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

[Ernest Miller <ernest.miller(at)aya.yale.edu>]

The cost of a mechanical reproduction license, so that I can sell my 
cover of Britney Spears' latest is $0.08.  Not too bad.

microlenz@earthlink.net wrote:
> 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?
>>>
>>
>>
>>
> 
>