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About cconsaulI am a semi-retired Folksinger, Full time retired Army Bandsman, Full time music teacher, and song writer by trade. All that other stuff just supports my habit. I am older than dirt and twice as crusty, and determined not to let the big bullies at the RIAA tell my little songs where they can go to play. I fully intend to be famous approximately one hundred years after I die, and am not much interested in moving that time table up. You can find my little folk songs courtesy of the good folks at Soundclick.com |
I got nothing against commercials
Let Me Go One Step Further
Education is under an unfair yoke when it comes to copyright and considering the fact that we are grooming the next generation of consumers, the publishers and distributors are really shooting themselves in the foot by holding us to this onerous standard. Literary content, and especially songs should be considered fair use for educational purposes; period! I know that this would mean a revision of the whole textbook industry, but the textbook industry is doomed anyway, unless they get up off of their bloated carcasses and produce affordable content for schools. Universities and Colleges across the country are adapting digital textbooks, and in many cases are writing their own because the existing product is too expensive, has a hidden ideological, political, or cultural agenda, and has to be replaced entirely too often to keep up with current trends.
Anyone should have a right to be paid for their labor if they want that pay, I wholeheartedly agree. How about the small fish in this very large ocean who are content to share our content with other teachers. I was actually removed from a site because the RIAA determined that I had to be protected against myself whether I wanted to be or not. I currently share over four hundred piece of sheet music on http://www.sheetmusicdigital.com/charlesconsaul.asp and over a hundred original MP3 files (and one parody) on Songclick.com (just look under Charles Consaul) and no one charges anyone a cent for any of this content because I could not sell it to save my life! It is also more important for me to get this material out where it can be used, just as I look for every scrap of material I can get to supplement my student's supply of useful material to use in my classroom. I spend two hundred dollars a month to get published content and that is not enough. By extending copyright, we are extending the amount of time a publishing and distribution company has to use the same content over and over again with a minimal to zero amount of innovation. We are also stifling the genes of creativity for the poor sons and daughters of the composers, lyricists, and authors who created this content in the first place. So, how does that help us to be more creative and keep up with the rest of the world?
When a DVD movie is less expensive than the CD, Something's Wrong!
I can still get used CDs for a reasonable price, and I can always support local artists who don't have porcine distributors inserting themselves noisily between my wallet and their feeding trough. I would be quite happy to support a business model where I pay the artist's royalty directly. Goodness knows the distributor never bothers to. What artists get percentage wise for downloads as compared to CD sales is shameful and that's not even addressing the fact that the legitimate download is usually recorded at a much lower rate than the average fan mp3 / ogg / ect.
Hasn't anybody heard of Citizen Band Radios?
There are even those who can text without looking at the screen! There are also those who can't drive safely at fifteen miles an hour with blinders on! For unsafe drivers there are already laws on the books, for safe drivers who are offended by the trampling of their first amendment rights by those who just want to take the easy way out, (they may not want to pay to put in new "No Cell Phones In School Zones" signs) there are class action lawsuits similar to the ones that were brought against communities that tried to ban CB's when they first became popular. A few people will get very very rich and the rest of us will get one more lesson in why we should never pass one extra law, simply because every law diminishes the effect of all other laws and makes people question why they follow laws at all!
The Guthrie Estate Tried This With Jib Jab
So there is another danger here. Not only does all of this spurious litigation dilute the so called protections of copyright (protect the distributors and retailers and the heck with the poor schmuck who wrote it!) the litigants might actually find out that their precious creative work is no longer under copyright at all. You might even say that Jib Jab proved once and for all time that "This song was made for you and me!"
Was a great high wall there
That tried to stop my
A great big sign said
"Private Property"
But on the other side
It didn't say nuthin'
Except, This land is made for you and me!
Woodie Guthrie
They never put this verse in the text books. I wonder why?"
A Word About Congress
So, who is the author, what is the oath, and since this is the second time it was changed without the Author's or the Authors estate's permission, what was the first time? Incidentally, the author objected the first time and the Estate also filed a complaint, to no avail! So much for Democracy in action, so much for the separation of Church and State, and so much for the Federal Government following the same copyright law they put on the books in the first place!
So The Leprachaun wants all of the gold at the end of the rainbow
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