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Re: [dvd-discuss] Rhapsody in Blue and the death of Jazz



D.C. has a valid point. Creativity is not something one turns on and off like a 
lightswitch or a candle that one snuffs out at will. And it is not beholden to 
a fee extraction machine based upon planning and prepared thought. Do we really 
want to tell a Jazz musician at the end of his set "oh you had two bars of 
britney that's $100,000, three stanzas of Steppenwolf...depreciated lately 
that's $1000 fork over the check.." ,"but I didn't realize I did that", "too 
bad the sanctity of intellectual property must be preserved and you have 
transgressed...can't pay...well don't play"...what ASSCAP has created is 
nothing more than a accountancy system that attempts to enslave creativity. At 
the risk of offending any accountant reading this but CREATIVITY AND ACCOUNTANY 
ARE ANTIPODAL. THe only time creative accountancy takes place fraud is involved 
- witness Enron.

On 1 Jun 2002 at 21:06, Ernest Miller wrote:

Date sent:      	Sat, 01 Jun 2002 21:06:00 -0400
From:           	Ernest Miller <ernest.miller@aya.yale.edu>
To:             	dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
Subject:        	Re: [dvd-discuss] Rhapsody in Blue and the death of Jazz
Send reply to:  	dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu

> Not true.  There are plenty of versions.  There is a mechanical license 
> for songs.  Anyone can record one ... you just have to pay the heirs a 
> legally set fee.  If I want to do a cover of the latest from Britney 
> Spears, I could ... so long as I paid the fee.  Britney couldn't stop me.
> 
> D. C. Sessions wrote:
> > It's been observed that (at least according to the traditional
> > forms) Jazz -- _the_ American musical form -- is dead.  It died,
> > they tell us, of starvation. Jazz is at heart an improvisational
> > derivative of popular music and for the last few generations
> > there hasn't been any popular music available for improvisation.
> > 
> > What killed Jazz?  Why, for instance, aren't there any variations
> > on the theme of /Rhapsody/ /in/ /Blue/, the great Gershwin tune?
> > Why hasn't someone worked variations on /Appalacian/ /Spring/?
> > 
> > Well, in short because the heirs and assigns of Gershwin and
> > Copland won't allow it.
> > 
> > Amazing, isn't it, that composers today still can't build on
> > classic works composed before their grandparents were born?
> > 
> > Would someone *please* explain how this promotes science and
> > the useful arts?
> > 
> 
> 
>