John Mellencamp: Takes From Others, But Refuses To Give Back

Culture

from the sad dept

We recently wrote about John Mellencamp’s complaints about how the internet and file sharing are destroying the music business. While the actual evidence suggests something entirely different, what may be even more interesting is Mellencamp’s rather blatant hypocrisy about such things. One of our commenters, coldbrew, points us to an interview with Mellencamp from a year and a half ago, where he gleefully explains how he not just takes inspiration from the works of others, but he claims “ownership” over their works in a sense. The interviewer asked about Mellencamp’s process for writing a song, and he responds:

Well you know, as I’ve matured as a songwriter, I realize that if it’s out there, it’s mine. You know, everything I see and hear, I don’t care if Shakespeare wrote it, or Tennessee Williams wrote it, or if Bob Dylan wrote it, or I see it on a sitcom. If I hear words, they’re mine.

And so I will take ideas from anyplace, anywhere, anytime, and life has become a song to me. I’m always looking for a song.

Now, obviously, he’s talking in a symbolic way, but the stark contrast shows a rather incredible sense of entitlement. Basically, everything is “his,” and nothing can be anyone else’s. He wants to take possession over anyone else’s work, but refuses to give back, and claims that others doing a similar process are somehow “destroying” his own work.

Filed Under: culture, inspiration, internet, john mellencamp, music

Japanese Band Sells Hawaiian Vacation With The Band

Culture

from the people-will-pay-for-access dept

Perhaps other bands have done this in the past, but I just found out about a band from Japan (who, believe it or not, I’ve seen perform live), The Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra (better known as Skapara), that is offering its fans a one-week Hawaiian trip with the band, including a plane ticket from Tokyo, a week with the band in Hawaii, including a private acoustic show on a cruise. The whole thing runs about $2,200, which doesn’t seem too crazy if you’re a huge fan of the band and want a trip to Hawaii (from Japan). And this is a band with a pretty big following (i.e., has sold out stadiums in Japan).

We’ve pointed out before that selling “access” to musicians is an excellent scarcity to sell, and with one recent study having 19% of respondents agree to the hyperbolic statement that they would pay anything to meet their favorite music stars, this seems like a business model that could be explored more. And, before people start claiming that we’re now saying “the business model is to take vacations with your fans,” just like we keep getting people falsely accuse us of saying the business model is to play mini-golf with fans, that’s not what we’re saying at all. We’re just suggesting that bands explore ways in which access can work as a scarcity. It might not work for all acts, but it is an area that some might want to explore.

Filed Under: japan, tokyo ska paradise orchestra

Even 'Free' Culture Supporters Sometimes Have Difficulty Living Up To Their Own Principles

Culture

from the Software-IS-Culture dept

In my endless attempt to explain what’s wrong with Creative Commons’ “non-commercial” and “no derivatives” restrictions, I came across this 2005 article by Benjamin Mako Hill:

Free Software’s fundamental document is Richard Stallman’s Free Software Definitions (FSD) [3]. At its core, the FSD lists four freedoms:

• The freedom to run the program, for any purpose;
• The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs;
• The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor;
• The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits;

…For the CC founders and many of CC’s advocates, FOSS’s success is a source of inspiration. However, despite CC’s stated desire to learn from and build upon the example of the free software movement, CC sets no defined limits and promises no freedoms, no rights, and no fixed qualities. Free software’s success is built upon an ethical position. CC sets no such standard.

This has led to a proliferation of harmful and incompatible CC-NC and CC-ND licensed works, mistakenly labeled “Free.” Mako Hill points out that while Creative Commons pursued its goal of “Balance, compromise, and moderation,” it failed to define or defend any core freedoms. Indeed, there seems to be no concern about what the “Free” in Free Culture means. To most it means, “slightly less restrictive than modern copyright.” Even so, most CC licenses are more restrictive than pre-1970’s copyright (because modern copyright’s extended terms and more draconian punishments for infringements still apply).

Fortunately the Four Freedoms of Free Software easily apply to Culture:

the freedom to use the work and enjoy the benefits of using it

the freedom to study the work and to apply knowledge acquired from it

the freedom to make and redistribute copies, in whole or in part, of the information or expression

the freedom to make changes and improvements, and to distribute derivative works

That’s not so hard, is it?

Ironically I was arguing with Richard Stallman last month about the Free Software Foundation‘s use of -ND licenses on its cultural works. A film they sponsored, Patent Absurdity, has “no derivatives” restrictions even though it could be greatly improved by editing, and clips could be highly beneficial in other works. Freedom #4 FAIL. Even the FSF fails to apply the Four Freedoms to Culture!

