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100 Years of Copyright Hysteria
Nate Anderson pens a fine historical retrospective for Ars Technica: a look at 100 years of Big Content's fearmongering, in their own words. There was John Philip Sousa in 1906 warning that recording technology would destroy the US pastime of gathering around the piano to sing music ("What of the national throat? Will it not weaken? What of the national chest? Will it not shrink?"). There was the photocopier after World War II. There was the VCR in the 1970s, which a movie lobbyist predicted would result in tidal waves, avalanches, and bleeding and hemorrhaging by the music business. He compared the VCR to the Boston Strangler — in this scenario the US public was a woman home alone. Then home taping of music, digital audio tape, MP3 players, and Napster, each of which was predicted to lay waste to entire industries; and so on up to date with DVRs, HD radio, and HDTV. Anderson concludes with a quote from copyright expert William Patry in his book Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars: "I cannot think of a single significant innovation in either the creation or distribution of works of authorship that owes its origins to the copyright industries."
There was John Philip Sousa in 1906 warning that recording technology would destroy the US pastime of gathering around the piano to sing music
...and replace it with drunken karioke nights.
My webcomic
Food is good, fud no gud.
One of the underlying questions is: with the millions of hours of music we already made, what benefit does it bring us to have even more music?
If you're a 80's music fan, then you already have everything you need ;-)
see a Text Widget
We keep our ASCAP and BMI site-license agreements posted on the refrigerator. It's only annoying when the auditors show up to sample set lists and expect to stay for dinner. Awkward.
the professional keeps picking up high school and college chicks until he gets to old to rock out.
Wooderson: That's what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age.
"What's with these new bands? Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974, it's a scientific fact!"
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
just pray they never get younger...
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
Does it really count as a job when you haul it one six-pack at a time, and do it internally?
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.