Slashdot Mirror
Orchestra To Turn Copyright-Free Classical Scores Into Copyright-Free Music
destinyland writes "An online music site has raised over $13,000 to hire a full orchestra to record royalty-free classical music. ('"Although the actual symphonies are long out of copyright, there is separate protection for every individual performance by an orchestra," notes one technology site.') MusOpen has reached their fundraising goal for both the orchestra and a recording facility, and will now record the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Sibelius and Tchaikovsky. And because their fundraising deadline doesn't end until Tuesday, they've promised to add additional recordings for every additional $1,000 raised."
Every quality song that is released to the public domain makes a future where it will be slightly more difficult for the RIAA to survive. Is there be a more noble cause anywhere on this planet?
I've been considering doing a podcast on board/card game design and music is an issue. I know there's lots of Creative Commons music out there, but who has time to go through it? With this, I can find selections of music that I already have and like, download their version, and Robert's your mother's brother.
I'm also impressed by Kickstarter. I didn't know about it until last week and I ?think it's also pretty cool.
When you sympathize with stupidity, you start thinking like an idiot.
Why aren't they doing what broadway did? They can replace the musicians with synthesizers and record MORE music to protect copyrights.
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
While I certainly applaud what they're doing, I just wanted to point out that classical music is generally about the quality of the performances themselves. So what orchestra are they hiring? How much practice/exposure to some of these pieces will they have? Will they be sight-reading some of them? It will be nice to have recordings out there that are free of any copyright issues, but it won't mean much if the performances are mediocre or have glaring mistakes (wrong notes, missed entrances, etc). I'm curious if anyone has asked any city/community or college orchestras if they'd be interested in releasing some of their recordings into the public domain.
The BBC tried this in the UK with a set of free-as-in-beer Beethoven symphonies. The music industry whined about it and the typically gutless response of the BBC Trust was to promise never to do it again:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23652107-end-this-downloads-ban.do
http://www.scena.org/columns/lebrecht/070207-NL-downloads.html
Under U.S. law, these commissioned works won't be in the public domain. There is no way to "create" a work into the public domain. Work only enters the public domain upon expiration of the copyright term. (The one way to create a work into the public domain, is that governmental works are not subject to copyright.)
What the project can do is create a contractual license that says that all-comers are granted a perpetual, non-exclusive license. Even then, presumably the resulting works would be works of joint authorship, with copyright residing in all of the authors. And under the reversion provisions of US copyright law, those orchestra members, or their families, could have the licenses terminated after about 30 years.
Pretend I said something meaningful or insightful here.
>>>. This means that most of the core classical repertoire is already available in this form, often as very high quality recordings (they knew what they were doing by the 50s!) of great performances.
You answered my question. I thought there was already public domain performances, just as Ed Woods masterpieces (cough) are now public domain. As for the "point" of copyright, it is to give authors a temporary monopoly as incentive to create art that will eventually fall into the possession of all the People & enrich everybody.
It seems some in the US Congress and EU Parliament have forgotten that. Too busy getting bribed by megacorps I guess?
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
It appears that they will be playing the core canon of classical music that all the musicians will have been learning and playing since they first picked up their instruments, thus rehearsal time will be minimised. Plopping a hired $1000 mic (or three) down on the stage (on stands) may be all that is required, unless anybody else can comment on up-to-date classical recording techniques.
Without reading TFA I would confidently predict that the recordings will be made available in (at least) high quality Ogg Vorbis, lossless CD-quality Flac and some 24/32-bit/96/192Khz format for those who can appreciate such differences. As for 'a process for disseminating' the music, many of us have been using bittorrent for the last decade. Your scenario is not 'unlikely', it is guaranteed.
'How in blazes does a *retroactive* copyright extension encourage the creation of the work? Has everybody in power forgotten the whole frapping point of copyright??'
It'll even discourage the creation of better versions of the original work. Right now, companies like Naxos are doing audio restoration jobs on out of copyright recordings that often shame the original label's CD release (if it's even available):
http://www.naxos.com/historical/engineer_thorn.htm
..... a desire by the government to ensure only "approved" books could be printed, and not books or pamphlets that the Crown found objectionable. i.e. It was censorship of free expression of thought. Rightthought could be printed, but wrongthought was not allowed to be.
No wonder Thomas Paine left Britannia, because he was forbidden from printing his works. Ditto many Scottish authors who spoke eloquently in favor of natural rights, but were blocked from doing so after the English Parliament extended its reach into the north.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
I thought there was an extensive library of high-quality copyright-free classical music recorded by Soviet, Eastern-bloc, and Chinese orchestras prior to 1989. None of those countries were Berne Convention signatories at the time and no copyright was ever claimed nor desired since they were "the people's" orchestras performing for the people. If I remember correctly, Muzak used to use Czech orchestral performances as they were copyright-free in the 70s and 80s. Why not use those recordings?
I don't think the media industry can possibly be sufficiently significant donors to get this kind of thing. The US recording industry's total gross revenues in 2008 were smaller than Microsoft's net profit in that same year.
I think they're donating something other than campaign funds. I think they're donating association. Stroking the egos of politicos by hanging out with them once in a while.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Where can I buy a 50 year old CD?
1.) They're planning to hire the London Symphony Orchestra. Would you call them a "pick-up player"?
... but for those /.ers who want to support the project in a way besides direct donation, there is the PepsiRefresh program, where they can vote for the project to receive $25,000 in funding.
/. editors see this, please, please add the PepsiRefresh link to the article summary!
2.) Many people from Slashdot have donated, more than doubling the amount of money raised since of the time of this article's posting.
If any
>I don't think the media industry can possibly be sufficiently significant donor
You sir have an out-sized idea of how little it actually takes to purchase a politician.