Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

community_studios - [Community_studios] Newsletter Issue #8: August, 2004

community_studios AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Discussion of all things related to Public Domain

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: tom poe <tompoe AT amihost.com>
  • To: Community Studios <community_studios AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Community_studios] Newsletter Issue #8: August, 2004
  • Date: 07 Aug 2004 05:10:05 -0700

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.freepress.net/news/4114
Labels blacklist song-swap companies, block deals

>From Reuters, July 15, 2004
By Andy Sullivan
British download service Wippit Ltd. broke off plans to advertise and
sell music on Grokster last year after officials determined that
Universal Music Group would cut them off.

"UMI have expressed concern about our relationship with your company and
even though we are providing you with a legitimate service they will not
license music to Wippit if we have any dealings with your company who
they consider 'pirates'," Wippit CEO Paul Myers wrote Grokster in a May
2003 e-mail.

"If the last names of the CEOs of most major record labels ended in a
vowel they'd be calling this behavior racketeering," said former
Grokster president Wayne Rosso.
- - -
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/07/19/fighting_to_be_free/
Fighting to be free
Thoreau lover denied bid to give out book at Walden
By Kathleen Burge, Globe Staff | July 19, 2004

Denise Morrissey, the park supervisor who told Eldred he had to leave,
said her agency discourages competition from outsiders who could take
away business from the two concessions that pay for a spot on the
reservation: an ice cream truck and the gift shop run by the Thoreau
Society.

"If you're going to give away books for free," she said, "it might take
away business" from the shop.
- - -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1268858,00.html
iWar looms as Gates muscles in on music
Sound system clash for Microsoft and Apple
David Smith, technology correspondent
Sunday July 25, 2004
The Observer

Some analysts believe the competition could boil down to a scrap for
star names. All the download servers offer thousands of tracks but no
two playlists are quite the same. But Ashley Norris, pub lisher of
tech-digest.com, said: 'Sony has got a much a better choice of tracks.

The hard launch of the Sony player in September will mean a huge battle
and artists are potentially Sony's trump card. Apple has more but they
include a lot of dodgy country music artists who might be big in
Birmingham, Alabama but not in Birmingham, West Midlands.'
- - -
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=69338
Tech News [07-23-2004]

Rock Legend Heart Breaks New Ground With Simultaneous Retail And
File-Sharing Release Of 'Jupiters Darling' MusicDish Network Sponsor
DCIA Members Distribute New Album Via P2P & Outsell iTunes
- - -
http://news.findlaw.com/ap/ht/1700/7-28-2004/20040728053004_22.html
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
Some Online Music Providers Allow Sharing
By ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writer

"LOS ANGELES (AP) - Free-for-all music sharing online has drawn the ire
of the recording industry, but some commercial online music providers
and even a few recording artists are opting to allow music fans to share
the songs they've bought."
- - -
http://news.findlaw.com/ap/ht/1700/7-29-2004/20040729064505_081.html

Thursday, July 29, 2004
French ISPs to Crack Down on Music Pirates
By LAURENCE FROST AP Business Writer

Nevertheless, the charter also calls on music copyright holders to
launch and publicize "targeted civil and criminal" court action against
pirates by the end of the year.

By agreeing to help in the crackdown on pirates, French Internet
companies hope they can head off the need for tough legislation such as
the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the United States - which
holds service providers financially liable if they don't immediately
remove copyright material posted by their users when requested to do so.
- - -
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:

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. In previous issues we discussed the nature of arts,
licensing in cultural affairs, arts and personality.

Culture Beyond Arts

7 How New Content Emerges
8 Can Copying Be Creative?
9 Journalist And Writer: Going In Circles


7 How New Content Emerges

Beta. Wait-wait, I've got a very interesting assumption! A new idea
equals to the new form in which to arrange some known things!

Alpha. Is it not what we were discussing for the last
half an hour?

Delta. Five minutes at most... After Gamma gave away
his last definition.

Alpha. All right, let it be five minutes! What's Beta's
discovery, anyway?

Delta. I am not up to it either... to be frank. Beta,
can you elaborate?

Beta. ...I realized that a new idea is totally equal to
the new form...

Gamma. Totally?

Beta. Yes.

Kappa. OK. This jet... This new idea... It is a new form... But it is
not just a "new form"... It is still the new form in which to arrange
old things, a rocket and an aircraft... Can we separate them from
each other? I mean the form and those things?

Teacher. I'm starting to understand Beta's insight. I would have
thought that a new idea relates to some new content rather than a new
form... I would have... before, not now.

Gamma. It is difficult to keep in mind all these nuances, but in any
case it becomes clearer. That new form is the essence of creativity.

Beta. A new form as a result and as a goal... yes, it
is the essence, I agree.

Kappa. Aha! When you arrange old things in a new form
you get new content!

Beta. Wow, that resonates! Can we put it this way: you
get a new content by arranging the old one in a new form?

Teacher. I say wow too! You guys surprise me!

Alpha. OK, how does this apply to our third question?

Kappa. Is it...

Alpha. That doing arts can be non-creative.

Delta. It applies very well. If you are not arranging old things in
some new form while painting, or singing, or writing...

