For what it's worth, there are all manner of one-person private podcasts of music out there. It may
be in violation of something but I haven't read about anyone going after anyone. Probably not worth
the lawyer bills for the tiny sums likely to be bled out of these folks. I think if one did a
podcast with commercials, that's a different matter. Now, all that said, as much as I've wanted to
do my own weekly cast, just to spotlight and share interesting items in my collection, I do not due
to fear of being sued or hit with a giant ASCAP/BMI bill.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message -----
From: "steven c" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 5:27 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] DVD audio level


> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Podcasting has increased the amount of audio and video content produced
> daily
>> by at least an order of magnitude. I'm even considering starting my own
>> podcast. However it would be like adding water to the ocean. Archiving it
> all seems
>> impossible. What fragments of it will survive to form the future's picture
> of
>> us?
>>
> First, creating your own podcast at least allows you to decide what
> KIND of water you want in your particular corner of the ocean! Assume
> that about 99% of the available podcasts are:
> 1) Current hit tunes (posted illegally, of course)
> 2) Current radio-station programs (great...IF you like their music
> choices...)
> 3) Promotional podcasts created by bands/artists who can't get airplay but
> want to make their material available to the public (which means you can
> find out WHY they can't get airplay...?!)
>
> So, what is being done is the archiving and re-archiving of the same
> 1% or so of (usually popular) music. Worse yet, if you've ever suffered
> through a significant amount of current pop music, you can well imagine
> the distorted picture the future will have of us! However, since most
> interest in "old days" popular music (and classical performances,
> since the same pieces seem to make up the vast majority of recorded
> material, with only the performers changing) is based on nostalgia...
> and nostalgia doesn't and can't outlast the human lifespan...we can
> safely assume that most of the future population will be totally
> UNinterested in our music (except for a tiny group of musicologists,
> discographers [what do we call them once sound recordings are no
> longer round objects?!] and oddball folks who actually ENJOY the
> music of a long-vanished past!). As well, given current trends,
> there exists a possibility that we will only be survived by
> radioactive cockroaches and/or extraterrestrial aliens!
>
> In any case, since you live in the good ol' US of A, you can't
> put any (well, 99.9% of any) favourite sound recordings onto a
> net-available podcast without paying an arm, two legs and your
> first-born offspring to RRIA! Oh, you can wait until 2067 (by
> which time they will have further lengthened the term of their
> copyrights...!)
>
> Steven C. Barr