ContentSphere - Music & Media in an Online Culture

[Deutsche Version] I guess I won’t have to comment much on this one. Just imagine this scenario: Warner Music on YouTube finds a presentation Lawrence Lessig did. Warner Music demands Lawrence Lessig to take down the video of his own presentation.

No April fool’s joke, no misinformation, no fiction. They have done so. And of course, Lessig stands up against.

There is no better way to put it than Michael Masnick did on TechDirt...








Continue reading "Warner's got a brilliant idea - sending a DMCA..." »

After publishing the most recent article on Dubber's pitch for Popkomm, I once more browsed Lawrence Lessig's "Free Culture" (Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 1.0 Generic License). Actually, I happened to find a metaphor he used that perfectly fits my comment on ContentSphere which I'd like you to think about (see "Free Culture", p. 211-212 (both Penguin paperback and PDF editions):






Continue reading "Lawrence Lessig: An Endangered Species Called..." »

[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..." »

[UPDATE: This article is linked and commented by Michael Masnick on TechDirt].

Sorry if I'm a bit late on this one, but I've taken some days off. However, this one is by far too barefaced to be believed. I'm afraid it's no April fools' joke.

You will remember my article on music distribution platform Jamendo going with Creative Commons. Today, I just read news from a week ago that they are about to integrate a new search tool. It supports promoters, agencies, movie makers and game manufacturers by providing search categories like mood, occasion, genre and language.

Artists participating in Jamendo's distribution model can opt-in for Jamendo PRO. Business customers of Jamendo who would like to make commercial use of tracks offered can purchase licenses within Jamendo PRO. This differs from private customers who may download everything for free. Most importantly, it's an additional source of revenue for artists (and Jamendo) that adds to income from ads.

The new tool helps business people interested in searching for the right music - instead of thoroughly relying on communication and recommendation via Jamendo. Any process like this is destined to be too time consuming.

... and then there's GEMA, Germany's collecting institution.

Continue reading "GEMA vs. Jamendo et al. - Get Money for Nothing" »

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.