[rumori] Re: copyright schemes (was Re: hello)
Boster, Bob [rumori] Re: copyright schemes (was Re: hello)
Wed, 10 Jun 1998 10:04:53 -0700 (00897527093, c=US%a=_%p=HIII%l=MAIN_SERVER-980610170453Z-4359ATserver2.orban.com)
>----------
>From: Steev[SMTP:steevATdetritus.net]
>Sent: Tuesday, June 09, 1998 5:15 PM
>
>I think John Cage said something about "owning music", how it was funny
>that people always talk about how they "have that piece", when what
>they're really talking about is that they own one copy of one recording of
>a piece. But owning a slab of vinyl or plastic isnt what it's about.
See, there's an issue of context there, though. Cage comes from the
fringe of the classical music world, where there's an idea of different
versions of pieces as performed in different contexts, by different
orchestras, soloists, conductors, etc. Add to that the idea he was
completely absorbed in; that there is a high degree of indeterminacy in
his pieces, so he had constrained outcomes to a certain range, but there
was a huge amount of difference that could happen from performance to
performance.
I think when people say "I've got that" they're talking about stuff from
the pop end of the world, where the outcome of _Sgt. Pepper's_ is
exactly what they (Beatles and Sir George) wanted it to be. There was
no range of possible outcome. Aside from scratches, when you owned the
LP, you owned what the outcome of their work was.
Now, I'm as far down the path of "the work isn't done until the
listener's turned it into whatever they're going to make of it", but I
don't think that's the issue here.
>(there's Cage again. he's everywhere....)
Indeed. Thank god. I saw him in the long line of people at the Fremont
DMV this morning...
Bob
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