________________________________
 From: Mason Vander Lugt <ma




________________________________
From: Mason Vander Lugt <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tuesday, July 2, 2013 1:27 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Folk Music in America


To bring this back to an earlier point, I don't blame libraries and archives
for embracing new media, but it does leave decades of recordings painfully
unavailable to the margin for whom they're interesting and important.

I wish that all of the original LP reissue labels' back-catalogs were on
Itunes and Amazon too (and congrats/thanks to Folkways, County, Yazoo, etc.
who have done so), but there comes a point that you have to stop wishing and
start doing. I'm not going to say MP3 blogging will solve everything, but
it's sure more accessible than private collections or ILL (most libraries
won't lend sound recordings).

I've been hesitant to suggest this on this list because I know some people
aired concerns over my decision to scan and distribute my copies of "Record
Research" magazine, but FMiA has had a fairly positive reception, so here
goes: If any of you have recordings (78 or LP), or small books or magazines
that you think should be available, but are out of print / off-market, email
me off-list and we can talk about getting them online. I have all the time
in the world, but few resources, and think that the reward is worth the risk
and effort.

******************
I have often wondered that if it were not for the complexities of the copyrights on recordings, google would have initiated a project similar to their digitization of books.

There are plenty of folks digitizing 78s and LPs and making them available online. They do this through many of the email lists. I submit plenty of air checks to symphonyshare, concertarchive and operashare. There are many other lists with people all over the world digitizing commercial, out of print recordings, as well as in house and broadcast materials. Most of it is done illegally. You upload to a file server outside the US and then post the URL to a list hosted outside the US, but distributed to anyone. Many posters believe if it is 50+ years old, the recording is PD...which can be true in places like Canada...and pre 1961 or so in the EU.  Sure, some of the transfers are lousy. Then, there are plenty of commercial recordings (still in print) posted to places like Youtube, etc. But I would assume most of you folks know that. Again, it just seems irrational to me to have laws which cannot and are not enforced. And then we have companies like
 Pristine that have releases which are dubs of commercial discs which are out of copyright outside the US...and sold to US customers.

My label is distributed by Naxos. I point out, to the Naxos legal guy, many illegal uploads to Youtube. He didn't seem interested...

There are those manufacturers who care and believe it is worth their time to track down the "pirates" and then there are those who don't care. 

Recommended reading...excellent reports

http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/reports/pub144

http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/reports/pub133

Karl