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As long as the lobby groups can pay unlimited funds to politicians nothing will change.

Right now a big argument is afoot over the main Bridge between Detroit and Windsor. It was bought by a Detroit family around the time of the depression, and they are now billionaires. Now the problem, the governments want to make a 2nd bridge away from the other for security reasons. But on the American side, the billionaires can basically buy the votes, make as big a donation to them as they want.

In Canada no politician can take ANY money, except about 1k from an actual person. So according to the articles in the paper, the process south of the border is mired in money politics. Fix that end and you at least can have fair discussions.
Right now the elected official can just sit and decide what way to vote based on who's got the deepest pockets. And they can make TV commercials, well you get the idea. No system is perfect, and heaven knows some of our politicians end up golfing at exclusive resorts eating filet mignon and drinking cognac, but that's very much the exception.

If you really want to know what puts musicians out of work more than everything else combined, I'll tell you. Television.

My mother-in-law was telling me than in her days, all they had was tinny sounding radio or black and white TV with even tinnier sounding audio.

To get quality entertainment, they actually had to get dressed and go somewhere. Tinny audio and B&W images just didn't make it.

Now we have

• huge screen HDTV
• with 7.1 surround sound and
• a Cable or Satellite subscription that can easily run over $200.00 a month.

For most people, that's their entire entertainment budget. Plus the sound quality is good, and the picture is huge, clear and in color.

The result: People don't have the money left to go out, and they can get entertained at home.

So while the big stars and corporations are raking in huge bucks; the local musician, theater, and other entertainment providers are hurting.

Plus the TV is an addicting drug.

1. it's addicting, try going "cold turkey" and see if you don't get withdrawal symptoms
2. the drug users cannot tell the difference between the drug state and reality -- ask any actor/actress who plays an evil person on TV, when they go out in public, people call them names as if they were the character they are playing on TV
3. like any drug, it requires more and more stimulation to get the rush - we've gone from "Leave It To Beaver" to "Sex In The City" - 'nuff said.

And if you stay home glued to the tube instead of going out to hear local, live entertainment, you are part of the problem.

I have no idea how to solve this problem. I haven't watched TV since the mid 1980s (and didn't watch much before that) and that hasn't made a dent in the viewership. How to get others to do the same is beyond me.

I apologize for the rant.

Back to the subject. Copyright laws.

Why is it that if I come up with a cure for cancer, I'll get a patent that will last less than 20 years but if a kid writes a one chord song with a total of 6 different words, the copyright will last 75 years after the kid dies. So if the kid is 15 and lives to be 90, the copyright can last 150 years. This tells me that the one chord, 6 word song is much more important than a cure for cancer.

IMHO the copyright laws are simply too excessive. I agree we need copyright laws, but not this severe. How to fix it? I have no idea. TV (the drug that is an advertising medium disguised as an entertainment medium) is owned by huge corporations that are interested in keeping you from drawing "Mickey Mouse" without paying a royalty (for example) so they are going to use their brainwashing power to resist any change to the contrary.

OK, so I'm still ranting ;-)

If anybody has any ideas on how to fix the broken system, let me know.

Insights and incites by Notes

We sat last night in front of the TV, faced with a serious problem. I was recording the Lakers basketball game and my wife and daughter wanted to watch American Idol, and Lost at the same time. Hhmmm.. what to do? If we watch Idol, we have to record Lost, and you can't record two shows and watch a third with our system. Seriously do we need to be that entertained!?!?!

I think we have become far to reliant on The TV set.

I hardly ever just read, or do anything constructive. Even my music has slowed down, since the house we moved to has a small office off the dining area, where i keep my stuff, and that might interfere with the TV watching. Notes pointed out the transformation from leave it to Beaver to Sex in the city. there in lies another problem, there is nothing decent to watch, but we still watch it. Feeding our minds with crap that does not make us better people, but encourages us to accept crap as normal.

As far as the cure for cancer in comparison to the battle over copyrights, cancer is a tougher battle, and so far beyond our full understanding. Copyrights are well. there are so many views how does one get to middle ground. I don't knoiw but if i had a hit song i might find it flattering of a bunch of folks in coffee shops and small bars sang it and people like it. In fact it might encourage more album sales in some ways.

