Re: [microsound] interesting legal/licensing developments at scene.org [nexsound.org mp3 host]

[derek holzer <derek@xxxxxxx>]

Hi John,

John Nowak wrote:

> Scene.org has no legal right to do this unless prior agreements were 
> made. If the artist wants to pull their tracks, fine. Let them. 
> Ruccas.org let's artists do this, and it hasn't caused any issues. Not 
> sure why scene.org would be any different.

I guess my basic point of view on this doesn't necessarily revolve 
around the strict legal issues, but more the ethic of it.

Consider this: an artist uses the disk space, bandwidth and publicity 
resources of a free hosting site like Scene.org to promote his or her 
own work by sending prospective listeners there or linking to it through 
their website.

This places the artwork in the public domain UNTIL such time as the 
artist begins to capitalize on the service which this host has provided, 
and the publicity gained from having the work in the public domain. Once 
a buck can be turned, the artist removes the work from the public domain 
and possibly even causes trouble for the folks who provided him or her a 
much-needed service in their rise to "professionalism". No thanks and a 
big F-You to those who helped out on the way. You don't see many people 
asking for their tracks to be removed from CD compilations, do you?

So, my basic question which follows this analysis would be: is it 
"right" for an artist to remove something they have placed in the public 
domain, considering that the resources used to keep it in the public 
domain once represented a valuable publicity asset to that artist? And 
on a deeper level, can something conceivably be *removed* from the 
public domain, once it is there? Might as well try to patent oxygen or 
something...

Essays on my desk in one hour ;-)
derek


--
derek holzer ::: http://www.umatic.nl
---Oblique Strategy # 36:
"Consult other sources
-promising
-unpromising"

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