EFFector Vol. 14, No. 19 Aug 10, 2001 editor@eff.org
A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424
In the 179th Issue of EFFector (now with over 28,500 subscribers!):
* Please Donate Your Tax Refund to EFF
* Attention Musicians: Sign up to Play at EFF's Music Share In on
September 8th
* Artists and Audiences Strike a New Deal with Open Licensing of
Music
* EFF Speaks at O'Reilly Conference in DC - Monday, September 17
2001
* EFF Thanks LabTam Finland for Generous Software Donation
* Administrivia
For more information on EFF activities & alerts: http://www.eff.org/
To join EFF or make an additional donation:
http://www.eff.org/support/
EFF is a member-supported non-profit. Please sign up as a member
today!
_________________________________________________________________
Donate your tax refund to the EFF!
We need your help now more than ever! Please make a US-tax-deductible
contribution to the Electronic Frontier Foundation!
http://www.eff.org/support/
_________________________________________________________________
Attention Musicians: Sign Up to Play at EFF's Share-In Music Festival
EFF Unplugged: Music Share-In
Saturday, September 8, 2001
Stanyan Meadow, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco (Corner of Haight
and Stanyon)
2 p.m. - 5 p.m.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) would like to invite you to
participate in an open air concert event for everyone who loves music.
EFF Unplugged will feature musicians from around the Bay Area
performing acoustically in Golden Gate Park. Artists participating in
this event will permit recording of their performances by those in
attendance in support of EFF's Open Audio License (OAL).
The OAL was developed to help artists share their work with others
without giving up the recognition they deserve for creating the art.
Based on the open source and free software initiatives for software
development, the open audio license encourages artists to share with
one another and their fans and to build upon the works of others.
Adoption of the OAL does not mean that an artist does not get
compensated for his or her work. On the contrary--the OAL permits
artists to share single tracks or performances, with recognition, that
could lead to sales of additional music. EFF is extremely sensitive to
supporting new models of music distribution in the digital world that
see more money going to the artists themselves. One of the great
qualities of the Internet is that packaging and distributing music,
which is where most of the money is currently spent by record
companies, is trivial. EFF is committed to developing tools that
empower artists to take control over their own art and to be
compensated appropriately for their works.
EFF believes that many of the laws and technologies being developed
today to protect intellectual property actually harm the public's
First Amendment and fair use rights and make criminals of people doing
perfectly legitimate things. We are striving to help artists realize
the full potential of the Internet for reaching their fans by
challenging restrictive laws in courtrooms and through public
education events, like this one.
In addition to several stages of acoustic music, the Share-In will
showcase numerous booths hosted by EFF and outside sponsors, including
artists' rights organizations and independent labels. For more
information about participating in EFF's Music Share-In, contact:
Katina Bishop, EFF Director of Education and Offline Activism,
+1 415-436-9333 x101,
katina@eff.org
More information about the Share-In:
http://www.eff.org/events/share-in/
Information about EFF's Open Audio License is available at:
http://www.eff.org/IP/Open_licenses/
EFF is the leading civil liberties organization working to protect
rights in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages
and challenges everyone to support free expression, privacy, and
openness in the information society. EFF is a member-supported
organization and maintains one of the most linked-to websites in the
world at:
http://www.eff.org/
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Artists and Audiences Strike a New Deal with Open Licensing of Music
By Robin D. Gross, Esq.
Artists' reputations are their number one assets. Whether they earn
their living by live performance fees, CD or merchandising sales,
subscription or sponsorship fees, advertising, or a variety of other
revenue-generating models, the more artists are known and appreciated
by the public, the better positioned they are is to seek and obtain
fees for their creative services.
Now imagine a world full of musicians, all creating, exchanging ideas
and building upon the works of others -- a true artist's collective.
Digital technology makes this possible. The revolutionary ease of
copying and distribution of music over the Internet allows musicians
to reach millions of people around the globe at minimal cost; at the
same time, the technology truly dissolves the boundaries between who
can be considered a creator and who is merely a consumer of art.
Musicians would have the opportunity to draw upon and truly build from
the works of others like never before. DJs could wade into an
increasing pool of music to broadcast or webcast without legal
restrictions. Artists would finally have a way to establish a direct
connection with their audiences. All this is possible through open
licensing.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was founded in 1990 to
protect civil liberties like freedom of expression and privacy rights
in the electronic world. EFF recently released the Open Audio License
with terms under which artists can choose to distribute their own
songs if they wish. It is EFF's hope that the license will empower the
artistic community and promote freedom of expression by taking
advantage of law and technology.
Original songs that artists choose to release under the Open Audio
License may be copied and shared with friends or publicly performed by
anyone without restrictions or royalties, so long as credit is
provided to the artist. The license terms strike a new deal between
artists and the public, opening up greater opportunities for musicians
worldwide who want to touch the most hearts and minds with their
message.
Open licensing allows artists to continue to profit from their music
released under the license in many of the same traditional ways they
always have, such as CD sales, live performance revenues,
merchandising, etc. Artists can also release one track of a CD under
the open license as a promotional tool to come to the website and buy
the entire CD.
In many respects, this idea is not revolutionary. Record labels and
artists regularly release free songs for the publicity value. It
should come as no surprise that the more an artist is heard, the
better her record and concert sales are and the more invitations to
provide other musical services she receives.
One real possibility for artist revenues in an electronic age that is
compatible with the open licensing is upfront fees for musical
services such as composition. Artists' livelihood may shift away from
one of payment for music as product to one of music as a service. The
rules of the game may be changing, but artists will adapt to a home in
the digital environment where greater opportunities await them.
