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Wired Releases Creative Commons Sampling CD
An anonymous reader writes "In this month's issue of Wired Magazine, there is an included CD featuring songs from The Beastie Boys, David Byrne, among others. The unique thing about the CD is that all of the tracks are released under Creative Commons Licences, making them legal to share."
Music, photos and film/video footage gain value the more they're heard or seen; they can't be diluted or depleted like physical property. Ultimately artists who approve sharing and sampling of their work will sell more music. Free downloading has worked well for us, a historical film archive, and led to more business. See http://www.archive.org/movies/prelinger.php.
The evolution of The Beastie Boys' consciousness is truly amazing, almost unbelievable. Their last album silently installed DRM code and now it is released under a Creative Commons Licence for everyone to share! Isn't it wonderful that there are people who really can listen to our community and adapt to the information era instead of trying to halt the progress like the RIAA? This CD will be a perfect Christmas gift for anyone who doesn't realize that not every rights are "reserved" and that copying and sharing is not inherently illegal. Anyone got a torrent link?
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
It's a simple acknowledgement that one size does not fit all.
In fact, by assembling a variety of licence options under one roof and explaining the options in a consistant and coherant way (and with comics), they go a long way to helping people really understand the issues.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Do these songs have samples? If that's the case, I would think it safe to assume that the owners of the original works being sampled have extended usage rights only to these artists. Beastie Boys, et al would most likely not have a legal right to extend sampling rights. And since it would be difficult to impossible to say, 'you can sample this and this part of the song, but not this part," they have to deny sampling of the entire work
Honestly...
Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
Yeah, I've got mixed feelings on the B-Boys. I have been a longtime fan, spent a -shitload- of money on their CD's, and the DRM on their last one was a huge slap in the face. So my B-Boy CD collection is complete, except for their latest. Unless something changes drastically, I won't be buying any more of their stuff.
For a band with "'tude", who are built their little empire on "rhymin' and stealin'", releasing a DRM'd CD, then telling their fans, "it's not us, dude, get over it" was the height of hypocrisy.
Yeah, I'm a little bitter.
It's going to take more than a little publicity stunt like this to make up for what they did, releasing one track under a non-commercial-only sampling license is a pretty weak apology.
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
i.e just like John Carmack and the Doom source (the music in that game's case), they
can't give you sampling rights because they licensed them themselves...
Sorry, but the commercial world, she's a bitch.
From the corporate perspective, the Hollywood studios are starting off from a stronger position than the music industry, though. CDs were always easy to copy analog, but most DVD players will MacroVision scramble (possibly multiplied with other copy proteciton systems) a program so that the everyday consumer cannot copy it. Yes, there are hacks for these protections and codecs for pulling off the Mpeg-2 video into a DVD+/-R-friendly format. But it's not as easy as making a tape off an album was.
But it can't last. With digital television and broader-band internet (e.g., WiMax) coming, something is going to have to give. Mandating chips into players and burners only can go so far. It cannot last forever against the democratic marketplace of Open Source and Creative Commons economics.
But it will take time, and pain. For music, it's proving to be not as painful as it might have been for the musicians, though the tassled-loafer boys living in Bel Air might be feeling the pinch. But with movies, a lot more people are involved in each project. And what this spells for the big movie, I don't know. (If the blockbusters go, no real loss, some would say.)
We are in a time of upheaval, and one of the biggest sectors of our economy -- entertainment -- is going to be pretty much unrecognizable to our soon-to-be-outdated perspective in just a few years.
media girl
Well, before the phonograph, musicians had to *gasp* PERFORM to make money. Then came a sort of golden age, where you could theoretically make a few records, then sit on your ass and watch the money roll in.
Now it seems like that golden age is coming to an end, forcing artists who can't perform live out of business. A good development, IMHO.
Meep.
release songs under the CC, when they couldn't even release their last album without a bunch of DRM?
.us and .uk (IIRC) have the copy protection on it. I'm not saying that the copy protection was a good thing, but it's not as if the group sat down and decided to use it, it was forced on them.
According to their statement, all of the albums released by their label outside of
Plus, they're listing theirs under the 'Noncommercial Sampling Plus: Songs under this license allow noncommerical sharing and noncommercial sampling' which is fine and good for them; I'd be curious to know how many songs they've 'bitten' over the years that never got attributed.
I don't know for sure, but it may be that songs on the album use samples whose license forbids resampling.
Just a guess.
He's not complaining but he is pointing to a significant (and to me surprising) note of hypocrisy coming from people who should know better. Perhaps they have pressure from other sources (record companies, lawyers) that prevented them from allowing sampling but it does seem really strange that of all people the Beasties and Chuck D would prevent it. Chuck D defended Napster back in the twentieth century, has released music under way less restrictive terms, and built his career on sampling (as did the Beasties).