Alpha. New to whom?

Gamma. We already talked about this already. If it is
new to you, then you are creating.

Alpha. But if it is not new for others?

Beta. Bad luck. Bad for your business... So what? Our
subject is creativity, not business.

8 Can Copying Be Creative?

Alpha. All right, how can copying be creative?

Beta. Well, let's see...

Delta. If you see EVERYTHING in a painting, you can
copy it.

Alpha. All right, you see everything! How is that creative? Do you
arrange old content in a new form here?

Teacher. I think it is possible.

Alpha. How?

Gamma. It is probably like investigation... You have to
restore all the details in one right picture for yourself.

Alpha. But this is different with a painting! You
already see all the details on it!

Delta. You look on them. It does not mean you see them.

Alpha. What does it mean, on Earth?!

Gamma. Look, Alpha, when it comes to investigation, different people
see different things, although they all look at the same crime scene!

Kappa. Yea... They all look at the same scene, but see different
things... Yea... What does this give us? They arrange things in
different ways in their own minds!!!

Beta. Hey! You've got a BIG point!

Kappa. Wait-wait... What is it? It does not matter what you are
looking at. I mean, whatever you are looking at you have to arrange
what you see in some form in your mind...

Delta. And if this is new for you, then you are creating! Wow!

Alpha. Someone got lost here.

Delta. Who might it be?

Kappa. Come on, guys.

Teacher. So, copying can be creative?

Delta. Looks like it can be even more creative than the
original work.

Alpha. O-o-o-ops.

Gamma. How is that?

Beta. Say, you arrange things in some new form. This means you invent
a new idea, right? Now, say, you try to understand another person's
idea, OK? You have to do the same, right? Plus, you have to make sure
that the idea you are creating matches that one you are trying to
grasp. So, are you kind of doing two arrangements at once...

Kappa. Ha! This is why people do not understand each other!

Gamma. ...So... We have gotten the first answer to the
last question...

Teacher. Really?

Gamma. It can be said now, that creativity in arts is
of the same nature as creativity in human communication.

Delta. I cannot believe it. It was so fuzzy in the beginning!

Alpha. Aha. I would say it has been.

Delta. Actually, we saw that the same creativity is in invention, as
in arts, like with jets. That example that Gamma gave us was very
helpful.

Gamma. I see no difference with investigation either, by the way.

Delta. Yea, it is all the same.

Beta. So, creativity is all the same, whenever we come across it: in
arts, in technology, in investigation, in pure human communication,..
everywhere! The only things which change, are the subject and the
role of the outcome.

Teacher. ...And this is always arranging of known
things in a new form?

Kappa. I also cannot believe how clear it is now!

Alpha. OK, you guys have come to the conclusion that copying is even
more creative than the original work. Is that not weird?

Kappa. ...Hm? It actually is...

Delta. Why don't we think this over?

Gamma. Alpha, what do you think?

Teacher. Gamma, what about you?

Alpha. This new form, you all are talking about... It does not exist
when it gets created for the first time, but it does, when it gets
grasped by someone else, not the creator...

Delta. It is obvious, but what does "gets grasped" mean?
We saw it as a creative action too.

Alpha. As creative as the original creation itself?

Beta. I don't see how we can measure this.

Kappa. My dad says it takes sometimes centuries for humankind to
understand some new ideas, inventions or art that some individuals
came up with. Understanding is creative!

Delta. And it is the same about understanding between people in
everyday life. It was your example, Kappa, right?

9 Journalist And Writer: Going In Circles

Teacher. What if we leave this "measurement problem" for a while? I
am eager to hear what do you think about one of Beta's assumptions.

Gamma. Which one?

Teacher. That the only things changing in ever-same creativity are
the subject and the real meaning of the outcome.

Alpha. That is more than one question.

Teacher. True.

Alpha. Which one do you want to discuss then?

Teacher. I am curious about examples of outcomes.

Beta. What do you mean?

Teacher. How it works in different areas of human activity.

Gamma. Like we discussed already investigation,
invention, photography?

Teacher. Yes, like those.

Delta. Do you have something specific in mind?

Teacher. I am not sure yet. Cannot we collect some
examples together?

Beta. What are we looking for? I am not sure either.

Teacher. All right, what about journalism?

Gamma. What about it?

Beta. Actually, the first thing that comes to mind is
that a journalist does not create facts, does he?

Kappa. So?

Alpha. It is like photography.

Delta. Quick shot, eh?

Kappa. Oh, God! Won't you ever stop it?

Alpha. That's all right, I don't care and I don't mind.

Beta. You don't mind what?

Alpha. The quick shot is still there.

Delta. But seriously, Alpha, I fail to see it there. A journalist
gets the task to go somewhere and bring back a story. Say a car
accident happened... The paper editor sends some guy to cover the
story...

Beta. ...Well, the question stands as usual... One journalist makes
up the story that nobody wants to read, and another one does, so that
people rip the paper out of each others' hands to read it!

Delta. I am not talking about "made up stories!"

