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The Grateful Dead vs. Archive.org

An anonymous reader writes "E! Online has an article about friction between archive.org and the surviving members of the Grateful Dead. They have come to an amicable understanding after some confusion involving online bootlegs." From the article: "A week after some of the surviving members of the Grateful Dead ordered a nonprofit site to remove free downloads of the seminal jam band's concerts--sparking massive online backlash and a Deadhead petition calling for a boycott of all band-related merchandise--the band has reversed its position. 'The Grateful Dead remains as it always has--in favor of tape trading,' spokesman Dennis McNally tells the Associated Press. "

23 of 395 comments (clear)

  1. Surprisingly large protest by PurifyYourMind · · Score: 5, Informative

    Fans pissed off at the merchanise type people put up a petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/. Theirs is one of the largest petitions on the site.

  2. Not quite reversed by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Informative

    From boingboing (where I saw this initially) comes the following:

    He said the band consented to making audience recordings available for download again, although live recordings made directly from concert soundboards, which are the legal property of the Grateful Dead, should only be made available for listening from now on.

    They are not reopening it back up fully. They are removing something which was granted to them earlier.

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
  3. Quotes from the band by rsidd · · Score: 4, Informative
    Phil Lesh (bassist) was not consulted about the takedown.

    John Perry Barlow (lyricist, but he has other claims to fame outside the Dead) was not happy. In this story he blames it on the drummers (Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann). The NYT quoted him as having had a "pretty heated discussion" with Weir, guitarist and his songwriting partner. Robert Hunter (Jerry Garcia's lyricist) was reportedly not happy either but is silent.

    I'm just disappointed, that's all.

    1. Re:Quotes from the band by JabberWokky · · Score: 4, Informative
      The drummer is the least significant component of any rock band. How these guys managed to call the tune is beyfond me. Just sit at the back and bash the pads, would you

      You are clearly not a Grateful Dead fan... or at least have not listened to the long jam sessions in their live shows. The reason they have two drummers is because they are real percussionists -- rather than being in the band because they were "Nick's friend who owns a kit". The two of them work together and do some very spacey and complex stuff.

      Unlike in most bands, the bassist doesn't simply repeat six notes and the drummers not only actually work hard, they use more than just the one drum kit in one song (another reason for two drummers -- so one can keep the beat while the other is running to a new instrument). Much of the quality that people like about the Dead is the fact that the underlying music is complex and slowly rotates across a long jam.

      --
      Evan

      --
      "$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
    2. Re:Quotes from the band by freshman_a · · Score: 2, Informative


      The drummer is the least significant component of any rock band.

      Uh...

      Tommy Lee?
      Lars Ulrich?
      Mick Fleetwood?
      John Bonham?
      Alex Van Halen?

      Better let those guys know they weren't/aren't significant. So, how much rock music do you listen to?

  4. SUMMARY by GreyPoopon · · Score: 4, Informative
    In summary:

    Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann were greedy because they felt the 50,000,000 per year that the band earned while Jerry Garcia was alive just wasn't enough to retire on. They threw a tantrum. Archive.org attempted to do what they though the Dead wanted and removed all the music.

    John Perry Barlow, Phil Lesh and others disagreed, holding true to Garcia's attitude about trading. Live-recorded music (by fans) is restored to Archive.org; studio recordings are not.

    Deadheads are freaking out and suffering from disillusionment. The question of whether the more pristine studio recordings should be allowed is not yet answered.

    --

    GreyPoopon
    --
    Why is it I can write insightful comments but can't come up with a clever signature?

    1. Re:SUMMARY by BushCheney08 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Close. My understanding is that it's the soundboard recordings of concerts that are still being disallowed. Obviously, studio recordings wouldn't be allowed anyway under copyright law.

      --
      Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
    2. Re:SUMMARY by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 3, Informative

      Even closer, soundboard recordings are to be available, but in streaming format only.

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
  5. Re:Forgetting the most basic right: property[OT] by dada21 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Many of our federal drug laws were founded on discrimination and collusion with the medical boards and prescription narcotic companies. I've researched the enumerated federal powers and nowhere in the Constitution do I see any allotment for the Congress to control, regulate, criminalize or even define drug use. The 9th and 10th Amendments are very clear that the right to use drugs is protected and within the individual States or the People to control.

