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7 Kultur, Kommunikation, Medien
| Sprache / Kulturinstitutionen, Archive, Bibliotheken, Museen, Galerien, Ausstellungen / Kulturtheorien, Soziokultur / Presse / Alternativpresse / Gegenöffentlichkeit, Medientheorie / Rundfunk / Fernsehen / Informationsübermittlung / Internet / Open Source / Netzkritik, Netzkultur, Netzkunst / Neitzbewegung, Netzaktivismus / E-Texte, Digitale Texte / Kino / Theater / Musik / Bücher / Verlage, Literatur / Zensur / Kunst / Satire, Humor
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| Systematik: | ID-Archiv EATC id-e-7341 id-e-76 |
| | Status: | Changed | | Checked: | 03-03-02 03:52:34 PM |
| | Adresse: | |
| | Selbstdarstellung: | | On the Brink of Revolution The Story begins... Once upon a time musicians composed their songs in a far country. Record companies duplicated millions of copies and sold them to the faithful fans. All were lucky; all were content; all possessed originals... The Reality But throughout the history of music, the harmony described in this story never really existed. Although laws gave the authors protection, illegal spreading, use and changing of intellectual property could not actually be prevented. Private copying on tapes was ignored by the music industry since it could not prevent it anyway. The Internet The world is in motion, and since the triumphant advance of the internet perhaps it is turning a little faster. The internet is a universal medium for information of all kinds. This includes multimedia content such as texts, language, pictures and music, which can be spread around the whole world in seconds. Unlike copying using tape, copying music over the internet gives no degradation in quality. Every one of these "digital copies" is indistinguishable from the original. Using the internet, the exchange of music became simpler and faster. The Myth "Music and Internet fit ideally together", announced in a press release by the Federal Association of the German Phonographic Industry on April 19 2001. A "prerequisite for it is however the effective protection of the intellectual property of composers, text poets, exercising artists and the manufacturers of music carriers." How this will be accomplished is not quite known yet. There are discussions going on about copy protection techniques for music data as well as general payments on CD-Rs and CD-Writers. But the hope of preventing the uncontrolled spreading of music by issuing copy protection techniques will turn out to be an illusion. In practice each technical measure preventing it can be worked around. The Vulnerable Hero At the moment, the only way which remains for the music industry is to go forward: the fight against the outriders of the music exchange on the Internet. As a first opponent, the Internet service Napster was constituted. Napster, started in 1999, found within 24 months 45 million registered users who use this service to get free music. The idea of Napster captivates by its simplicity: Users have a collection of music pieces. Napster administers a list of all music pieces of each user. If a song is looked up, Napster knows who has the song in his collection and obtains the contact. All following is worked out by the peer-to-peer partners. However, the Napster principle only works if there are enough people wanting to provide songs. The legal situation of such offerings is not yet completely clarified. People who distribute music on Napster may calculate that the music industry will sue them, because offers on Napster are not anonymously. Also Napster offers as central mediator a worth attack target. If it succeeds to switch off the central-point, the central database of "who has which song" will be gone. Indeed in the past users were sued by the music industry over distributing copyright protected intellectual property via Napster. Also Napster became a target of attacks by the music industry, with the result that the only way to save Napster was to selling off to Bertelsmann Media. Nasters Heirs With Gnutella a new file exchange alternative has arisen, this time with fewer drawbacks as it does not use a central database. However it also lacks a central entry point, what makes data gathering somewhat interminable Also someone who wants to enter the Gnutella network needs an entry point. To find this entrance can be quite difficult, since the Gnutella network does not possess a central point of start. The FreeNetwork Project and Mojo Nation are representatives of the 3rd generation of online file-exchanges. This online exchange generation sets a new standard: they mask the provider of the data. The FreeNetwork Project offers, among other things, the following functionality: anonymity, i.e. both the provider of the song, and the requester cannot be determined. liberty of speech, FreeNetwork can not be censored. de-centralized service, a central service, which can be a victim of attacks by the music industry, does not exist. encryption, all data on FreeNet is crypted. The technical development of online file-exchanges will not end with Napster, Gnutella or FreeNet. The software will become more efficiently, simpler and uncontrollable. In order to bring it on one point: exchanging music will increase in the next years and the methods of exchange will become more sophisticated. Like Phoenix From The Ashes The question should not read "How do I prevent that my music is heard free of charge?", but "How can I make money from my music?". And there are some ways to do that. The key to success is called "Added-Value". The music vendors must give an Added-Value to force people to purchase the music. That means, the buyer must have a use, which goes beyond the value of the individual music piece. Fans pay e.g. for artful arranged CDs, a beautiful Cover, the additional information in the Booklet, which offers text for the songs or informations about the artist. A further form of an added value is a specialized supply, which arranges CDs for the buyer matching his musical taste. The advantage for the buyer is in saving of time, since he does not have to look up the music pieces up from the network. By free distribution over the Internet one can achieve maximum spreading with a minimum effort of advertising This means a chance for small record labels, which are short of cash for advertisement. Because a song, which nobody knows will also not be buyed. A song, which does not sell is ignored by the traditional outlets. To get a break-through as artist was so far not only a question of the how-to-do, but a question of the luck. By the free availability, a new dimension of commerce is opened. The artists get the possibility to act as a distributor for themselves. The system becomes more effective however when everyone is able to sell that added-value around the music. It remains to be noted that the authors of the music have to take part in the commercial incomes, if they want that. The OpenMusic Philosophy OpenMusic philosophy offers a modern view in order to regulate the spreading of music. The ideas of this philosophy are very similar to that of the Free Software, however, special features of the music area were adapted. Free software proved very much efficient and distributes projects such as Apache and Linux. The basic idea of the OpenMusic philosophy is the free spreading of music. FREELY is in this context stands for FREE speech and not for FREE of costs. The following liberties are called elementary: the liberty of listening to music as much as someone wants. the libery of distributing music, private or commercially. the liberty of modifying music. During a commercial spreading of the music it must be possible for the original authors to benefit from the profits. If music pieces are changed or covered, then the original authors must be called, if they require it. The liberty to modify music could be abused, in order to disfigure passages a of a song or to change the sense of the song completely. For this reason it must be permitted by the authors to define certain passages of a song as unchangeable. This represents a strong restriction of the third liberty, this price is however for the protection of the authors to be paid. |
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