Software IS culture. Many in the Free Software Movement draw a false distinction between “utility” and “aesthetics,” claiming software is useful and culture is just pretty or entertaining. But you never know how a cultural work might prove useful to someone else down the line. If you treat it as non-useful, and restrict it to prevent other uses, then of course it won’t be useful – you’ve restricted its utility through an unFree license.

The Free Software community needs to learn that Software is Culture. The Free Culture community needs to learn that Free is Free.

FREE. CULTURE. It’s not that hard.

Filed Under: creative commons, free culture, non-commercial

Mark Waid Explains: Culture Is More Important Than Copyright & It's Time To Look For Opportunities In Sharing

Culture

from the say-that-again dept

We recently wrote about comic book writer Mark Waid’s supposedly controversial keynote speech at the Harvey Awards, where he talked about copyright, the public domain and learning to embrace file sharing. Beyond the general controversy, a lot of people apparently misinterpreted his talk to be anti-copyright and anti-making money (we get that a lot around here too). So he’s now posted a written out version of his talk that seeks to clarify many of his points (thanks to Robert Ring for sending this in). It’s a great read, and hits on many of the points that we normally talk about here. Specifically, copyright is supposed to benefit the public and that file sharing isn’t going away, so you’re better off embracing it and using it to your advantage, rather than whining about it. Nice to see more people recognizing this. It also has a great line:

culture is more important than copyright

I’m trying to understand anyone who would disagree with this statement, but so often we hear people say that they have to defend their copyrights “on principle,” even if not defending them is better for culture. But the key point of his article is that fearing file sharing and attacking it doesn’t help. It doesn’t stop it from happening and it provides no real advantage to those doing the attacking. So he suggests it’s time to figure out ways to turn it into an opportunity:

Like it or not, downloading is here. Torrents and filesharing are here. That’s not going away. I’m not here to attack it or defend it–I’m not going to change anyone’s mind either way, and everyone in America at this point has anecdotal evidence “proving” how it hurts or helps the medium–but I am here to say it isn’t going away–and fear of it, fear of filesharing, fear of illegal downloading, fear of how the internet changes publishing in the 21st century, that’s a legitimate fear, because we’re all worried about putting food on the table and leaving a legacy for our children, but we’re using our energy on something we can’t stop, because filesharing is not going away.

And I’ll tell you why. It’s not because people “like stealing.” It’s because the greatest societal change in the last five years is that we are entering an era of sharing. Twitter and YouTube and Facebook–they’re all about sharing. Sharing links, sharing photographs, sending some video of some cat doing something stupid–that’s the era we’re entering. And whether or not you’re sharing things that technically aren’t yours to share, whether or not you’re angry because you see this as a “generation of entitlement,” that’s not the issue–the issue is, it’s happening, and the internet’s ability to reward sharing has reignited this concept that the public domain has cultural value. And I understand if you are morally outraged about it and you believe to your core that an entire generation is criminal and they’re taking food off your table, I respect that.

But moral outrage is often how we deal with fear. It’s a false sense of empowerment in the face of fear.

Great stuff. Definitely go read the whole thing. He also mentions that he’s got some plans in place for how he’s going to embrace things like BitTorrent and run some interesting experiments. He points out that they’re experiments, and there’s no guarantee they’ll work, but he wants to step forward and at least try to embrace it. This is great to hear, and I look forward to seeing what kind of experiments he runs.

Filed Under: comics, copyright, culture, harvey awards, mark waid, public domain

Connecting With Fans Is About More Than Getting People To Pay Attention To You

Culture

from the a-connection-goes-beyond-first-access dept

When I first start talking about this whole CwF+RtB thing, I tended to focus more on the “RtB — Reason to Buy” part of it, because I naturally assumed that was the big problem. After all, the big thing we kept hearing was how creative folks weren’t able to make money any more. However, the more I’ve been discussing this with people, the more I realize that many, many folks out there have serious problems with the first part, the “connecting with fans,” part. I recently got an email from an artist who seemed upset, saying that he was giving out all of his music for free, but fans weren’t interested. Similarly, I recently got into a discussion in the comments with someone from a newspaper who insisted that I was wrong in saying news organizations need to better enable their community. His argument was that newspapers put up comments, just like we have at Techdirt, so they’re doing the exact same thing as we are.

