ContentSphere - Music & Media in an Online Culture

Dear all,

holding the role of the curator of Forum I (“Collection Societies & Rights Management”), on behalf of all2gethernow e.V., I’d sincerely like to invite you to take part in our press conference in Berlin on 1st Sept. respectively alert you to Berlin’s upcoming




Due to the fact that the invitation for the press conference mainly addresses German visitors, I’d like to forward you to the event’s website for more information.

Basic facts for press conference:




Please register for participation at presse@a-2-n.de.


The programme will be online shortly. In Germany, you can get a copy of the printed version with Berlin magazine “Tip” on 2 Sept.

Don’t forget to join our community/wiki where you are able to suggest your own topics and discuss prepared sessions – even if you won’t be able to participate in person.

Tickets (at prices unbelievably low I might say) are available on the ticket sales page.


Thanks for your attention – and I’m looking forward to see you in Berlin. If you’re coming to all2gethernow don’t hesitate to contact me.


Cheers

Wolfgang Senges

Deutscher Artikel: Siehe “Der Tagesspiegel” vom 26.07.2009. Continue reading "Die gute Tat der Piraten - von Kolja Reichert" »

I don’t know whether this one has hit US shores already - or if there is any other country that knows about it. But there’s something going on in Germany.

Again, it’s about licensing. We already had our share of GEMA within the past few weeks (see Rapidshare and Jamendo). Read about it at ContentSphere, or do it over at TechDirt. GEMA, Germany’s only collections society, still is surprisingly entertaining (if you’re into cynism).

But, there’s some uprising fresh breeze, and it’s coming from Germany’s most southward located town: Sonthofen.
Continue reading "Germany's GEMA: Resistance is (not) futile" »

[Deutsche Version] Andrew Dubber just recently pitched a topic to Popkomm - "Music As Culture". If you read the outline of this hopefully upcoming speech at New Music Strategies, you might recognise a bit of Lawrence Lessig's "Free Culture".

Dubber is absolutely right in labeling it "important" and "urgent".

We've seen the USA extending copyright terms, and European countries suggesting to do so. Just yesterday, the European parliament in a first reading voted in favour of a prolongation by extending the copyright term from 50 to 70 years. I mentioned it before - this definitely does harm to culture. Strict legislation and overly harsh fines result in a "permission culture", as Lessig puts it.

Internet Means Creativity

Point is, we must embrace the very fact that culture lives within the internet. The web advances culture. These are the new tools. As often, lobbyism for the old paradigm tries to build shrines for technologies while understanding and sensibly implementing the new would yield better results and stimulate the market. Actually, the market, which means culture, right now is strangled. And it's not The Pirate Bay that does. It is the collective understanding of today's society of terms as "intellectual property", "piracy", and "lost sales".

Continue reading "Popkomm's arising: Dubber - Music, Culture, and..." »

On another note, Michael Masnick had me checking out Richard Smith’s article on the issue of extending copyright. Richard Smith from London’s Guardian features the book "Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind" (free download under CreativeCommons license) by James Boyle, professor of law at Duke Law School, North Carolina. The books’ core statement is that "the world has made a colossal cultural mistake that shames our generation". No question you wonder which mistake Boyle is talking about. It is the USA’s recent decision to extend copyright "to life plus 70 years". Many artists may be puzzled about this… why moan? Hey, that’s great! Our property finally gets protected. Cost is: Our culture gets locked. By backdating the law to 1923 "virtually all 20th century cultural objects are locked up".

Culture needs to develop upon the culture before. It is the same point Lawrence Lessig made when writing "Free Culture" (free download under CreativeCommons license). Now, Europe is about to decide the same way.