h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ah, the video/internet piracy is a different question. And it's probably a problem for artists who aren't making megabucks. Total agreement here.

I think some musicians are viewing the use of their material on, say, Youtube, as a form of advertising, and some are not.

I recently read an interesting take on the situation by a science fiction writer:

http://www.baen.com/library/

They're expaining why they're giving books away. Advertising. It seems to be working.

And you're right - international copyright is a knotty issue. Bel is feuding with Sony, and I'm recalling the fact that this problem has existed for at least 200 years. Dickens and WS Gilbert had a lot of problems with copyright pirates.

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/pva/pva75.html

By the way, the same problem arose with patents. The original purpose of patenting inventions was to encourage innovation. In this country, the patent idea was fostered by George Washington, of all people.

Thomas Jefferson, a very inventive fellow himself, at first opposed the patent idea (he was more of an open-source advocate), but was put in charge of the whole patent business:

http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~meg3c/classes/tcc313/200rprojs/jefferson_invent/patent.html

It's an interesting problem, as I suspect Bayer noted when the US stole their aspirin.

All that being said, Pierce, thanks for noting that there may, indeed, be some legal reason why it is possible to police the performance of one's songs abroad. Which was what puzzled me in the first place.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/2010/09/11/2010-09-11_lou_reed_denies_pulling_the_plug_on_susan_boyles_americas_got_talent_performance.html

Mr Reed now denies that he forbade Mz Boyle to sing the song.
It seems a VERY lame excuse, since all was prepared, apparently, etc. I mean, how long can it take to say yes or no to somebody asking to cover your song? According to this link, she didn't sneakily try to do that, but did all the official things (or her manager did, or whoever).

I mean, it sounds as if she would have got the green light say, one week later?

i forgot to say i found your joke about the music police very funny

even if problems of course only arise when *other* people make money on stuff *you* made. i'm sure we agree that's just not right

so feel free to sing whatever you want in your shower cabinet

not knowing your singing ability i will leave it up to you to shut the door to your bathroom or not

re 42 (congrats on that number, BTW )

just goes to show you can't believe everything they print

trust me, i've been in this business long enough to know

I will keep my singing to myself, I think - though I've inflicted it on people onstage from time to time.
(My director cried once, but he claimed it was because he found my performance moving. A likely story...)

Apropos of people covering songs, a side note:

I'm a huge admirer of Leonard Cohen from way back. And I'm glad he didn't attempt to prevent this performance, because Elektra and I and a couple of h2g2 friends personally found this hilarious:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvPWGHibaus

Note that Ms Jenkins recorded this under 'Sacred Arias'. Now, I agree with this concept of the sacred, but wonder if her fans were not puzzled... (Note Youtube comments.)

i'm sorry, ms jenkins, you look rather nice, but as for the singing i'd rather shower with mr. cohen

speaking of sacred music, i believe sir duke ellington once had a ban put on a vinyl called exactly that. lert me just google it and see what i - well, google - can come up with

on second thought, i believe he was banned from playing edward griegs 'peer gynt suite', but i can't find evidence on that either atm

only goes to show you can't believe what i say either, apparently

i could dig deeper, but just not right now, it's getting late

I don't know why anybody would bother telling him not to play the 'Peer Gynt Suite'. Every other jazz, big band, or beebop musician in creation murdered every classical composition they could find the in the forties. Painful stuff.

And then there's this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV52YAhdJOk

ouch!

if memory serves (and obviously it doesn't as much as i would like it to ) griegs descendants thought his music should not be exposed to jazz

but some years after grieg's death there was no stopping ellington

As long as they don't scat on 'Solveig's Song', I will remain content.

i wouldn't want them to scat on åse's death either

True.

For what it's worth I think Susan Boyle is prettier than Lou Reed!

I think I agree.

Me too Oh, and she was very attractive when she was younger and slimmer, but life has taken its toll, as it does with most of us.

Websailor

she's sweet

and what can you possiblY expect from reed, who emerged from the dungeons beneath new york, where he used to party heavily with nico and andy warhol in the 60's

This is true that back ground was not conducive to civility or niceness. Artists don´t have to be bores though. Pleasantness is not a product of the middle class.

what??? s'cuse me ... had to stop by here .. en route to ..

(climbs onto soapbox) by the way .. forgive if this post arrives in the middle on an ongoing debate ... sometimes happens to me.. y'know .. by the time I've written it and posted it the conversation has moved on ..so my post seems displaced yet well intentioned .. ..

and here's the text of my great thoughts .. ..


any chance of some writers out there contributing an article to the h2g2 Edited Guide on the subject of Lou Reed? The Velvet Underground? John Cale? Laurie Anderson? William Burroughs? I think we already have Andy Warhol) ...and .... good heavens ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A721199

just so we set the record straight .. all copyright protected ... and so that h2g2 could help enlighten passing readers ... sort of like art history or something? ...



