Re: [ARSCLIST] Virgin Sacrifice

["Schooley, John" <John.Schooley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I fear that copyright laws will exist in the future on paper only, and
be rarely enforced.  Except, of course, by libraries, archives,
universities, and other institutions whom we might hope would attempt to
preserve some of the material.  Due to legal fears, they will stick to
the letter of the law long after the public has abandoned it, and any
efforts to preserve recordings will be severely hampered as a result.

I can't find the link right now, but I read an article recently that
looked at what happens when laws are not repealed or changed, but simply
no longer enforced.  The example they used was...pornography.  There are
still obscenity laws on the books across the country, but the police
aren't breaking down the doors of people who view porn online.
Communities didn't pass laws that said pornography was no longer
prohibited, changes in the culture (and technology) led to the point
where law enforcement just doesn't concern itself with it anymore.  The
same thing has already happened as far as copyright law is concerned.
The RIAA lawsuits, though well-publicized, are few in number, and
totally ineffective compared to the vast amount of file-sharing going
on.

But copyright laws aren't going to be overturned or repealed through any
sort of legal process, people will simply continue to ignore them, and
law enforcement will decide it has more important things to worry about.
Unfortunately, most museums, libraries, and archives will remain
hamstrung by their legal departments and prohibited from making their
collections available online, for example.  So, we will end up with a
situation like we have currently, but worse.  When an interested party
wants to hear a particular recording, if they can't afford to purchase
it (if there are even copies available for purchase) they are better off
breaking the law and downloading it online if they can, rather than
using "legal" methods and trying to access a copy at a library or
archive.  If they try follow the law and avoid any illegal action, it
just ends up being more trouble than it is worth.  To hear the recording
legally, they would have to visit the collection that holds it in person
(perhaps having to fly in from another state), and then could only
listen to it on site.  In most cases they wouldn't even be allowed to
make a copy for themselves.  Or, they could just find it online
somewhere for free.  The public has already decided that this isn't a
tough choice...  

-Schooley
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tom Fine
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2009 5:38 AM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Virgin Sacrifice

Hi Jack:

Your situation is somewhat unique, perhaps so unique that there is not
even a niche market for it in the modern download world. However, you
raise a good point -- all the material that is currently out of print,
sometimes called "long-tail content." I've argued numerous times on this
list and in other forums that all of it should eventually be available
as downloads. There is, however, some cost involved with digitizing old
material and some masters are forever lost. The biggest block, though,
to getting the more obscure stuff online is copyright laws. Stuff stays
copyright in the US far too long, especially if it's out of print. I've
argued that there should be a requirement for copyrights to last beyond
what the rest of the world finds reasonable, that the material should
have to be in print in a common consumer format or the copyright
expires. If you didn't have the copyright laws, much much more variety
of material would be online for legal download, put there by fans and
collectors or a guy willing to sell his amateur transfers for a quarter
or a dime a song. It would be great for consumers because it would
probably drive download prices down, as well as offering a "longer tail"
of obscure sub-genre stuff than is now legally available.

Your point illustrates the main weakness of the current music business
model, and it was also touched on by Mike Biel about record stores in
the years before they all collapsed -- a lack of variety is widely toxic
to the business. It causes a general dissatisfaction among the more
mainstream consumers ("who cares, there's nothing new or interesting
there, just the same old
stuff") and stymies those who want to "go deep in the stacks" and really
learn about a genre or artist. A sure way for a stores buyer traffic to
dry up.

Finally, my point wasn't about unique collections like what yours
obviously was (since you were able to sell it). Hence my sentence about
Black Patty and Shaded Dog disks and McIntosh equipment. My point was
about what most of us have for collections, myself included. Roomfuls of
heavy and mostly worthless stuff, shelves of common records and CD's,
boxes of common and/or not-good-condition 78's, with a subset of a small
amount of the volume that's truly valuable. As time goes on, many of us
will find that even this subset won't raise enough dough for our
survivors to dispose of the mass of dumpster fodder. And I think these
dreams of libraries, universities and archives suddenly springing up to
collect and preserve all this are pipe dreams, given likely economic
conditions and general cultural disinterest in anything "old" going
forward.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jack Palmer" <vdalhart@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 11:59 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Virgin Sacrifice


