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Even Century Old Records Had Restrictive Licensing
natch writes "While rummaging through some old records at an antique store I found some turn-of-the-century Victor Record Company pressings. The label on the back laid out the terms of use, something similar to an EULA. In today's modern world of RIAA lawsuits and DRM, it's interesting to note that similar tactics have been in use by record companies for over a century, restricting your right to use what you purchased. The label clearly states that unless the record was sold for at least one dollar, there is no license to use it."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine
It wasn't until in 1908 that Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus established the first sale doctrine, which ruled that copyright does not give the holder the right to control re-sale of items once sold.
That happened on the inside cover of books too, before the days of 17 U.S.C. 109 (AKA First Sale).
I don't need large brains to have a good time.
The reason that Hollywood was set up in southern California is that Edison was unable to pursue his royalty and usage claims against movies there. Of course, with eventual financial success came the inevitable incentive to get together to sock it to the customer.
This is wrong. In fact, you can copy all you want since the copyright for the song has expired. The song is now in public domain and RIAA can;t sue a person for copying a song which is in public domain.
Wikipedia on how long copyright lasts. In short, yes, some were retroactive, but the cutoff date seems to be 1923. Anything copyrighted before then is public domain.
Centralization breaks the internet.
Well that was only 7 years ago. What were you expecting?
Basically, everything released after Steamboat Willie is under copyright and will be forever. You can be certain that no matter how much it costs, Disney will never allow anything under their copyright to enter the public domain.
"The Federal Reserve is a fraudulent system."--Lew Rockwell
End The FED. -
I collect 78s, so I know of this 'EULA'
When records became double-sided, this was moved to the sleeve, and it was shortened in later years.
What remained on labels for a long time was 'Not licensed for radio braodcast'
What probably happened is the reason this format didn't stay on is because of the wide distribution of records. In 1906, discs were JUST starting to become popular. The record industry probably decided they didn't need it anymore. These records were ruined after a handful of plays on the players back then, anyway. Plus, 78s are very breakable, like a dinner plate. It wasn't oncommon for records to be bought multiple times by the same person due to breakage, wear, etc.
It wasn't until some decades later that modern record players (which ran at about half the rotational speed, and used vinyl for the records) were introduced, requiring some additional form of amplification. You can listen to a modern record directly if you put your ear close to the stylus, but it's very quiet. The stylus is typically connected to a piezoelectric crystal, which emits electricity as the crystal is compressed. This gives an electrical signal which is then amplified using valves or (if you are particularly modern) transistors, giving indirect reproduction.
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The EULA actually says that there is no license if the record is sold to the public for less than $1. I think that means that the restriction applies only to the first retail sale. Subsequent purchases are not restricted - buying the record used for 50 cents is perfectly alright.
It was also because of the land:
Three decades earlier Hollywood had been chosen by the emergent film industry for more than just a balmy climate and abundant sunshine. Within a day's drive from Los Angeles was an astonishing variety of topography. Hitchcock found on a production-office wall a map of California that marked where within the state could be found the Blue Nile, the Swiss Alps, the sands of the Sahara, Sherwood Forest, the rugged coast of Spain, the Siberian snows, the Red Sea, the South African veldt, to say nothing of the mighty Mississippi, the cattle ranches of Wyoming, the horse pastures of Kentucky, and the mountain forests of Vermont. Hitchcock on Location
Yes you can. The Nyquist theorem demonstrates that any signal containing waves from DC to 20000 Hz* can be perfectly reconstructed from a 44100 Hz sampled wave. The only difference is a faint hiss at around -93 dB, caused by 16-bit quantization of the samples.
* In theory, 44100 Hz sample is good for up to a 22049 Hz signal, but practical low-pass reconstruction filters need a few percents of rolloff.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Smaller oil companies sold out to Standard Oil because they either had to sell, or die. Standard Oil brooked no competition, and had the market power to destroy smaller companies, such as dropping the price of gasoline below cost, to bleed a weaker competitor of money, and then raising the price again once the competitor was destroyed. They would use methods other than competition, if need be.
According to Wikipedia:
Yes, a citation is needed; however, I learned this not from Wikipedia, but during one of my college economics class. Wikipedia was just an easy place to point.
This kind of practice is exactly what maintains a monopoly, once established. Government intervention is a contributor in many cases (such as the current oil cartel), but there comes a point when a corporation has more control over an industry than the government can possibly wield.
For instance, the software industry was unregulated by the government, but it didn't stop Microsoft from becoming a monopoly. Certainly, they didn't start off as a monopoly, but once they achieved market dominance, they pushed their weight about quite effectively. It's at the point where only two operating systems even stand a chance at holding on in the industry, one completely free software (Linux), and the other based on free software (OS X).
Some potential competitors were merely incompetent (IBM, with OS/2; Netscape, with Netscape), but many were perfectly competent, like BeOS and Digital Research, but were cock-blocked by Microsoft, who had the market clout to control the distribution chain.
This is what Rockefeller and Gates both understood: control the distribution chain, and you control the market. This is also the whole point of the ??AAs.
What else are Microsoft's recent "patent" deals about, if not to control the Linux distribution chain? What else might the RIAA's lawsuit rampage be, except an attempt to clamp down on a distribution model it cannot control?
Find the company who controls distribution, and you find the monopoly.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
Sonny Bono may have been a bad person, but you can't blame him for the Sonny Bono act. This rape of the American public was done in his name after his death, ostensibly to protect his great-great-great-great-great granddaughter from possibly having to contribute to society if all her ancestors after the late great Sonny Bono had been deadbeats.
Current copyright is: 70 years after death of author, or if work of corporate authorship, the shorter of 95 years from publication, or 120 years from creation. However, that only applies to anything copyright after March 1, 1989. Before that, details such as notice, renewal of notice, and published vs unpublished all come into play. Cornell has a nice page that lists all of the dates and rules.
Request a Linux Shockwave player here: http://www.macromedia.com/support/email/wishform/
The US Supreme Court invalidate the EULA mentioned in the article in 1917. While it was held in 1908 (the doctrine of "first sale", articulated in Bobbs-Merrill v. Straus) that copyright did not extend to the restriction of resale price, the Courts until then held that patent did grant such a monopoly. But this specific license was challenged in Straus v. Victor Talking Machine Co. [243 U.S. 490 (1917)], and the Supreme Court's opinion was that licenses of this type were "mere shams to evade the general law governing sale of personal property."