Since 1998, musician/multimedia artist Joel Pelletier has provided useful info on music, the Internet and the music business in his column, CYBER MUSIC, a regular feature in Los Angeles' Music Connection Magazine. These archives feature a wealth of information for musicians interested in learning about and gaining from the Internet.
Since 1977, Music Connectio Magazine, published in Los Angeles, CA, has served the music industry with coverage of artists and the business of music. You can subscride to the magazine, published bi-weekly, at their website, Music Connection Magazine.
WebBands Index
Commentary
Classifieds
Links
Join
Rates
FAQs
© 2000-2001 WebBands.com
designed and maintained by
the Way Home media
We welcome your help in making it better - email or call WebBands at 818-373-7511.
|
|
|
|
Each article also features WebTips, Joel's first-person, occaisionally opinionated, always provocative comments on web trends - good and bad - as they relate to indie musicians. Here's the latest...
WEBTIPS #17 (2000): Napster and Copyrights
On Wednesday, July 26, U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Patel granted the RIAA temporary injunction to take Napster.com offline within 48 hours. Judge Patel stated that the RIAA had shown that they would probably win in trial, and that Napster had failed to prove that there were substatial, non-infringing uses for the software, even citing Napster officials for downloading copyrighted materials on their own hard drives.
The case has opened up the debate on copyrights, who owns them, and what they are for. Napster's business model is based, blatently so, on software created to allow anyone to trade and copy any CD or recording without paying for it, so much of their problems are brought upon by themselves (my guess is that they even assumed they would be sued by the music industry, cutting down on any promotional budget they would have allocated).
Before this case, very few artists spoke out on the issue of copyrights and who owned them. One noteable exception was King Crimson's Robert Fripp and his label, Discipline Records (www.disciplinerecords.com). He insists that atists hold their copyrights, and on the new King Crimson album, the construKction of light, distributed by Virgin, it says "(p)(c) 2000 King Crimson, exclusivelty licensed by Virgin Records Limited."
When you sign with a major label, you assign the copyright to them, making them the owner. You have no control over what they do or don't do with your music, and, as copyright law has been periodically updated by congress, they have lobbied to extend how long they would own the copyright. Thanks to an amendment they snuck into a recent communications bill, they now define all music released by them as "works for hire," meaning that the corporation owns them FOREVER. This is what they have shut down Napster to protect and exploit.
Copyright law was created for the creators of works, not distributors. Perhaps it's time to expand the discussion and debate on copyrights from the ARTIST perspective.
|
| Vol XXIV (2000) |
Topics included... |
WebTips |
| 17 |
studiocam.com, Vitaminic.com, allaboutjazz.com, artistsagainstpiracy.com, Emusic.com, dallasperkins.com |
NAPSTER AND COPYRIGHTS |
| 16 |
NirveTV.com, idealive.com, loudENERGY.com, Angelaudio.com, BornOnTheWeb.com |
|
| 15 |
Online Music poll, Botanga.com, BMI Enet, Courtney Love, LicenseMusic, radiocountry.com |
|
| 14 |
Offspring and Napster, My.MP3.com, Riffage.com, Face the Music, guitarwar.com, radiofreevirgin.com |
|
| 13 |
AMP3.com, JoeRecords.com, MusicMatch, Gnutella, IUMA A&R files, transparentmusic.com |
Commentary: soundbreak.com |
| 12 |
Napster, smashingpumpkins.com, Jane Siberry, EMusic.com, jazzsociety.com, unsignedartistsdemos.com |
So Many Sites, So Many Variables |
| 11 |
MP3.com vs. RIAA, Napster.com, Chuck D, hollywoodbowl.com, NetThisTV.com, amuZnet.com |
|
| 10 |
angelciti.com, CDFront.com, IAM.com, atomfilms.com, RIAA vs. MP3.com, theorchard.com |
|
| 9 |
Parade of Stars, launch.com, CD Limits, Ultravibe, listentothis.com, ListenSmart |
|
| 8 |
Rhythmnet.com, Rynote.com, DSL vs. Cable Modems, sennheiser.com |
Foreign CD Requests |
| 7 |
hitsquad.com, Belham Valley Songwriting Contest, Kiss, artistent.com, Musicnotes.com |
Boxing Gandhis |
| 6 |
music-top100.com, banditnewsletter.com, Soundbreak.com, PasteMusic.com, WWW.com |
Who Owns Your Website (Pt 2)? |
| 5 |
musicblitz.com, bandtools.com, farmclub.com, cddebut.com, essentialsofmusic.com |
|
| 4 |
RIAA vs. MP3.com, egroups.com, theorchard.com, billboardtalentnet.com, rdiomoi.com |
Who Owns Your Website? |
| 2 |
iam.com, tdk.com, SLAM, SpinRecords.com, jazzcountry.com |
Stop Dreaming |
| 1 |
Guitar.com, Tunes.com, atom-bomb.com, Kathoderaymusic.com, Heardon.com |
Free Sites |
| Vol XXIII (1999) |
Topics included... |
WebTips |
| 25 |
Year End Roundup, Songfile.com, MP3.com, Bandtunes.com |
1999 Webtips Roundup |
| 24 |
Artist forum, MusicDish, Streaming West Conference, Women's Indie Music Show |
Webbands.com |
| 23 |
Global Music network, KNAC.com, GarageBand.com, Pixelon, Musicstaff.com |
Payola? |
| 22 |
Kweevak, indiemusic.com, audiotoday.com, chickclick.com, Global Music Network |
Fear Not! |
| 21 |
The Orchard, Blues Online, Amazon Music, Guitar Center, BMI, mixfactory.com |
Not Again... |
| 20 |
Guitar Center, blaze.com, Riffage.com, mjuice.com, Borders Books, femmusic.com, firstlook.com |
Near CD Quality? |
|
|
|
