see end...WAY down there!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Biel" <[log in to unmask]>
> From: "Schooley, John" <[log in to unmask]>
>> I fear that copyright laws will exist in the future on paper only,
>> and be rarely enforced.
> There is a basic misunderstanding here about WHO enforces the law. The
> police, FBI, prosecutors, and other "arms-of-the-law" do not enforce the
> law. The courts do. The copyright holders do. The copyright law does
> not give any enforcement powers to legal authorities, only the right of
> those who have had their rights violated to take the case to court.
>> 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 looked at what happens when laws are not repealed or changed, but simply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.
> You are comparing apples and oranges. The obscenity laws are COMPLETLY
> DIFFERENT TYPES OF LAWS from copyright laws. The POLICE NEVER enforced
> copyright laws. This argument is completely misleading.
>> 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,
> The RIAA on its own initiative stopped initiating the mass suits over a
> year ago, that's why you aren't hearing about them. But I think the
> figure of the number of suits they "settled out of court" was around
> 35,000. Only 3 or 4 were ever taken to court.
>> and totally ineffective compared to the vast amount of file-sharing
>> going on.
> Oh really. Have you noticed that all the major file sharing sites are
> either closed or charging?
>> But copyright laws aren't going to be overturned or repealed through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.
> Law enforcement doesn't decide. It is not an episode of Cops where they
> are the ones who initiate the investigations and arrests. The industry
> does. As long as there are willing starlets in Hollywood and
> congressional staffs willing to sleep with them, the MPAA and by
> extension the RIAA will have control over our copyright laws. I am
> being sarcastic here, but as was discussed at the copyright committee
> session at ARSC, the industry spends MILLIONS OF DOLLARS lobbying
> Congress.
> But we ARE fighting back. ARSC now has a lobbyist. The laws won't just
> go away, we have to WORK at it -- pay attention to the ARSC Copyright
> Committee web page, I mean it, PAY ATTENTIION TO THAT PAGE -- and back
> up what is being accomplished. Everyone who has been commenting on this
> should have been at the meeting. When the audio of that meeting goes on
> line, LISTEN TO IT.
>> Unfortunately, most museums, libraries, and archives will remain
>> hamstrung by their legal departments and prohibited from making
>> their collections available online, for example.
> This IS changing. One thing that was not discussed at that meeting but
> was revealed the day before during the tour of the National AV Center at
> Culpepper, is that the record industry has another trick up its sleeve.
> They are about to silence most of our bitching by goosing up the
> statistics of the percentages of ancient recordings available from the
> rights holders.
> Roger Kulp wrote:
>>> A sizeable chunk of,if not most rock,jazz,R&B,country,and
>>> 78 era classical has been issued on CD somewhere at one point
>>> in time in the past 25 years or so.Most of it on small vanity
>>> labels,in limited distribution and quantity.
> ARSC did a study of the percentages on a decade-by-decade basis of what
> is available from the rights holders and what is available from the
> labels Roger describes. The numbers of both were low, but the numbers
> from the rights holders was almost invisible. The point iws not to be
> happy with that status quo but to show that the rights holders have not
> done right by their heritage, and that the work that has been STARTED by
> those other labels is important and must now be legalized in the U.S.
> But read on:
> Sony has given permission -- and is sponsoring the effort -- to LC to
> digitize AND FREELY STREAM TEN THOUSAND ACOUSTICAL RECORDINGS THEY
> CONTROL, which includes Victor and Columbia. The transfers are about to
> begin, the first thousand recordings have already been selected, and at
> least these (if not the full ten thousand) will be on-line by the end of
> the year. The transfers of the discs will be quickly done -- only a
> minor amount of time will be spent selecting styli and adjusting speed
> -- but the discs will still be there to be re-transferred if there is
> real need. While our group was stammering open-mouthed at the
> announcement, I turned to Tim Brooks who happened to be standing right
> behind me, and whispered a question "This is to buy us off and stop our
> complaints, isn't it?" and he gave a knowing nod.
> It is becoming evident that Congress did not know that they had
> restricted rights to the early recordings. This has been a surprise to
> every legislator who has been told. They had no idea that there were
> restrictions to pre-rock recordings because all they were told was about
> rock records and Mickey Mouse. As they have been informed one-by-one of
> problem by our lobbyist, there now IS a chance that the law will be
> changed. As I said, READ THE ARSC COPYRIGHT COMMITTEE PAGE and follow
> the links. Is that too much to ask?
> Yes the situation reprinted below is the current situation, but it is
> hopefully about to change if we help and support the movements that ARSC
> and their allied organizations are working towards.
> Mike Biel [log in to unmask]
>
So far, anyway, as a Canadian I can/could put about 99% of my vast shellac
archive on CD...or, probably, on the Internet(?)...since anything recorded
on
or before December 31, 1958 is Public Domain up here, thanks to Canada's
current 50-year copyright term on sound recordings! I'm not sure if CRIA is
intending to try and change this or not...but this is why so many reissue
CD's
come from nominally-Canadian companies...?!
Steven C. Barr
|