[rumori] The Sample Clearance Fund: A proposal

Steev [rumori] The Sample Clearance Fund: A proposal
Tue, 25 Aug 1998 09:11:27 -0700 (PDT) (00904090287, Pine.LNX.4.02.9808250847350.21609-100000ATflotsam.detritus.net)

Nicola,

While your proposal is interesting (because of the fascinating background
connections between art and commerce that it invokes), I believe it is
an effort in the wrong direction.

The general idea of paying for samples, no matter what the bureaucratic
process used to execute it, is contrary to the artistic needs of
sample-artists, and is exactly what people like Negativland have been
fighting against.

Free sampling, fair use appropriation, is a right, as an artist and as a
member of this mass culture we live in. By setting up a clearance fund
you are in essence giving up the fight for this right, you are saying
"okay, we'll play by your rules, we agree that everything is owned by someone, and that someone has to be compensated in every case." But payment implies permission, and many works of appropriation
are much too critical of their source materials to ever be granted
persmission, even if they were able to be paid for.

No, the only solution is to keep fighting for the free and unfettered
reuse of culture in art. Art is not about commerce, and by agreeing to
pay the powers that be, you are agreeing with them that the only thing
that really matters is money. That is, of course, wrong.

Most sincerely,

smh

Steev Hise, Would-be World-Wide Web Wizard (WWWWW)
steevAThise.org http://www.cyborganic.com/people/steev recycled art site: http://www.detritus.net -----------------------------------------------------------------
"The world's greatest stag party became California, which was trashed as thoroughly as a saloon in a drunken brawl." -Robert Dawson and Gray Brechin
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