Re: [rumori] Re: pho: RE: Question for Michael Robertson


From: Every Man (every.manATpressthebutton.com)
Date: Fri Feb 02 2001 - 08:12:04 PST


I'm dismayed at our financially motivated corporately controlled
culture, and shocked. I never thought the net would be easier to control
than radio itself, I would have thought the opposite...since it seems
the same laws that apply to radio will soon apply to the net. It's
just a matter of enforcing it...and I would think labels would sooner
enforce the laws on broadcasting radio (more listeners) than on
net radio. It would sadden me if they got this greedy.

Is it really getting to the point now where record labels are going to
go through ALL the net streams and listen for their content being
illegally netcasted at a 24 kps compression level?

I have my doubts about the internet regulation getting in the way of
creative uses of the netcasting feature. For one, the internet is global.
There is the potential for thousands of home grown netcasting stations
over a cable or DSL line. It would be VERY time consuming and require
lots of manpower to get every single one of these shutdown. You said
so yourself, radio stations are very hard to find on the net because of
how many choices there are. It's just too easy to stay under the radar
when you're netcasting.

I mean, radio is highly visible, and if people weren't handing you cease
and desist orders yet, they probably won't if you do the same show online.
You ARE online with the netcasting, also with your OTE archives on your
website....I don't see that EVER going away. There are wayyy too many
bigger fish for them to fry than yours. I thought they were just going to
charge netradio.net and spinner.com royalty fees and such...I can't see
them looking to shut down all the "pirate" (or private) netcasting stations.
It seems that would be a major non-profitable waste of their time.

Don't forget about these systems will soon be built into cars, so you
can tune into any netcasting station you wish to, wirelessly. They already
have consumer boom-boxes that do this, provided you have a phone line
nearby...a wireless option is the next logical step. Hearing netradio will
be much easier to do, but the commercial corporate ones .. .the ones
that can afford licensing fees or royalty fees...those are the ones I see
getting fined and regulated. TECHNICALLY your archive streams will be
against the law some day I'm sure, but I don't ever see it being enforced.

I also think the residents of California are a bit more lenient on your
artistic
style of infringements, than say.....Ohio. We've had a local DJ try and
be creative himself (on college radio) and HE received a cease and desist
order, after only having done his show for 2 years. He played some song
off of a new pop album which hasn't been released yet, and the record
label didn't want it played until a month later when the CD was officially
released.

Though I entirely agree with most everything you say about radio being
a highly potentially creative medium and it IS forgotten by most. Radio
theatre is far more imaginative than television, and evokes more creativity
from the listener. I also think stereo sound is heavily wasted with FM
radio stations...the possibilities are endless with it, but again it goes
back to radio theatre...which in Cleveland, I don't hear anywhere on the
dial. I'm willing to bet if the commercial stations went to mono, most
pop-culture listeners wouldn't know the difference.

Every Man

At 10:52 PM 2/1/2001 -0800, you wrote:
>Radio remains our most forgotten potentially creative medium, and when all
>the tycoons ruin the similarly positive potential of the Internet, I'm glad
>radio will still be there, continuing to be forgotten, where I can play and
>do anything I want, including about 17 kinds of blatant copyright
>"infringements" per hour without me having to pay anyone or get anyone's
>permission to do it. (Gee, is there something wrong with me? - listeners
>seem to love it...) In over 20 years of broadcasting my own show, mixing
>and remixing almost entirely "found sound" (but copyrighted) material, I
>have never ONCE received a cease and disist letter from a law firm
>representing someone who owns it, even though I do stuff with it every week
>which would surely get me one of those were I to do the exact same thing on
>CDs, in TV, in the movies, or soon, on the Internet. Even as rare as this
>kind of totally unhindered and autonomous reuse or live mix creativity IS
>in radio today, it in fact IS still possible there, (specifically at mostly
>non-commercial stations) and nowhere else. However, just the fact that any
>station can throw any song it wants to into its horribly uninspired
>playlist without contacting the owner is a very minimal use of the huge
>freedom to create with music that actually exists there.
>
>All this is to praise the particular accomodation broadcast radio has
>rather painlessly reached with copyright laws which, in radio's case, are
>distinctly grass roots friendly and ever so usefully non-intrusive to the
>medium's own creative process and inherent desires and unique abilities.
>The Net COULD do the same, but is already being shaped by a lack of concern
>for any of this.
>DJ
>Negativland

Every Man every.manATpressthebutton.com
Press The Button, Midnight - 3 am Sundays
WRUW, 91.1 FM, Cleveland, OH
NETCAST http://www.wruw.org
HOMEPAGE http://www.pressthebutton.com

----------------------------------------------------
Rumori, the Detritus.net Discussion List
to unsubscribe, send mail to majordomoATdetritus.net
with "unsubscribe rumori" in the message body.
----------------------------------------------------
Rumori list archives & other information are at
http://detritus.net/contact/rumori
----------------------------------------------------



Home | Detrivores | Rhizome | Archive | Projects | Contact | Help | Text Index


[an error occurred while processing this directive] N© Detritus.net. Sharerights extended to all.