Beta. Actually, I am not either... But whatever the facts are, you
have to arrange them in a story! Different journalists would do this
differently, right? It can be terribly boring and it can be
incredibly exciting, right? And facts on the ground still would be
the same, right?

Delta. ...Yea...

Kappa. What about the "quick shot?"

Beta. What about it?

Kappa. I agree with Alpha that journalism does resemble photography:
You have to reflect real things, but you can do it in different ways.

Gamma. Could it be only in those cases, when a journalist does not
have a specific task and encounters something extraordinary?

Beta. But this changes nothing!

Alpha. What do you mean "nothing?"

Beta. I don't see how this specific case changes anything about what
we understood of creativity itself. If it is always the arranging of
known things in a new form, then all of circumstances mean nothing.

Kappa. But we are exploring how it works in different
circumstances now. This, in fact, was the question.

Beta. ...Agreed. So, what about the journalist and his story?

Alpha. And his news.

Gamma. I see no difference between that and fiction writing...

Alpha. Fiction is the same as news?

Gamma. Wait, let me finish. I just want to compare the two.

Kappa. It is interesting.

Teacher. It is. I am dying to hear.

Gamma. All right. Obviously, the creativity itself is the same here.
Both, the writer and the journalist have to arrange things in some
attractive form...

Alpha. Except the writer makes facts up.

Delta. Not necessarily.

Gamma. Yes... you are right... both of you... Let me finish. They
both have to create stories to engage their readers, to make them
feel involved...

Kappa. This is right! This is perfectly right!

Gamma. ...Yea, I know. OK, they make up stories, they try to engage
readers... there is no differences so far. But the real value of
their stories, the real job is different.

Alpha. I didn't get that. It is all the same, it is all
the same, it is all the same... it is different!

Gamma. Look, when the journalist engages his readers, he leads them
to the facts. The writer engages people to some general feelings, or
trends, or ideas...

Teacher. I believe both things can be involved in both genres. The
writer can use real events and names, while the journalist can talk
about some general ideas also.

Beta. But they use those differently!

Alpha. How?

Beta. The writer uses real facts to put forth his general ideas and
the journalist uses general ideas to put forth facts!

Gamma. Maybe... It is necessary for the journalist to engage public
into the events happening right away, and he can use whatever he
wants to do it.

Beta. Hm-m. Actually the same thing can happen to the writer too. He
can write about the past or the future, but imply present problems...

Kappa. Can we say that the journalist is bound to the present in
terms of content and writer is not? People just know that journalist
is to draw them into immediate events, this is like a rule of the
game. I think Gamma and Beta said the same.

Gamma. Yes, the writer and the journalist just have
different goals.

Teacher. So, despite the fact that they both do essentially equal
work, it is judged and valued by the public on different bases?

Beta. This is what the public would think.

Teacher. What do you mean?

Beta. It is simple. If they both do the same in terms of art, namely
engage their readers in the events they portray, then the public gets
involved in the same manner. The public fools itself about the real
value of a fictitious story and the real value of one in a newspaper.

Kappa. They all are fools, ha-ha-ha. But, listen Beta, you contradict
yourself. You said a few minutes back that two stories have different
relations to reality, didn't you?

Alpha. The writer can write about his dreams, what the
world could be like. The journalist is writing about reality.

Beta. Yea, Kappa you are right, it is clear that the goals are
different, but the real jobs are so similar, that I go back and
forth... and am going in circles.

Gamma. We are all going in circles, but I got a kind of funny idea
about journalism. It is impossible to write about the present. It is
always about the past, a near past, but still the past.

Beta. Physically. But people do perceive it like it is
happening now... Like it can all be fixed right away.

Alpha. Come on! Fixed!.. Somebody got killed - go fix that!

Gamma. It is always a kind of illusion. However, like Kappa said, it
is a rule of the game, the journalism game. A reader should get the
feeling that action should be taken, that something can be fixed,
that justice must be restored...

Teacher. All right, so let there be another circle. Is
it not the same about fiction?

Alpha. Like in Stargate, ha-ha-ha.

Gamma. Like in Stargate. The difference is that when those fictitious
events substitute real ones and thus, they stand for general ideas,
while in a newspaper it is directly about what it says... All of this
was already said today.

Kappa. Yes, but it is amazing, how differently things look in the
beginning of a discussion and after a while. My first impression was
that fiction and newspaper articles have nothing in common. Then you
start to analyze them. The journalist writes about current events,
but the writer can very well write about these too. The journalist
wants an action to be taken and the writer can desire this too. The
writer organizes his reality so as to engage the public, the
journalist does the same. The writer can turn to the past or future,
the journalist can do the same to make his point. The only real
difference we saw is how the public perceives their writings. If it
is fiction, the public gets involved in fictitious events and feels
easy about them. If it is news, the public gets involved in thinking
about the immediate physical reality... Well, I am asking myself, if
this is really so, and I am in doubt again...

Teacher. All right. I feel this is enough for today.
Thank you all.

To be continued.

Topics to be covered: 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/
***
- - -
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
- - -
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.
- - -
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/php/onlineshop.php
- - -
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
P.O. Box 7202
Reno, NV 89510-7202
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.
- - -








Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page