Just as lawyers are paid fees for their services of drafting
contracts, artists can be commissioned to compose and record original
songs to, for example, commemorate weddings or births, which can be
further distributed to family, friends and heirs throughout time. The
industrial era for music distribution revolved around a model of mass
production of few songs that would be sold to all. Digital technology
allows creators to cultivate the value of individual customization of
music, something much more personal.
In the digital world, artists who wed their income solely to fees per
copies of goods sold seem to be selling themselves short. Since we are
moving toward an environment where any intellectual creation can and
will be copied and distributed with the click of a mouse, to tie
artist revenue to fees for copies distributed also seems to be the
surest way for artists to starve.
Rather than shoe-horning an old revenue model into a new technological
environment, as "digital rights management" (copy-prevention systems)
or other digital audio security schemes attempt, open licensing takes
advantage of the properties of digital technology, like ease of
copying and distributing. Artists' fans become their top promoters, by
passing on the music that they like to friends along with means to
connect with the artists, such as Web or e-mail addresses. This kind
of "viral marketing" or super-distribution of artists' music provides
an unprecedented opportunity to independent artists around the world
to pursue their passions. The challenge is now to the electronic
pioneers to use these new tools to build new business models or new
twists on the old ones that sustain and enhance artists' livelihood in
a digital world.
For more information about open licensing, including EFF's model Open
Audio License (OAL), see:
http://www.eff.org/IP/Open_licenses/
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EFF Speaks at O'Reilly Conference in DC - Monday, September 17, 2001
Emergent Computing Policy Roundtable
Peer-to-peer computing and web services bring fundamental shifts to
information and entertainment services--shifts that have major legal,
social, and moral repercussions. On Monday, September 17, 2001, Tim
O'Reilly brings together legal, political, and technology experts at
the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington DC for a no-holds-barred
roundtable discussion of the promise and perils of P2P and web
services. We invite you to join in this event, which is open and free
to the public. An audience Q&A follows the formal roundtable
discussion. Confirmed roundtable participants include:
* Tim O'Reilly, O'Reilly & Associates (and EFF
Boardmember-Emeritus), Moderator
* Manus Cooney, Napster
* Jon Potter, Digital Media Association (DiMA)
* Marc Rotenberg, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
* Peter Jaszi, Digital Future Coalition (DFC)
* Cindy Cohn, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
* Jenny Toomey, Future of Music Coalition (FMC)
* Dan Gilmor, San Jose Mercury News
Roundtable participants will discuss such issues as:
* Does MP3 filesharing on Napster--and now scores of other
systems--represent widespread disregard for the rights of
copyright owners? Or does the Napster lawsuit represent an attempt
to increase content providers' ability to control new distribution
technologies?
* Will we hold technology makers responsible for the activities of
all technology users? If not, how will we control the tools?
* Do DMCA limitations on breaking encryption schemes represent an
unreasonable limit on innovation and fair use, or needed
protections against dangerous crackers?
* How should the DMCA apply to technologies that have many uses,
only some of which threaten copyright owners?
* Are consumers better off with digital access to music, movies, and
books? Or are personal and fair use rights being eroded?
O'Reilly & Associates CEO Tim O'Reilly is an Internet activist and
leader in the open source movement. The roundtable is taking place in
conjunction with the O'Reilly Peer-to-Peer and Web Services
Conference, September 18-21, 2001, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in
Washington DC.
EFF staff and board will also be presenting at various sessions
throughout the conference.
For more information about the organizations represented at the
roundtable, visit these web sites:
http://www.eff.org/ - Electronic Frontier Foundation
http://www.napster.com/ - Napster
http://www.digmedia.org/ - Digital Media Association
http://www.epic.org/ - Electronic Privacy Information Center
http://www.dfc.org/ - Digital Future Coalition
http://www.futureofmusic.org/ - Future of Music Coalition
CONFERENCE UPDATE:
On Monday, September 17th, there will be a number of peer-to-peer and
web services community meetings. For more information about these
important events, please visit the conference web site:
http://conferences.oreilly.com/p2p/
CONFERENCE DETAILS
Tuesday September 18th features a full day of tutorials including
.NET, Groove, JXTA, SOAP, Jabber, OpenCOLA, Programming Web Services,
and an insightful technology overview by the program committee:
O'Reilly Networks Maven Rael Dornfest, OpenCOLA Co-Founder and Chief
Evangelist Cory Doctorow, Hack the Planet weblog editor Wes Felter,
and WorldOS Corp. CEO Lucas Gonze. Wednesday the 19th marks the
opening of the conference and exposition hall. As is customary for all
O'Reilly conferences, you can expect deeply technical and provocative
session presentations. Our lively exhibit hall features a
hands-on-look at the latest devices and technologies. And don't
forget, during the breaks the hallways will be teeming with vigorous
community discussions about the P2P and Web Services space.
_________________________________________________________________
EFF Thanks LabTam Finland for Generous Software Donation
The EFF wants to thank the folks at LabTam Finland for their generous
software donation of their WinaXe product. WinaXe is a Windows program
that allows Windows to run as an Linux Xwindows terminal. This allows
the Windows users to run Unix gui applications and even run an entire
Unix desktop on their laptop computers. By using this product our
users can run Windows and Linux at the same time and can cut and paste
information between the two operating systems. And a single Linux
server provides the desktop for all our Linux users. LabTam website:
http://www.labf.com/
The EFF appreciates companies like LabTam who make useful software and
donate licenses to EFF. This helps us become more effective in our
struggle to protect civil liberties.
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Administrivia
EFFector is published by:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation
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http://www.eff.org/
Editors:
Katina Bishop, EFF Education & Offline Activism Director
Stanton McCandlish, EFF Technical Director/Webmaster
editors@eff.org
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