me feel really really
really bad about slavery at that moment. I was desperate. So, now, I do
not just love Huckleberry, but I got into thinking about slavery and,
believe me, it still bothers me.

Gamma. I think, I owe all of you another summary now.

8 Reaching the Last Summary

Teacher. Go ahead, Gamma.

Gamma. Look, remember we were talking about President Trumpet? That his
journalist-made image is real to us, while we know nothing about the
physical man? I now think that all we love or hate in this life is
clarified and tought by arts.

Alpha. Told you.

Gamma. No, not like you said it. It is not about teaching exactly.
Huckleberry Finn made us _feel_ bad about the enslaved Jim. Do you see
the difference?

Alpha. Between what and what?

Kappa. Between knowledge and feelings! Understood?

Teacher. So, Gamma, are you ready for your statement?

Gamma. Almost. It feels kind of scary. Let us talk a little bit more.

Alpha. Are you scared of your own fantasy?

Gamma. You bet. Ok, we are sure now, that arts do influence us greatly.
They _form_ the way we think and the way we feel.

Beta. They, actually, form _the way itself_.

Delta. What is the way?

Beta. It is talking to each other and inside our own minds.

Kappa. Arts bring in actors to act in all our conversations.

Beta. And ideas.

Gamma. And scenarios.

Teacher. You think you proved it?

Beta. No, we did not, but these ideas just emerged! And I can't put
forth anything else.

Gamma. Ok, I pick it up: The whole of our mind is directly or indirectly
made by arts.

Teacher. Wow!

Epilogue

In the beginning I was going to squeeze and summarize the ideas that my
first graders would come up with. I wanted to stress the "right" points,
underline un-answered questions, provide some extra logic... In the end
I see no reason to do that. The whole time that I listened to the
dialogue, I kept wanting to jump into the discussion. The subject began
to become clearer to me, and I thought that if this is what will happen
to my readers, this would be the best thing that could happen to them.

To be continued.

Topics to be covered: Culture beyond Arts, Discrepancies between
worlds: tangibles and intangibles, Economics of Culture 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!

NO ENTRY THIS MONTH
- - -
OPEN STUDIOS:SONG STORM is LAUNCHED!!! You can take a look at:
http://www.ibiblio.org/studioforrecording/php/playlist.php . Please
visit soon, and comment on what features we should add. SONG STORM is a
project designed for fun, great listening pleasure, super exposure for
independent artists and Internet stations, and more. Submit your
favorite independent artist song sets, and win a prize. Sound good?
Enjoy!
- - -
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.
- - -
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- - -
Licensed as Public Domain with the Creative Commons Project, August 1,
2003.
- - -







  • [Community_studios] Newsletter Issue #4: April, 2004, tom poe, 04/01/2004

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