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All Your Music are Belong To Us - The Digital Music Overlords

Posted on May 29, 2007
Filed Under Digital Music |

Let’s get something straight. Just because someone writes a music track, shouldn’t mean that some faceless organisation in another part of the world can decide what I do with the rights on this track. And if the law allows this then something is seriously screwed up (hint: follow the money, because it is). This has been something that’s been bubbling away in my head for a while, with all the machinations of the RIAA and SoundExchange in the USA, the dealings I’m having with PPL in the UK, and finally, this article on Slashdot.

A decision in Tokyo District Court could have implications in Japan for online services that let users store files, if any music files are involved. The court case pitted JASRAC, the Japanese organization that collects fees for public music performances, against Image City, whose MYUTA service lets users employ a central server to store songs from their own CDs, to play on their own phones. The Tokyo District Court handed down a ruling declaring Image City guilty of copyright infringement (Google translation). Despite the music being stored strictly for personal use, the ruling reasoned that the act of uploading music to a central server owned by a company is the equivalent of distributing music to that company.

Rockstar Ate My Hamster, Codies, ZX Spectrum

Let’s all remember just exactly what copyright is. It is the right for the creator of an artistic piece of work to decide who may receive a copy of his or her work. In exchange for this protection from The State, at the end of a period of time, the work will become freely available. My problem with having central collection agencies is that they are slowly decrying that they control ‘all music’ because, from their ivory towers, they are the only solution to getting recompense from your musical work - and the only recompense they understand is financial. And that means they want a cut.

So if I’m doing something with music (for example a Rock music podcast), how long until they decide that I need to cough up for the tracks I play, even though the artists aren’t members of their organisations, even though they have explicitly given me permission, even though I’m providing more benefit in listeners ears than the 0.0005p I’m expected to pay per listener.

And if you think that’s outlandish, then I’d point out that UK radio already collects this way. There’s no method for me to point out that for the two hours a day that an ‘unsigned bands’ music show is on Leith FM (watch teh schedules, it’s coming!) none of these artists are with PPL or MCPS. Doesn’t matter. We’ll still pay them for airing those tracks, and for streaming those tracks. It’s as close to piracy and ‘money with menaces’ as a three-bladed Gillette razor.

If I was a cynical man, I’d say that these compulsory licences (especially their application in the US, the UK and Europe) will lead to millions of garage bands, , net radio broadcasters, podcasters and Internet Media Makers (Look I’m trying not to say people behind UGC, okay?) having all their avenues of finding new music and distributing new music curtailed financially. Leaving the game open to just a handful of companies that probably also own the music publisher firms.

I must be a fool and a communist…

Comments

3 Responses to “All Your Music are Belong To Us - The Digital Music Overlords”

  1. Dean on May 30th, 2007 9:22

    This is a necessarily paranoid and timely article. Rights reside and must with the originator and the creator. It’s a nonsense to draw up laws which grant rights de facto to any organisation- it’s quite another thing if you/me/we as rights holders DECIDE to transfer our rights to collection agencies in order to make money from the process. I should be allowed to determine that any or all of my work remains free in perpetuity, if that’s what I want. The creation of such a system would amount to Kleptophonia and should be resisted.

  2. Dean on May 30th, 2007 9:24

    .. that should be “rights reside and musy REMAIN…”

    Thank you and bless you, Ewan.

  3. Dean on May 30th, 2007 9:24

    Your comments box is making mistakes on my behalf.

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