I'd write these articles myself .. but I'm not the right kind of writer ... y'know ...not got the skill .. too much of a crazed poet .. ...

I would start going on about the extraordinary and life saving impact (for people like me at least) of an album such as Transformer .... I would write about what these artists had to endure just to get this work out there .....

How generations of poets and songwriters etc will be affected by these output of these creative pioneers ..



or how about the indelible white light white heat (being arty here .. ) vibration created in the atmosphere by a song like Black Angel's Death Song ... or Mr Rain .. or Perfect Day (with its original raw message intact (so beautifully represented in the soundtrack to Danny Boyle's film Trainspotting ... ) or ....etc etc





serious though ... and someone could write an article on Susan Boyle also? .. I'd be interested in fact ... I'm not trying to sway anyone's tastes here or anything .. hey .. ..it's just important to me that's all ... .. I'm just soapboxing ... ..

In fact I prefer the eclectic approach .. I love all kinds of music .. ...(yes ... even Abba ...)

(checks h2g2 for Abba article ) ..

This debate has just set me passionately thinking! .. sign of a good debate ... ... so thankyou all! ...



Copyright copyright copyright ... protect your work! that's what I would say to anyone brave enough to attempt to make their living in the arts ... protect your work like it's the last tiny strand of sanity left between you and the great void out there which contains the discerning hungry public ... ... oh .. and if you want to pay your rent and feed yer kids ... ..



I'm cool with covers ... .. I'd say there are some wonderful song-interpreters out there who really pay homage to the song and its creator .. whilst also bringing a new interpretation to the song ...



And then there's the nightmares ... I sometimes wake up at 3am in a nightmare sweat and think I am hearing Dylan's .. one of my all time fave songs ... being murdered in the karaoke bar ... .... but that's just me being weird ... .... (and I will get teased .. by the host of this journal ... ... )



In fact I once lived with a friend .. Dylan crazy like myself ... who used to sing Desolation Row (in its entirety) in the shower ... ... ... it was great .. even the spiders ran away .. ... hmm



and finally ... could someone enlighten me please .. please? ...seeing as how we are (sort of) on the subject of copyright ....

is the work submitted to h2g2 copyright protected? like all the artwork and creative writing and EG stuff .. and everything? .. does the BBC own the copyright?

(gets down off soapbox>

thanks for listening .. wait .. .. where you gone?



PS now I ran out of time to read .. tomorrow! tomorrow! ah always tomorrow!

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time...

The author of the above cannot sue anybody, unless he comes back from that bourne from which no traveller returns...

You own the copyright to what you write here, love - the BBC just has the right to use it, too, which they may freely do, on my part, and welcome, in return for such wonderful company and the opportunity to rave on...

Good to hear from the avante garde, here. Yeah, somebody write something about Lou Reed and Susan Boyle for the EG.

Now, as to Bob Dylan....

*Sings in awful country-music voice, a la Buck Owens*

'Hey, Mister Tambourine Man, play a song for me...'</>

And, from the galaxy comes...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0hTtsqiFCc&feature=related

.... ... .... hah! erm .... hah! ... hmm ... now I shall definitely emigrate to some inner-star far from here .... wink wink ... ...

...perhaps I will come across that strange town I dreamed about last night .. where poets in long dark coats sang to me in a curious and unsettling language ... very ancient and yet futuristic ..

and could I remember this wonderful language when I woke?? nah ...



... .. there goes another ..... a what??? a book???? ..... which would be mine all mine .. till the spirit of the late great Brion Gysin would haunt me and tell me that I don't own the word ..... and I would say I don't own the word! but the strange spirit-poets in my dream own the copyright ....





— Brion Gysin (Let the Mice In)



Mind you .. some people got really upset with Bill Burroughs and Brion Gysin cutting up phrases like they did and making a new language ... but then some people thought it was brilliant and went out and did it themselves and wrote really famous songs and everything in this style and influenced an entire new generation of poets and songwriters ...


.. in my dreams I am a writer like Barry Miles who can illuminate all this history of art and music and everything so wondrously in his own inimitable way ... but I'm not not not as the above paragraph will show ... ....hmm .. ..



but wrote my mother to me on a page of my notebook when I was 8 ... and she forgot to tell me who wrote these words of wisdom ... and for years I thought it was her ..



heheheh ... and thanks for info re the copyright protection of the tiny scruffy drops of absurdity that I have stored here on this strange h2g2 planet over the years .... ...

and let us wander through the poetry of tomorrow and all our yesterdays ....... and even the here and now if we are sort of like in a zen type mood ...

and now .. (bow) ...

yes thankyou William Shakespeare for the above quote and also for the quote above that one ...you marvellous Bard ... .. and thankyou for reminding me about commas which are rather beautiful really .. I think I will abandon the dot dot dot ........... .. and who invented the dot??? ...........and sorry that I thought you were my mother ....

enough! enough!

Helen