InkTank

Is music for one person or to be shared?

Imagine a room full of people laughing and having a good time. No television, no iPod, not even a radio are present in the room and yet the party does not need these things. The room fills with the sound of a grand piano and then the soft sweet sound of a woman’s voice. The people sit and sip wine while the woman sings.

That is how it was in the early 1800s. Today music is not shared in this way. People put their headphones on and shut out the other people around them. The intended community of music has been lost to modern conveniences and perhaps just the laziness of today’s society. It is easier to flip a switch then to sing together as a group for the satisfaction of the human need for other people.

In the early 1800s music was a community event. People would gather together with their instruments to entertain themselves and others. It was a way of communicating feelings and emotions in an open way with friends and family. It was a way to become closer with people while at the same time being entertained. However the very purpose of music from it’s origins was to share it. Composers took extra time to write a song down in order that later it could be played or sang by someone else or at a social function. Today music is not so much of a community event. Music is more personal, something that is not shared with others. iPods have become super popular making listening to music a one man show. Music has become more of a white noise for people. People don’t focus on it’s lyrics which are about the human condition. It is simply something to block out the silence while doing everyday activities

In the 1800s music was a sort of refinery. It was a statement of wealth and social status. Only the wealthy could afford the instruments needed to create music. To listen to music was to make a statement that one was successful in the world. It meant more than just entertainment. Today music is something that is accessible to all people. Radios are inexpensive luxuries and any song imaginable can be bought from iTunes for ninety-nine cents. Music still creates a statement according to the genre that one listens to, but it is no longer a statement of wealth and refinery.

Tuning in illegally

Recently I was brought up to date on the issues of downloading music illegally which honestly came as a huge shock to me.  Personally, I've always found it too time consuming and way too difficult to understand so I never really bothered.   However, a good number of college students around the world have mastered the art of pirating music and will pay for it very soon.

MaineToday.com is one of the many publications warning college music pirates that the Recording Industry Association of America is coming after them full force.  The RIAA has sent out letters to universities so they can identify violaters by using their IP address and give them two options: confront the RIAA and settle or prepared to be sued.   The article points out that since February 28, the RIAA has sent out more than 800 letters to 36 different universities around the country where they found IP addresses that contained stolen music from the internet.  You would think that the universities would do everything in their power to help their students, but however, that is not the case.

I'm currently working on a survey at Inside Higher Ed and found that the University of Wisconsin System is refusing to forward letters to their students because they feel they are not obligated to do so.  Instead the said that they do not wish to insert themselves in a legal issue between the RIAA and alleged copyright violators.  They also believe that an IP address doesn't necessarily correspond to a specific person.  The University of Maine System is going to the extreme in keeping their students safe, but also allowing those who do not respond to the email to not be held accountable for his or her actions.  The system will notify students, but if students fail to pick up notices or fail to respond to RIAA, the university is refusing to give out names of those students to RIAA in order to adhere to their policy: they are not permitted to reveal the students' names through their Internet identification.

Stephen Nelson, director of the office of standards at the University of Southern Maine, said students face a $35 fine and two-week loss of access to the university's network. And following in the long tradition of slaps on the wrist, students have to watch a 10-minute video made by the RIAA and write a one-page paper on why they should not steal music.

The two extremes have been listed... however, what about the schools that are helping their students through this, giving them legal advice, even offering university legal assistance if available?  The media loves drama, don't they?  Instead of reading about the positive aspects of situations, the negative ones are always portrayed to obtain gasps from readers.  It proves to be a silly way to obtain interest from readers and to me, it proves a certain type of bias as well.  Just because a school is following protocol, they are tagged as not newsworthy in this case.  Let's talk about schools like Boston University or Columbia University who have been sending settlement letters out to their students and have been counseling them as to what their choices are for obtaining legal advice.  That seems not only newsworthy to me, but also praise worthy!

I may be playing the overly sensitive card here, I don't know.  But I feel that as journalists, we should be seeking out news in a balanced manner, both negative and positive so that institutions, organizations and the general public get the attention they deserve.

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From The Steve

The ground shook the Apple tree Thursday.

It all started last week when Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Company Inc.,  released an essay or open letter asking for the end of digital rights management. In practical terms, DRM is why a user can only sync his/her iTunes library with an iPod instead of another mp3 player.

For the normal user, the term DRM and the ins and outs of digital copyright laws are unknown. No one really needs to understand all of that to download music to their iPod, but what makes this interesting is a report released by JupiterResearch lead analyst Mark Mulligan two days after Jobs' announcement.

Mulligan's report said over half of European music executives agreed that DRM rules were too strict and that if they were dropped, music sales would benefit greatly.

The fact that so many execs wanted some liberation from DRM is surprising.

The report itself can only be viewed after purchase, but BetaNews' Scott M. Fulton III offers an in-depth, understandable article that gives an explanation of the data in the report. In Fulton's analysis, he said what Jobs' and other music execs are really for is the ability to protect against theft while at the same time allowing consumers to purchase music from any Internet music story and sync that music with any mp3 player, which is called interoperability heaven.

Then, in Thursday's tech column Fast Forward, Rob Pegoraro of the Washington Post summarized Jobs' article down to a simple question: "Do we need any of this [DRM]  in the first place?"

DRM does not solve the problem of  the illegal sharing of music. It just protects music from being converted so that it can be shared on peer-to-peer networks; although, I'm certain someone has come up with a way around that too.

But, all that is needed for an illegal copy of a song to become available on the Internet is for one DRM-free copy to come out (i.e. one ripped from a CD and published on a peer-to-peer file sharing network). Once it is out, that copy will be duplicated and shared in an exponential fashion among users. So, the real problem is not DRM, as Jobs' said, but preventing the availability of illegal music.

Now, some would like to say that Apple and Jobs are just cashing in with the limited interoperability of iTunes and iPod. In other words, Apple has created a system where users that have bought music on iTunes must buy an iPod so that they can listen to it on the go. I think that is a little outlandish.

It's just good business sense to create programs that compliment each other. Also, I would not say there is some never-ending cycle being created by Apple. Especially, since iTunes will locate any music on someone's computer and add it to the iTunes library and ultimately one's iPod.  So, users don't have to purchase music at the iTunes store.

So, at least Jobs said he is ready to see a change. Now, let's see where it goes from here.

Jazz in town

By Richard Potts, Assistant Director of the Washington Journalism Center

As you're out looking for things to do over the next few days, take a look at the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival (DEJF). 

DC has actually been a very influential town in the development of jazz, and of course Duke Ellington  is a native son.   It's just another example of the many things that happen in this town that have nothing to do with "politics". 

The festival runs from today through Sunday, October 8, and a fair number of the events around town are free.  Here's the schedule of events.