Both of these appear to be cases of cargo cult copying, where someone tries to copy just the superficial outwardly obvious aspects of what others are doing, without taking the time to understand (1) the deeper underlying reasons why they work for some or (2) recognizing how that might (or might not) apply to what you’re doing yourself. Connecting with fans isn’t about “oh just give away content for free,” or “oh, put up some comment forms.” It’s about actually figuring out what your community wants, interacting with them, and giving them what they want. It’s about actually participating in some manner.

I was thinking about all of this as I read an interesting blog post by Marcus Taylor, where he explains the process by which he became a fan of the singer Jason Mraz, who had that catchy hit single last summer that many of you probably heard. But just hearing a catchy hit song being played over and over again isn’t enough to make someone a true fan. Taylor points out that it went way beyond that, and took him not just listening to much more of Mraz’s music via various online offerings, but then coming across some interviews with Mraz, where his personality shines through. Taylor points out that it took some time, but he finally realized that he didn’t just like Mraz’s music, but he liked Mraz — and that made the jump possible. From there he comes up with a short list of “ways to make fans fall in love with you”:

• Be yourself — Most people despise a fake personality and can smell it a mile off, be your self and people will appreciate that.
• Be transparent — don’t hide the fact that you’re a small local band if that’s what you are — if you’re honest and likeable then your fans will be more inclined to help you get to the next step.
• Be professional but not too serious — After all, life’s too short for being too serious and worrying about everything, have fun but remain professional.
• Leave breadcrumbs everywhere — better yet, leave breadcrumbs that show off the points above and give your fans a good reason to love you. Remember not all fans react to the same mediums as strongly so keep producing images, videos, and text content to bait them.

Obviously, this doesn’t apply for everyone, and there is no “magic formula” for figuring out the best way to connect with fans, but it’s certainly about doing a lot more than tossing out some free content and a comment form and wondering why fans aren’t rushing to you. You actually need to be a part of that process, and actually let your personality come through. Being human really counts for something, and it’s a point that’s ignored all too often.

Along those lines, this upcoming Tuesday, at the a2n conference in Berlin, I’ll be leading a brainstorming session generating ideas for musicians to better connect with their fans.

Filed Under: connecting with fans, fans, jason mraz

Funding To Edit 200 Hours Of Pirate Bay Documentary Footage Raised In Just Three Days

Culture

from the but-pirates-want-everything-for-free!!!! dept

A bunch of folks have been sending over the news that filmmaker Simon Klose was attempting to raise $25,000 in order to hire a professional editor to edit down over 200 hours of footage Simon had filmed of The Pirate Bay’s founders over the period of the last couple of years. In his intro pitch, he pointed out that some thought it was strange that he was making a movie about an organization that many in the movie industry hated. But, Simon, of course, points out that such a response is silly. The industry and the market have changed, and there are new avenues to raising funds — such as directly via a platform like Kickstarter. What’s really impressive though is that it only took three days to raise the funds, and there are still over three more weeks to go, and the amount raised keeps going up.

In an interview about the fundraising process, Klose points out that it’s not at all surprising that people who support things like The Pirate Bay would support his film, because he was offering them something they actually wanted to support:

I think it’s natural that you support stuff you believe in. The people who support our movie obviously don’t believe in the services that the movie and record industries are offering them. To me it’s much more ironic that the corporations are claiming that the system used to be just and beneficial to artists before the internet came around. It never was.

And, of course, Klose fully intends to release the movie via The Pirate Bay (as well as by DVD). When asked about how he feels about people file sharing his movie, he notes:

Filesharing is great marketing, I don’t mind people marketing my work.

Filed Under: crowdfunding, documentary, movie, simon klose
Companies: the pirate bay

Thinking About Possibilities: Arcade Fire Tries To Build The House You Grew Up In Into Latest Music Video

Culture

from the greater-interactivity dept

Brandon was the first of a few of you to send over the news of how the band Arcade Fire’s latest “music video” is actually an experiment in more interactive HTML 5 experiences. The idea is that you’re supposed to put in the address of where you grew up, and the “video” (which actually involves a bunch of different windows, rather than a single “video” window) builds the street you grew up on into the video itself via Google maps satellite view and Google Street View. Honestly, the implementation is just so-so (didn’t actually work for where I grew up, so I tried where I live now — which is on a hill — which looks funny since the guy in the video is running on totally flat ground). Still, the overall experience is neat in at least getting people to think about the possibilities for both HTML 5, as well as adding much more customization into content. It also might finally get people to realize that videos don’t need to just sit in a single box… While I doubt many musicians are going to do the same thing, hopefully it does inspire others to start thinking (literally) out of the video box, and about more interesting opportunities.

