Fw: [microsound] Intellectual Property

[pete gregory <pete@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

A friend of mine who doesn't like electronic
> music often argues that it too often aligns with conservative values and
> runs in contrast to more politically charged movements like punk, reggae,
> and even some forms of rock. "

True? False? Kinda true? kinda false?

Struck me as an interesting question.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Ashline" <bashline@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <microsound@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2000 4:23 PM
Subject: Re: [microsound] Intellectual Property


> >From: Michal <mis@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> >Have you ever seen a "magic" show?  How much would you appreciate it if
you
> >knew all the tricks the illusionist is doing?  You know that he's
tricking
> >you
> >but you're not always sure how.  I think that a composer/performer is
that
> >kind
> >of a magician.  Creativity is one thing but the secret of your craft is
> >another.  On another hand, not all experimental music is
written/performed
> >for
> >musicians only.
>
> When one goes to a restaurant, the chef doesn't necessarily want to give
all
> his secrets away either.  Not even the chef on TV.  On the other hand,
have
> you listened to painters talking?  They're always discussing the minutiae
of
> their craft and manner of execution.  Painters steal ideas from each other
> all the time (as do writers), but such theft is rarely fatal to the
> originator.  On the other hand, something seems different with digital
> equipment--a new kind of ethics is in play, and it suggests a different
> situation with regard to the ownership of the media and the sharing of
> ideas.
>
> <<I find it disturbing that people still pimp
> knowledge that comes from nature's sentences,
> information should not only be harnessed by an
> elite group of the world's population.>>
>
> <>I'm aware that this Napsteresque critique of
> intellectual property is all the vogue, but I
> happen to think it's quite naive.  First, everything
> comes from "nature's sentences," that doesn't mean
> we should toss out the notions of private property or
> intellectual property.  Your "elite group" is the
> artists themselves.  We should respect the wishes of
> the artist.  If the artist makes his or her processes
> public, that's their option.  But if they don't,
> chances are they feel the artwork is self-complete.
> In fact, a popular school of thought in the middle of
> this century felt that the artist's intentions and
> methods are completely irrelevant to the evaluation
> of an artwork (promulgated in 1948's "The Intentional
> Fallacy" by Wimsatt and Beardsley).  The art, like the
> cheese, stands alone.  Must we all whine whenever an
> artist doesn't reveal his or her bedroom secrets to
> us?  Can't we just be happy we have their art?<>
>
> You're overstating the case.  Beardsley and Wimsatt argued against a kind
of
> psychological interpretation that depended wholly on the artist's
intentions
> for deriving the meaning of a literary work.  This was to pave the way for
> formalism, which bracket everything out that wasn't inscribed directly in
> the text.  The point was that the artist doesn't always even know her own
> intentions, so why should such intentions be the final arbiter of
> interpretation, and moreover, intentions were often indeterminant anyway.
A
> nonsequitur as applied here.  A friend of mine who doesn't like electronic
> music often argues that it too often aligns with conservative values and
> runs in contrast to more politically charged movements like punk, reggae,
> and even some forms of rock.  When we get too carried away at looking for
> leverage from intellectual property protection (an oxymoron if there ever
> was one), I'm almost tempted to agree with him, no matter how often we
trot
> out Deleuzian platitudes.  But this whole question really gets away from
> Kim's original question which was...
>
> >>working in an IP (intellectual property) rich environment I have come to
> >>understand why a software developer/artist/etc does not want their
> >>"process" exposed...although I am more than willing to share some ideas
on
> >>an abstract level I tend to be rather guarded when it comes to the
> >>details...I like knowing the general concept of an artists work and
> >>guessing as to how it was implemented...
>
>
>           to which Xavier writes:
> >From: "Xavier Madrid" <madridxavier@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> >For a society and/or culture to grow and progress, we must not cling to
> >and/or protect knowledge of a craft from others, but rather share, teach
> >and
> >communicate with others, thus enabling a network of information, moving
> >toward advancement a culture and/or society's future.  There are people
all
> >over the world whose musical genius cannot be expressed for so much of an
> >insignificant reason as not knowing how to harness a certain tool
properly
> >or improperly.
>
> I agree with your point, but I don't think that Kim disagrees.  His
question
> was addressed to something else.  It wasn't that he was necessarily
> endorsing intellectual property as such (in my deep reading of him) but
that
> the climate of "intellectual property" as such has made people paranoid
> about disclosing.  In the best of all worlds, your idea is true.
> Unfortunately, in this not very best of worlds one is likely to find
> culprits who steal your generosity, patent it, and sell it back to
you--much
> like how the biotech industries have operated in India and elsewhere with
> such products as neem and genetically modified food foisted on third world
> farmers.  And in the process of selling it back to you will insure that
you
> don't use it without paying the royalty on a product or technique that you
> invented.  Moreover, I think all artists keep secrets, be they your guitar
> teacher or your graduate printmaking instructor.  If they don't, the
copies
> sometimes end up becoming better than the original, and the society
rewards
> in kind.  The real world of artists is a slimy, competitive one (present
> company excluded).
>
>
>
> B. Ashline
>
> "Intellectual alienation is a creation of middle class society.  What I
call
> middle-class society is any society that becomes rigidified in
predetermined
> forms, forbidding all evolution, all gains, all progress, all discovery.
I
> call middle class a closed society in which life has no taste, in which
the
> air is tainted, in which ideas and men are corrupt....I am not a prisoner
of
> history.  I should not seek there for the meaning of my destiny. I should
> constantly remind myself that the real "leap" consists of introducing
> invention into existence.  In the world through which I travel, I am
> endlessly creating myself."--Frantz Fanon
>
>
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