Archive for June 2004
Report on the Information Commons
"The Internet offers unprecedented possibilities for human creativity, global communication, and access to information. Yet digital technology also invites new forms of information enclosure. In the last decade, mass media companies have developed methods of control that undermine the public’s traditional rights to use, share, and reproduce information and ideas. These technologies, combined with dramatic consolidation in the media industry and new laws that increase its control over intellectual products, threaten to undermine the political discourse, free speech, and creativity needed for a healthy democracy.
"In response to the crisis, librarians, cyber-activists, and other public interest advocates have sought ways to expand access to the wealth of resources that the Internet promises, and have begun to build online communities, or "commons," for producing and sharing information, creative works, and democratic discussion. This report documents the information commons movement, explains its importance, and outlines the theories and "best practices" that have developed to assist its growth."
Nancy Kranich. The Information Commons: A Public Policy Report. The Free Expression Policy Project. (.pdf version) 2004.
The Future of Music
"The future playback of recorded music will not be tied to physical media (e.g., compact discs) or singular virtual players (e.g., iPods), but to many objects with shapes and sizes designed to appeal to our tactile relationships with music and, at the same time, to have the features of a virtual music device. I imagine these being called Playbacks.
"Playbacks may look like CDs. Many will cost about the same cost as a CD. But, Playbacks will be everywhere, appearing as all kinds of things. Some will look like traditional recorded media (CDs, tapes, LPs), but some will look utterly different."
The Ear Reverends. The Future of Music Playback. June 6, 2004.
The New Music Marketing
"Today’s music fan interacts with a "community" that is far larger than anyone ever dreamed possible before the widespread personal use of the Internet. This social networking is changing the way people market and sell music and it’s doing so on a global scale.
"Here’s how: One fan hears a song and ‘tells’ a dozen others online. Each in turn sends the information (and sometimes the entire song file) to another dozen people, and so on. If the song’s hook is catchy and universal enough, the artist can reach thousands of fans in a matter of seconds. It’s fast, it’s easy, it’s free, and it’s global.
"Does this viral communication bring any income for that artist (or songwriter, or publisher, or manager, or agent, or distributor, or record label)? No. But does it provide vital publicity that has the potential to sell singles, albums, concert tickets and merchandise? Absolutely."
eMediaWire. Social Networking and Music Marketing: MySpace.com is Putting It All Together. June 5, 2004.
Licensing Liberties
Ed Foster, a former editor at InfoWorld, recently finished a three-week take on licensing agreements, and some of their egregious terms and restrictions. While Foster is from the software world, his examples of restrictive licensing are from all industries. Given the digital age in which we live, and the trend toward licensing goods rather than selling them (which would allow consumers federal rights under the copyright law’s first sale doctrine), these columns are very important.
Ed Foster. A Good Deal. Ed Foster’s Gripe Log. May 20, 2004.
Ed Foster. EULA Nasties. Ed Foster’s Gripe Log. May 13, 2004.
Ed Foster. Fair Terms. Ed Foster’s Gripe Log. May 6, 2004.
UK Economist Rails Against Record Industry
"The copyright lobby has acquired its power because it has persuaded creative people that it defends their interests. I remember upbraiding a colleague who was using pirated software: I argued that we had a common concern to protect intellectual property. But I was mistaken. The law protects computer programs but not the ideas of a think-tank. That is why software businesses are well endowed and think-tanks are not, except for those that lend support to arguments such as those of Mr Munns.
"The claim by the music business to maintain control of every subsequent exploitation of its product has no more moral basis than the claim of a think-tank to control every subsequent expression or development of its ideas. Or the right of Trinity College, Cambridge, to approve every application of calculus, the invention of Isaac Newton, its late employee. Far from stimulating creative effort, such restrictions would paralyse it. The unreasonable nature of the assertion and its unenforceability reinforce each other. This pretty much describes the music industry’s situation. So it will be the first industry to be genuinely transformed by the internet."
John Kay. The Music Industry Needs to Change the Record. FT.com. June 2, 2004.
RIAA Seeks to Restrict Legal Copies
"Record labels say CD sales have plummeted as a result of copies–and copies of copies. Now the labels are testing technology that would limit the number of times a CD, or its copy, could be burned.
"Tools under review by the major labels would limit the number of backups that could be made from ordinary compact discs and prevent copied, or ‘burned,’ versions from being used to create further copies, according to Macrovision and SunnComm International, rival companies that are developing competing versions of the digital rights management software."
"Such anticopying efforts have met with consumer resistance in the past, but if the labels have their way, it may be that not only CDs, but also iTunes-style digital downloads, will be restricted."
(Editor’s Note: Jenny Levine, editor of The Shifted Librarian, points out that the industry seems willing to allow corporate partners to give away downloads, but will not allow the same opportunity for libraries.)
John Borland. Labels to Dampen CD Burning?. News.com. June 2, 2004.
Elsevier to Allow Pre-Production Posts
"According to a post on the SPARC Open Access Forum, Elsevier has declared they will allow authors who publish in any of their 1,700+ journals to put their peer-reviewed post-prints on their personal webpages and their own institutional repositories, where they can be made available, for free, to anyone with internet access.
"This does sound like a big shift on Elsevier’s part, and now that Elsevier has made this concession, it is crucial that authors take the next steps to ensure that their research is made available to wider audiences.
"But I still see plenty of challenges here for librarians, who will have to continue advocating for open access, promoting institutional repositories, and developing ways for all that material to be made accessible through simple search systems.
"Does all this mean that Elsevier has seen the light? I wouldn’t bet on it."
Commons-Blog. Elsevier to Allow Open Access Archiving. May 27, 2004.
Updates:
Richard Wray. Reed Allows Academics Free Web Access. The Guardian. June 3, 2004.
Reed Elsevier. Comments on Evolutions in Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishing and Reflections on Possible Implications of Open Access Journals for the UK. (.pdf) February 2004.
Attribution: SNTReport.com first discovered news of the Guardian article and the Elsevier report through a posting in beSpacific, edited by Sabrina Pacifici.
COPYCENSE 