brainstorms

Tuesday November 30, 2004

marsalis, sharing jazz, and a loss of magic

i think i have every wynton marsalis CD in my music library (excluding the greatest hits album), but i do not think i will ever have his latest, the magic hour from blue note in any form.

it is not the music.

it is the copy control.

i am not allowed to make a personal use copy of this CD for my ipod, and it will fail to play in a number of my CD players. this is especially ironic and disturbing when one spends some time thinking about the origins and culture of jazz music, and wynton's source material in general in conjunction with copyright laws. if that is too hard to do, i would especially recommend lessig's sharp and thoughtful Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity as additional food for thought.

[note: canadian copyrights, being reasonably sane, have a provision for private copying. we in canada pay a levy for this on blank audio recording media, including ipods.]

(2004-11-30 08:11:36.0) Permalink