To: E. Charters who wrote (1913 ) 12/9/1999 11:06:00 PM From: JC Jaros Read Replies (2) | Respond to
"...points a boney finger and says 'I don't like you'..." Joni Mitchell -- Very nice post, E. I think we're onto something here, and largely that is this free software 'revolution' is largely about some guys just trying to make a *brand out of 'folk process' (Open Source <TM>). In my opinion, there *is a revolution going on, but it's less about 'Linux' displacing 'Windows' or whatever, and more about software becoming 'services' in the Ubiquitous computing world. But even *that's not all that revolutionary because that's pretty much how the world ran before Microsoft decided to emulate the record companies.
I thought it was interesting about Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" beginning life as a whole other kind of song with some of the same words, only with different meanings. The song, before being re-packaged for popular consumption was about immigrants from the dustbowl being turned away at the California border before the Sedition Act. The song was a rant against private property. "This land is your land" had a whole other meaning.
Anyway, what about music (like Stardust) that doesn't have a folk basis? The question remains what makes for better songs? If Stardust is the best song, how can folk music be superior? Wait, you know what? Maybe Stardust does have folk process roots. Hoagy only wrote the music. It wasn't all the way Stardust until Parrish (or whomever the lyricist was) came along on top of the song (not in colaberation as I recall). Under modern copyright law, maybe Stardust would have never had words. --I think it's interesting that changes in copyright law, such as that involving parody changed awhile back (as a result of 2 Live Crew litigation), and you no longer need to ask someone's permission to parody or make similar use of their material. Other changes in Copyright law involve fair use in a different way where the evil big money IP interets made a deal with the US Govt Devil where the govt will help collect royalties overseas and pretend the entire world is the U.S. - They had to give up a lot under fair use to get
that legislation into law. It's all good for music, I think.
Folksongs show up all over the place in classical music. It's a long tradition going back to before it was cool with God that we even HAD non-liturgical music. Aside-- Do you know Jean Redpath? I like the song Lagan Love really well. Do you know that?
---So, why not just PD this 'open source' software? I can understand the license that makes software free for non-commercial use (ie, SCSL). Why even HAVE a GPL? In 500 years of folk music, why didn't some smartie come up with a GFML (General Folk Music License)? -JCJ
