| #683 |
|
2003 |
Perilous 683 Today three university students have been given community service orders and suspended sentences for putting ripped pop songs up on to their website for download. Most interestingly the third of the students “DJ Ace” got sentenced to 200 hours of community service for posting some self-made megamixes. The judge in the case agreed that none of the convicted students had made commercial gain or profit from their work and it was this that stopped all three spending time in jail. I’ve been interested in this case for quite a while because its been the first time anywhere in the world that anyone has been charged for online audio trading under criminal laws – usually people are subjected to civil suits (especially in America). Not surprisingly its been Australia, too, that has been the testing ground for a lot of digital media protection schemes – from EMI’s copy-protected ‘cds’ to enforced online activation by Microsoft a few years ago. Also, unlike America, Australians have never had the right to make a ‘backup’ copy of music (or other digital media) that they own. But like the ‘illegal’ recording of TV shows on VCRs, this has never gone to court. So you would think that artists and authors of digital media are doing better in Australia, given all this protection? Apparently not. The recently released report by the Australia Council for the Arts titled ‘Don’t Give Up Your Day Job’ reveals that of the 12,000 professional musicians their median music income per annum was just $10,500 which needed to be supplemented by other work to be a living wage. None of this should be very surprising though. Musicians receive only a small portion of that $30 retail price, and even Apple’s iTunes doesn’t rejig the way artists are paid even though the delivery system is entirely online. And I’d be surprised if Microsoft’s new music store (or any other) actually ends up paying proportionally larger shares directly to the artists - although there is no technological impairment to doing so. Check out http://www.downhillbattle.org/itunes/ for more details. Anyway, whilst on the topic of websites, there’s bee a lot of activity in the last year or so in the web journal or blog scene. And apart from the well known international electronic music writers like Simon Reynolds (http://blissout.blogspot.com) and Phillip Sherburne (http://minima-moralia.blogspot.com) there are excellent local writers contributing to the scene including Melbourne’s Tim Finney (http://skykicking.tripod.com) whose writing covers everything from microhouse to dancehall and pop, and prog critic Jon at Worlds Of Possibility (http://worldsofpossibility.blogspot.com). What is most interesting about this sort of writing is its speed and ability to quickly respond to changes in music culture considerably faster than any printed magazine. This quick and dirty self publishing is certainly worth keeping a regular eye on not only for the razor sharp dissections of current tracks, but also for tips on what to listen out for. Word has it that the Hopetoun Hotel is up for sale, but in the interim check out a new monthly night of electronic jazz hosted by Laurence Pike (from Pivot/Triosk). The first week is this Sunday with a live set from Triosk who have just released their debut album 1+3+1 with Jan Jelinek on Berlin’s ~scape label. The following Sunday, Noodle returns with the last live set in Australia form recent Canadian visitor The Boston Letter who melds a very upfront performance with Manitoba styled beat production. Yellow Peril (www.snarl.org)  Goto
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