Fuck off, ASCAP

[Telarus]

http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/06/25/2048216/ASCAP-Declares-War-On-Free-Culture-EFF

"According to Drew Wilson at ZeroPaid and Cory Doctorow, the ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), a US organization that aims to collect royalties for its members for the use of their copyrighted works, has begun soliciting donations to fight key organizations of the free culture movement, such as Creative Commons, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Public Knowledge. According to a letter received by ASCAP member Mike Rugnetta, 'Many forces including Creative Commons, Public Knowledge, Electronic Frontier Foundation and technology companies with deep pockets are mobilizing to promote "Copyleft" in order to undermine our "Copyright." They say they are advocates of consumer rights, but the truth is these groups simply do not want to pay for the use of our music. Their mission is to spread the word that our music should be free.' (Part 1 and part 2 of the letter.) The collecting agency is asking that its professional members donate to its Legislative Fund for the Arts, which appears to be a lobbying campaign meant to convince Congress that artists should not have the choice of licensing their works under a copyleft license."

[Pæs]

THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!

[Cain]

To be fair, this is directly in accordance with the kind of logic which suggests you can impose "freedom" on people, so I'm not surprised to see it being used here.  "Copyright/Liberal Democracy with a low capital gains tax is the only way!  Embrace Freedom or be jailed!/assassinated"

[Pæs]

Copyleft naturally results in less intellectual property being offered to Copyright which weakens its legal effectiveness. Anything other than copyright is copywrong, and is ensuring a victory for the terrorists.
These groups actually support the owner of intellectual property having the right to decide. If an artist doesn't want to copyright their work, then they have no rights at all. It's only fair.

Also, the internet is the end of music forever.

[Placid Dingo]

These groups actually support the owner of intellectual property having the right to decide. If an artist doesn't want to copyright their work, then they have no rights at all. It's only fair.

The implication here that choosing creative commons = choosing no copyright, is completely wrong. Doctorow makes a lot of money from copyleft works, and he and i daresay many others would be pretty pissed by an attack on an organisation dong so much fantastic good work.

[Pæs]

These groups actually support the owner of intellectual property having the right to decide. If an artist doesn't want to copyright their work, then they have no rights at all. It's only fair.

The implication here that choosing creative commons = choosing no copyright, is completely wrong. Doctorow makes a lot of money from copyleft works, and he and i daresay many others would be pretty pissed by an attack on an organisation dong so much fantastic good work.

To clarify, do you think this to be my position? Does "the implication here" refer to my post, or to the thread in general?
My comment "if an artist doesn't want to copyright their work, then they have no rights at all" was referring to what appears to be ASCAP's ideal resolution for this. It seems they want the only options available to be copyright or public domain. So, should they find victory in this (unlikely), then if an artist doesn't want to copyright their work, they have no rights at all. I didn't mention Creative Commons because this effort would have that option removed.

[Jasper]

If this passes, I will organize a political movement to bring back nuclear first-strike policies.

Fuck it.

[Requia ☣]

These groups actually support the owner of intellectual property having the right to decide. If an artist doesn't want to copyright their work, then they have no rights at all. It's only fair.

The implication here that choosing creative commons = choosing no copyright, is completely wrong. Doctorow makes a lot of money from copyleft works, and he and i daresay many others would be pretty pissed by an attack on an organisation dong so much fantastic good work.

Doctorow's works are inherently available to the public though, and won't ever go out of print, the internet makes sure of that.  His works aren't a threat today, but in 50 years when all of them are still there* they'll still be providing free of cost competition to the traditional publishers.  Its part of the why they haven't allowed anything to hit the public domain since what, the 60s?  If there is a cache of freely available entertainment, people will be less inclined to pay for new things that don't actually add value to old entertainment.  Media companies, especially music companies, rely on old things going out of style, or just not being available, so they can sell new things.  Creative commons works of even minor popularity will be available forever, they can't be removed by not publishing them anymore, because other people will keep spreading them.

*I don't actually think Doctorow's work has this much longevity, very little science fiction lasts, I'm just giving a relevant example.

[Fujikoma]

That's... Just... Fucking... DUMB. I slap a creative commons copyright on all my stuff (not that hardly anyone pays attention anyway, it's mostly garbage), because I think copyrights have pretty much been the death of advancement... Especially in music. Who was it, some Sousa guy who went off about this God knows how many years ago?

It's just greed, plain and simple. While I get that's pretty much what everyone else seems to be implying, I'm still upset and frustrated. I think I read a prediction somewhere that something like this would happen one day, but I forget where. The position is so stupid, though, that I'd like to say I'd be surprised if they get anywhere with it, but I know better than that, these assholes might just have a case if enough people donate and they bribe the right people.

[Requia ☣]

Nah, never happen.  Alternate licensing is a huge deal in the software world, not just copyleft, but every software company.  They'd have to take on Microsoft and Google at the same time for starters.

[Placid Dingo]

These groups actually support the owner of intellectual property having the right to decide. If an artist doesn't want to copyright their work, then they have no rights at all. It's only fair.

The implication here that choosing creative commons = choosing no copyright, is completely wrong. Doctorow makes a lot of money from copyleft works, and he and i daresay many others would be pretty pissed by an attack on an organisation dong so much fantastic good work.

To clarify, do you think this to be my position? Does "the implication here" refer to my post, or to the thread in general?
My comment "if an artist doesn't want to copyright their work, then they have no rights at all" was referring to what appears to be ASCAP's ideal resolution for this. It seems they want the only options available to be copyright or public domain. So, should they find victory in this (unlikely), then if an artist doesn't want to copyright their work, they have no rights at all. I didn't mention Creative Commons because this effort would have that option removed.

Please ignore my comment then, I took your comment the wrong way.

[LMNO]

That really is incredibly stupid.  I'm kind of sorry I used ASCAP as part of my "don't steal music" defense.

If people want to license their music in a different way, then they have that right to do so.  That's the whole freaking point.

I guess ASCAP's gotten lazy, and doesn't want to do any work.  Hey ASCAP, why don't you get off your asses and start promoting the artists in your catalog?  Your job is to collect royalties for them -- what better way than to convince people to use their music?  Lawsuits ain't gonna cut it.

[Adios]

ASCAP came in my bar one day and said they were going to sue me for playing a radio. I invited them 1) Sue, 2) GTFO, 3) Never come back.

Seemed to work out alright.

[Cramulus]

for real??

[Adios]

for real??

Yes. They called me for months threatening if I didn't buy an ASCAP license I was not allowed to have a TV, Radio, or any live music, including original music. My bar was in Ellis, Ks which is a shithole little town and was making no money.