Bob, you old rascal, you have inspired me. I think i might tune out from the old TV and get some other things done, read a book, build something, play a tune or two. ..


Right after the results show for Idol is over.!!!

Educational Television -- Turn the thing around, unplug it and unscrew the back, let the kids stare at the components in there, they might actually learn something of value!



--Mac

This has been a super informative thread...but I am very disturbed about some of the results; for example, I have a singing bird (somewhat like the one Jerry Reed sang about in his song "The Bird") but mine is not as talented as his. In particular, it can only sing parts of various tunes (but each include some melody) including Happy Birthday, but, wow, now I find out and I quote: 'If you sing "Happy Birthday" at a private birthday party, you are in violation of the law' (I believe Notes pointed this out).

My bird usually sings in the presence of whatever visitors we have, so based on what I now understand from this thread, my bird could "go to the clink", right? Does anyone want to buy a bird...cheap? I wonder if the singing dogs we've seen on Letterman and (previously) Leno had to pay a royalty (seriously)? Actually, I guess the animal (or bird) owners along with their talented pets would, both, go to the clink in these situations if royalties were not handled properly, right? Hopefully, they could share the same cell!!

I gotta shower and go to work...I've just got to remember to sing (or whistle) low enough in the shower not to be heard....on second thought I'll just sing (or whistle) rhythm to something indistinguishable to be safe.

Thanks for everyone's insight into all this...have a great day but be careful with your humming in the workplace,
cchallum

Are birds exempt from copyright laws? Hmmm, a good question. I'll bet a lawyer will gladly charge you many thousands of dollars to find out ;-)

BTW, I've never seen an episode of American Idol, MASH, Taxi, Simpsons, Cheers, Sex In The City, Seinfeld, Desperate Housewives, any "reality show", and every other show that is talked about. The last time I saw a football game on TV, Bob Greise was the quarterback of the Dolphins and they just finished their undefeated season.

Instead of watching TV I've:

• spent a lot of fun time with Leilani, my wife/lover/best-friend/bandmate - we've talked, laughed, and shared experiences together
  
• learned and sequenced over 500 songs for my duo
  
• wrote 18 style disks and 28 fake disks for BiaB
  
• learned how to run a mail-order business that evolved into an internet business
  
• learned to play wind synthesizer, and emulate other instruments well enough to fool players of those instruments
  
• learned to play lead guitar, it's surprising how quickly an hour or two per day can make you proficient - I amaze my guitar playing friends about how fast I learned - but it is my seventh instrument so I took a lot of music knowledge to it
  
• learned to mod a guitar, replaced pickups, re-wired for 1 tone 1 vol, and installed a Varitone -- turning a cheap guitar with a great neck into a real player
  
• improved my saxophone playing
  
• improved my knowledge of music theory
  
• attended numerous symphonies, art museums, local events, and ballets
  
• jammed with fellow musicians
  
• learned to write HTML and authored two web sites -- http://www.nortonmusic.com and http://www.s-cats.com
  
• read dozens of interesting books, mostly of the non-fiction and scientific genre
  
• wasted thousands of hours on the Internet
  
• and more.

So the farther I get from being a TV addict, the more I wonder why people want to be in that drug-induced stupor and waste their lives. Personally I'd rather live my life by doing things than live my live vicariously by watching actors pretending to do things.

I don't have an antenna (although the house is wired for it and the mast is in place - something I can easily do), I don't have cable service, and in my area, all I can get is a very, very snowy, often unwatchable "praise the Lord" station (and I don't think Jesus would approve of it).

However, full disclosure is necessary. Leilani and I do sit down once or twice a week and watch a Netflix movie. Usually not the blockbusters, no chick flicks, no dick flicks, and hopefully something either artsy-fartsy or thought provoking that leads to a lot of discussion between the two of us.

We started our relationship by endlessly talking to each other, and decades later we are still talking and laughing together every day. And that's a lot better than sitting in front of the tube together.

Back to copyrights.

