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What Counts as Music and Why?
The Importance of writes "There has been much discussion about compulsory licensing schemes. Most of the debate has been about music. But what happens when any file can easily be converted into a sound file and back again? Can shareware authors convert their software to digital music and get paid for sharing it? Can pornographers get paid for turning images into sound? Scott Matthews has written a program (Ka-Blamo) that does the conversion. LawMeme looks at some of the issues. This raises the question, what should count as music and why?"
If he can convert the new Metallica album into music, I'll be impressed.
I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
Yes, but just remember, it's not the size of the song that counts. Even a short song like this could deeply penetrate P2P networks.
Perhaps it has to sound different if played backwards to be music?
Nowadays that's an outlawd technique. Decrypting satanic messages by playing tracks backwards is prohibited by the DMCA (Demonic Message Comprehension Act).
Wow, I think obfuscated code is pretty 1337 now (e.g. Perl code in the shape of a camel), but I'll be seriously impressed when someone writes a "Hello, World" program that converts to an audio file of them saying "Hello, World." Any takers? :)
Cheers,
IT
Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.
Boy bands aren't musically talented, so they're music must be free! ... Wait, that doesn't help us at all!
"I only speak the truth"
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