    Illinois could criminalize drugs, but the federal government absolutely cannot. The use of force by the feds to criminalize non-violent drug use is treason and worthy of the ultimate penalty for those enforcing these unconstitutional laws.

    I do not use drugs of any kind, FWIW.

  6. Jerry wanted the music to be free... by digitaldc · · Score: 5, Informative

    "once we're done with [the music], you can have it." - Jerry Garcia
    Bassist Phil Lesh echoed that sentiment--quoting Garcia in an interview with Charlie Rose on CBS's 60 Minutes in 2004: "Jerry put it the best, as he frequently did, 'Let 'em have it. When we play it, we're done with it."

    from: http://www.archive.org/iathreads/post-view.php?id= 49496

    The Dead also released a disclaimer about their live music:
    MP3 STATEMENT TO MP3 SITE OPERATORS
    The Grateful Dead and our managing organizations have long encouraged the purely non-commercial exchange of music taped at our concerts and those of our individual members. That a new medium of distribution has arisen - digital audio files being traded over the Internet - does not change our policy in this regard.
    Our stipulations regarding digital distribution are merely extensions of those long-standing principles and they are as follows:
    No commercial gain may be sought by websites offering digital files of our music, whether through advertising, exploiting databases compiled from their traffic, or any other means.
    All participants in such digital exchange acknowledge and respect the copyrights of the performers, writers and publishers of the music.
    This notice should be clearly posted on all sites engaged in this activity.
    We reserve the ability to withdraw our sanction of non-commercial digital music should circumstances arise that compromise our ability to protect and steward the integrity of our work.

    Jerry Garcia did not care about people taping or downloading their music, he thought any live show could be shared and traded by anyone for their personal use, but not to copy and sell for profit. I would think the rest of the band would respect his wishes. Long live Jerry.
    http://www.people4peace.net/pix/people4peace/jerry -garcia.jpg

    --
    He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
    1. Re:Jerry wanted the music to be free... by digitaldc · · Score: 3, Informative

      Phil and Jerry tend to think alike, I am not so sure about the rest of the band.

      It's a shame it only took 10 years for the rest of the band to start squabbling about downloading their music. They are all very wealthy and probably get many things for free from their beloved fans, so why not return the favour?

      On a side note, I have many Dead bootlegs, but I have actually purchased Dick's Picks in order to help support the band, and to get an undoubtedly clean copy direct from the master tapes.
      If anyone is curious: http://stores.musictoday.com/store/dept.asp?band_i d=171&dept_id=1541&sfid=7

      --
      He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
  7. Re:Forgetting the most basic right: property by dada21 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Physical objects are all that property is about: your body, your car, your land, your house. I don't see how anything non-physical can be considered property. The short term monopoly encourages manipulation of the power that forces that monopoly, it does not encourage creation.

    As for the PCM data recorder on VHS, the hardware to extract it will not be cheap. I messed with these devices in the 80s as a cheap data backup for the PC:

    http://www.merlineng.com/ME-981_991.html

    http://www.gracey.com/descriptions/teac-5000-d1.ht m

  8. Long live bt.etree.org! by just_another_sean · · Score: 2, Informative

    If they don't have it archive try bt.etree.org, The Traders Den or FurthurNET. You may even get to talk to some cool chicks or hoopy froods... :-)

    --
    Creationist Textbook Stickers Declared Unconstitutional by CowboyNeal
  9. Re:What? by li99sh79 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Not true, the Dead never said anything about trading recordings of their shows, that was still kosher. What they yanked was the ability to go to a single resource, archive.org, and download a copy. bt's were still viable, as were regular old snail-mail trades/B&P's. Now, to the best of my knowledge, you can still trade the sbd's, you just can't download from archive.

    It's not really that big a deal since there are plenty of bands that allow taping but don't allow their shows to be hosted on archive.org (phish, DMB, ABB to name a few).

    -sam
    --
    I was just here, where did I go?
  10. Re:Let them eat Stream by goober · · Score: 3, Informative
    I don't understand the difference between the recordings being available only as streams, and for downloading.