There is a lot of copyright violation going on. There is nothing the copyright holders can do but put a small dent into it. After all, how many people have shared a taped movie or CD with their friends or family members? Such an action can cost you up to a quarter of a million dollars and five years in jail in the unlikely event you would get caught and prosecuted. If you are a business, that can be doubled.

Plus there are a lot of copyright misunderstandings.

The biggest one is that if no money changes hands, it's legal. Nothing could be farther from the truth. There is no mention of money in the copyright laws. There are "Fair Use" exemptions, but they are vague and require the services of a lawyer who specializes in intellectual property to decipher -- and even then, you can get into trouble because of the fact that the laws are vague.

If I were dictator I'd change a lot about the copyright laws.

Playing the songs in a bar or coffee house. Who does it hurt? Not sure. Who gains? The owner of the venue is making revenue. The band might be getting paid. But is the artist going to miss the money?

I doubt it for two reasons (1) if the song is popular enough for the audience to want to hear it in a coffee house, the artist has already made a lot of money (2) it's free advertising for the song (3) there is no way of reporting which songs you played in the coffee house so the particular song writers of the songs you sing there are not going to directly benefit by your singing of those songs. I suppose the money goes mostly to administration and partly to the retirement fund or something like that.

But it is definitely illegal without the venue obtaining a license.

I don't think that's right.

I don't think singing "Happy Birthday" without paying royalties is right either. Something like that should be owned by the public.

I think 75 years after the death of the author is excessive, but I'm not sure what I'd make it.

I don't think corporations should be allowed to hold copyrights, but only the people who actually did the work.

I'd make numerous other changes, and to tell the truth, I don't know if my decisions would be helpful or hurtful -- so I'd have to adjust them as I went along. Plus not everyone would agree with me.

So all I can do is find out what the copyright laws are, and abide by them. I'm neither big nor powerful enough to change them. I've written to my representatives, but not enough people have cared to join me in that pursuit to make a difference (they'd probably rather vegetate in front of the TV).

I don't think the public knows the power that they have. And it's too easy to get distracted by other things that matter less.

After all, did you know that the US government spends many millions of your tax dollars per year to keep the sugar prices high? So high that the soft drink manufacturers find it cheaper to put high-fructose corn syrup in their drinks? And corn syrup doesn't taste as good as sugar and is worse for your health.

But I'll bet you know who won the super bowl, who Bart Simpson is, the characters on Seinfeld, who's playing in March Madness, and/or soap opera plots.

Which matters more to the quality of your life?

Isn't it worth writing a letter to your representative, and then not voting for him/her if he/she ignores your wishes and represents big business instead of the citizens?

And do you believe the propaganda spewed out on TV? Remember, the TV companies are owned by big businesses like GE, Disney, Fox, etc., and broadcast what is good for themselves, not what is good for you, and aren't above telling falsehoods and disguising it as news and fact to increase their profits.

'nuff said.

(Sorry, I'm on a rant today).

Notes

Hey Notes, run for office. I'll vote for you. My wife and I are similar to you and yours in that neither of us care for the so called reality tv (we both worked in emergency services for our careers and have seen the real reality), haven't cared for a sitcom since Mad About You went off, and don't know any of the new actors that are out there. But we do watch the tube. We like movies of all kinds, find some to be very inspirational and informative as well as thought provoking and love the History and History International channels. Things we see there that aren't mainstream knowledge we generally follow up on with internet research. And then there is BIAB and/or live playing. Too much fun. Unfortunately I recently found out (the hard way from you and other posters here:) that the open mic venue is in violation of copyright laws. I'm with you on that issue - if the people listening want to hear me do a cover, it must be something they have heard before and the copyright holder has made his nickel. Shouldn't he/she/they be pleased with that? I don't get any money for it, the coffee house made money selling coffee, not the song, and everyone is having a good time. There are some exceptions to the copyright restrictions (according to my internet research after getting spanked on this forum) but I don't fit into them. So here we are, all of these great songs that we can play for ourselves or friends in private. Takes some of the fun out of it. I don't want to make it sound like I don't understand the copyright laws, they just seem a little too broad and vague, maybe because lawyers have been involved. I don't know.
Must be a day for rants. I'm done with mine. Next.