Filed Under: arcade fire, html 5, interactivity, music

Hulu: We Know That Hulu Plus Sucks, But It's Not Our Fault

Culture

from the reading-between-the-lines dept

We were among many, many folks who were completely underwhelmed by Hulu’s subscription plan for Hulu Plus. It was $10 for… not much. In fact, new reports are showing that 88% of Hulu Plus content is available via regular Hulu. On the whole, if they are going to lock up content, I’m actually glad to see them keep most content for free, but it’s still not clear what additional value they’re offering to get people to pay up, and customers are noticing. It seems that Hulu actually recognizes this, however. Consumerist has an email that someone from Hulu sent to an unhappy Hulu Plus customer about the weak selection and the need for ads even though she had paid, and the letter basically admits that Hulu knows Hulu Plus sucks, but they’re limited by annoying contracts and they’re trying to change it. Yes, it’s a bit of a paraphrase, but that’s certainly what’s implied here:

In the ideal world, we would absolutely love and want nothing more but to be able to get every popular show out there that users love, and acquire the legal rights to stream them across every fancy device imaginable at the price that everybody wants. Unfortunately, due to stringent contract agreements on how content can be shared through certain devices, we are not able to have all of the content that everyone wants at this time.

Of course, this all comes back to the same thing we’ve said before. Hulu’s in such a difficult place because the company needs to keep other companies so happy that it can’t disrupt the businesses it needs to disrupt. You simply don’t disrupt legacy businesses by working within their guidelines.

Filed Under: content providers, hulu plus, subscription, tv, video
Companies: hulu

Digitizing Your Own Books Becoming Popular In Japan

Culture

from the expect-a-backlash dept

Tim O’Reilly points us to a new report out of Japan, noting that it’s becoming increasingly popular for people to digitize their own books (a practice called “jisui”). Yes, they’re taking books they legally own and scanning them, so that they can store them as ebooks, and read them on various devices such as the iPad. I would have thought this wasn’t a popular practice, but at least one study found that 20% of iPad owners in Japan had done so, and another 30% were interested in doing so.

What’s interesting is how this is boosting ancillary businesses: specifically there’s a strong demand for scanners that make it easier to scan and backup your books. In Japan, digitizing your own books for personal use is apparently legal under that country’s copyright law, but some publishers are getting worried about this practice and are considering what to do about it. And, of course, some copyright “experts” are already saying that Japanese copyright law needs to be updated to deal with this.

Or, perhaps, just this once, we shouldn’t change copyright law to limit what new technology allows, and recognize that maybe, just maybe, this action is showing what people want, which book publishers haven’t been fulfilling.

Filed Under: books, digitizing, ebooks, japan

How Should Facebook Respond To The Social Network Movie?

Culture

from the tread-carefully dept

As you probably know by now, there’s a movie coming out this fall, called Social Network, which is sorta, kinda, maybe an extremely fictionalized version of the story behind Facebook. It was based on a book by Ben Mezrich, which was already a fictionalized account of the founding of Facebook — based on notes from a disgruntled co-founder, with Mezrich taking significant creative license to fill in lots of blanks. Then, famed writer Aaron Sorkin wrote the script, passing it through a second fictionalized filter. And, not surprisingly, the folks at Facebook are not at all pleased with the movie, which doesn’t exactly portray Mark Zuckerberg or Facebook in a very nice light.

Apparently Facebook execs are debating what to do about the movie, and it’s almost surprising that they haven’t tried to take legal action — because that’s almost what you’d expect these days. Of course, they probably realize that doing so will only get the movie more attention (though, it certainly looks like the movie is going to get plenty of attention already). Yet in an age where “publicity rights” lawsuits are becoming more common and many movie makers feel they need to secure the rights of anyone and any company that shows up in a film, it’s actually somewhat surprising that this particular film actually was made.

But given that Facebook execs are trying to figure out what to do about the film and how to respond to it, I’m curious what folks here think. I think I would go with the simplest of all solutions: a single page that explains why the movie is a greatly fictionalized account, and not an accurate depiction of either the company or its employees, past or current, and then just stay quiet otherwise. What else would you suggest?

Filed Under: aaron sorkin, facebook, mark zuckerberg, movies, social network
Companies: facebook