    The recordings that are no longer available were lossless. The streams are lossy.

  11. Re:WWJD by 91degrees · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yes. It turned out Copyright hadn't been renewed (and that was a requirement at the time), so it had been public domain since the 1970's.

  12. Re:Ahh dammit by dsgitl · · Score: 2, Informative
    Oh whatever. I can't think of a band's music that is easier to collect over the Internet than the Grateful Dead. Any torrent site is teeming with GD shows (just look at bt.etree.org), and there are GD-specific sites, and every other trader on a site like etree.org has hundreds of GD shows.

    I find the GD complaints to be a bit much. The Internet Archive was probably not meant to be a Grateful Dead repository, but over the past week or so, it's been good for little else.

    I could care less about Jerry's vision. Pardon me for wanting what I want and being annoyed by the crybabys getting in the way. I would think that a member of Slashdot would more than understand that attitude.

  13. Re:is there any reason... by OctoberSky · · Score: 2, Informative

    Jerry Garcia (guitar/vocals): Dead
    Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (keyboard/vocals): Dead
    Keith Godchaux (piano/keyboard): Dead
    Brent Mydland (keyboard): Dead
    I am sure I missed someone.

    Note to self: Don't play Keyboards for the Grateful Dead

  14. Re:Forgetting the most basic right: property[OT] by amarrero · · Score: 2, Informative

    The Commerce clause is also the reason why states and private business cannot discriminate because of gender and race. The Commerce clause is also one of the main reason for the economic development of the United States. A study of the history of the Commerce clause is a study of the history of economic development in the United States. Therefore, I would leave the Commerce clause in Constitution 3.0 unless you want to go back to having separate facilities for persons of difference races.

    Certainly, Congress has overextended itself in using said clause in its legislation (like regulating guns around schools, which was revoked by the Supreme Court), and the Supreme Court has historically given Congress lots of leeway in this regard.

    However, in the past decade, the Supreme court has changed it's stance on the reach of the Commerce clause. No longer can Congress simply said "Commerce clause," it now has to demonstrate a more direct link (mere numbers are insufficient). The Rehnquist-led US Supreme Court was certainly pro-States and I don't believe that will change now that Roberts is the Cheif Justice and with another conversative judge likely to succeed Justice O'Connor. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Lope z and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Morr ison as evidence of said reversal.

  15. Re:Ahh dammit by geminidomino · · Score: 2, Informative

    Oh whatever. I can't think of a band's music that is easier to collect over the Internet than the Grateful Dead. Any torrent site is teeming with GD shows (just look at bt.etree.org), and there are GD-specific sites, and every other trader on a site like etree.org has hundreds of GD shows.

    Yeah, that couldn't be because that's what the Dead WANTED to happen or anything.

  16. Re:WWJD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I am a strong beliver in the capitalist system and right to own property

    But that strongly depends on what is considered property. I'm totally in favour of property rights over scarce, rivalrous physical things, just not intangible "things" defined by lawyers. An (evil, lawyery) faction of society have lately taken to using the jargon of real property about copyrights, patents, etc. But that doesn't make them anything like real property in reality. You just can't logically argue that information should be property by just assuming it is property and then saying it's bad to violate property rights, yet that is an argument I hear again and again dressed up in more and more flowery legalese to disguise the illogic.

  17. Re:WWJD by Hatta · · Score: 3, Informative

    The taping of the shows was a carryover from the ideal days of the late 60's. "Hey we are just here making music, if you want to sit in front with a tape recorder that's cool with us."

    The taping of concerts is a tradition Jerry picked up from his days as a bluegrass musician. You may not know it, but Jerry started out on the banjo, and was rather good at it too. What the internet did for the grateful dead's boots, it also did for these old bluegrass tapes. Check out Bluegrassbox and The Steam Powered Preservation Society.

    --
    Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
  18. Re:WWJD by Jim+Narem · · Score: 2, Informative

    The song "Box of Rain" is actually about a son (Phil Lesh) dealing with the slow death of his father. The
    lyric "What can I do for you to see you through ..."(sic) is a lot more personal that just a bunch of hippies
    sharing dope in Haight-Ashbury.

    See http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/box.html for a discussion of the song.