> Tom,
>    I certainly qualify as an old man.  I'm even older than Mike!  But
even if I was willing to 
> download the music only I could not obtain the artist and the music I
want.  It is only available 
> from old 78s.  Most of it has never been released on CD or even LP.
So where does that leave me? 
> Either look for the old records or forget the music I want to hear?
So my choice is looking for 
> the records.  And I enjoy it.  I have met so many interesting people
and traveled across the 
> entire US looking for the music.  I can't travel anymore due to health
problems but I still check 
> out several mail order lists and on line listings.  I feel I am doubly
blessed.  I get to hear the 
> music and I also have the original artifact that the music was issued
on.  You have to be a record 
> collector (of any age) to know what it is like.   Jack
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Tom Fine" <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 6:41 AM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Virgin Sacrifice
>
>
>> Hi Mike:
>>
>> No offense, but your attitude about downloads shows your age. There
are definitely a few "kids" 
>> who want a houseful of dusty objects, but I respect just as much the
person who is collecting the 
>> MUSIC, not the THING, in which case an iPod full of downloads is more
MUSIC in a more convenient 
>> place than ever existed before. Now if only that music were in full
CD quality or better instead 
>> of lossy-compressed ...
>>
>> Since we can't take either one with us, it might be more merciful on
those we leave behind to 
>> leave a single computer drive and iPod vs. a house of moldy things to
be disposed of. On the 
>> other hand, if it's a house full of minty Black Pattys, Shaded Dogs
and McIntosh amplifiers, 
>> perhaps the survivors will forgive the clutter as the cash rolls in
from selling it! But this 
>> isn't usually the case.  I think there are guys on this list who
appraise giant piles of shellac 
>> and vinyl all the time and will report how worthless many acres of
this stuff is, so mainly it's 
>> a burden on those left behind unless they share the love of the stuff
or own a carting business.
>>
>> As for used bookstores, except for my strange inclination to collect
first edition hardcovers of 
>> certain mainstream books about politics and journalism, I've had much
better luck and saved tons 
>> of money using AbeBooks. So once again, the Internet wins. Aside from
books about music and the 
>> record business, I've stopped buying altogether due to lack of space.
Library trumps wallet 
>> nowadays.
>>
>> -- Tom Fine
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Michael Biel" <mbiel@xxxxxxxxx>
>> To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 1:30 AM
>> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Virgin Sacrifice
>>
>>
>> From: "Tom Fine" <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>> Maybe it's an age thing, but I can't see any reason for physical
stores
>>> for music since Amazon took off. I haven't bought a book or CD from
a
>>> physical store in probably a decade now.
>>
>> To a certain extent that is similar to me, especially when I am home
in
>> Kentucky, far, far away from any record stores with just a small
>> non-discount bookstore in town.  Constantly when something is
discussed
>> in these forums or I otherwise hear about something available, I
check
>> on Amazon and a couple of other places and ZIP, I click and buy.  The
>> problem is not being able to combine shipping in the marketplace
area,
>> which raises the price considerably when buying several things that
the
>> same vendor offers.
>>
>> But that being said, when visiting Leah in NYC we always try to drop
>> into Acadamy Records, Book-Off, Strand Books, and a neat remainder
book
>> place we found in the Village, and we usually leave these places with
>> too many things to carry, so I usually drive there.  Then there are
the
>> special events like the semi- and annual sales at places like the
>> ARChive of Contemporary Music that Leah and I hit this afternoon.  We
>> crawled out with almost 100 one dollar LPs, almost 50 two dollar
>> LaserDiscs, and some 50 cent 78s including two Chaillapin Opera
Discs,
>> Jazz at the Philharmonic Vol 4 on Disc album 504, Artie Shaw plays
Cole
>> Porter on Musicraft album S2, King Cole Trio Capitol album B8 with an
>> extra disc, and Tetrazzini on the vinyl Heritage Series 15-0001, and
>> some other stuff including two Hoffnung books.  (The sale continues
thru
>> Sunday, so if you're in the NYC area you might want to check it out
>> http://www.arcmusic.org  )  And then there's the Jazz Record Bash on
Fri
>> and Sat, and everybody will be there.  And then there's the Antique
>> Phonograph and Record shop in South Jersey we went to last Saturday
>> while in the Phila area and got a couple dozen 78s there.
>>
>> There is nothing like being able to handle and inspect the records,
>> including the ones you don't buy, which can't be done on the internet
>> nor in mail auctions.  While 78 collectors have been using mail
auctions
>> since the 1930s, most of these collectors have also gone thru tens of
>> thousands of records in stores, so they get to know what the details
are
>> in the actual records.  I know I have looked at more than a million
>> records over the years. This is an important learning experience for
>> collectors.  When the rock collectors started having access to mail
>> auctions in the late 70s in Goldmine and other magazines like it, I
>> noticed that the majority of rock collectors had never really gone
thru
>> piles of thousands of records, and usually knew nothing about the
>> records themselves.  Reading the articles in these rock collector
>> magazines, looking at what they mistakenly called "discographies",
and
>> the auction lists themselves, showed how ignorant these rock
collectors
>> were, even the "experts".  All too often they had never looked at any
>> records that were not already in their collection.  They didn't know
>> labels, pressing plant styles, matrix numbers, etc.  Obvious
conterfeits
>> were snapped up like the real things by them if they ventured out to
a
>> record show.
>>
>>
>>> And downloads trump even that because not only are they convenient,
>>> they are near-instant gratification.  Now if only full 44.1/16-bit
>>> downloads would go down to 99 cents or less per song and be
>>> commonplace, we'd finally be at a reasonable "new paradigm."
>>
>> So if these "collectors" now stick to just downloading things, that
>> might leave the real artifacts for us real collectors. I'm not
>> interested in paying for vapor, which is all a download is.  We did
use
>> some free streams as source for some of the music in Leah's
documentary
>> because most of the music was added while I was in New York and my
>> records were in Kentucky.  I do buy plenty of CD reissues of 78s, so
I
>> am not a purist who insists on having the 78 even if it is impossibly
>> rare.  But if the reissue is on a CD or a download, I will go for the
>> CD.  You are not a record collector if you go for the download.  (In
>> Leah's documentary, Kurt Nauck discusses the difference between music
>> lovers who just want to listen to the music, and record collectors
who
>> want the record and also might listen to the record.)
>>
>> Mike Biel   mbiel@xxxxxxxxx
>>
>