Copyright, Inc.
June 15, 2000
6:48 a.m.
The times, they are a changing. Bob Dylan wrote that, of course. But based on an article in Salon, he probably doesn't own the copyright to the song it came from. I have to credit Karen Meisner again for the link. She directed her readers to it a day or three ago. I include it here in case I've got some folks here that don't read her page because I think it's an important piece of information on an important topic of thought. It's a defining speech made by someone whose means of support depends directly on copyright. Read it. Yes, it's a really long article, but if you have any vested interest in copyright and mass distribution, you need to read it and think about it. Then read this. One says copyright is a weapon to be turned against the corporate monster that already bleeds artists dry. The other says that copyright is dead. I don't know which one is right. Maybe they both are. I certainly agree that the acquisition and distribution systems for both the publishing and the recording industries are way out of whack--I mean, even a kid that goes to public High School can figure out that it makes no economic sense to print two books in order to sell one. Even a right-wing conspirator can see the stupidity of a system that has Harry Turtledove putting out a book under the name Harry Turtletraub (I think that's right), merely so that if the edition (which they're worried about from a commercial standpoint) crashes and burns, they won't have its numbers against his computer record--thereby making sure the bookstores don't order less of his next book based on their formulaic approach. The problem is, though, no one has yet to see how it will all fall out. Courtney Love says she's working for tips. IUniverse has a different model. Fictionwise another. Bibliobytes, Alexandria Digital, MP3. Everyone's trying to figure it out. But I keep thinking about a documentary I saw where Bob Dylan is asked a question about money in the business. It's a black and white scene, as I remember it. Bob is just beginning to get a bit older. He's in the middle of lighting a cigarette when the question is asked. He puts the lighter down and haphazardly blows smoke in a swirling mist. "Hell," he says in his graveled voice. "Wasn't no money in music when I started out." And he looks at the interviewer with a gaze full of irony and anger and depression, full of every emotion that goes with trying to play in a commercialized field driven by art. It's a gaze that explains everything all at once. Earlier this year, Bob Dylan came through the area on tour. He's older than that now. [grin] And the times are still changing.  © Ron Collins Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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