MIDIMART A POST OFFICE ???

[shyamwestwind]

Ok JohnG and Dave.................TRUCE it will be. Lets bring up this subject next century ! I am enlightened now and will be an enlightened soul then !!!
Peace on earth and goodwill to all mankind !
Smile, Dave.......and ignore my last post...... please..
Lots of fond regards

[gibbo]

Exactly, John. I know Glenn is very conscientious about copyright.
All my comments about "sleeping dogs" etc refer to Shyam's original question ie; is Midi Mart acting as a post office? The answer is obviously "No!" but please just take a moment to consider the legal ramifications if this assertion were true. There's quite a difference between raising an interesting subject for discussion and creating problems where none formerly existed.
I now join Thingyy in yawning and letting it rest.
Peace it is! Dave.
P.S. We posted simultaneously, Shyam, I'm smiling!

[shyamwestwind]

Yaaaaaawn !!!!!!!!!! I'm asleep .

[JohnG]

Phew!

[weegeo]

ok ok ok who sang the lullaby and was it copyrighted lol lol lol lol

[JohnG]

Surely you know that simple one Weegeo?

It was Brahms a famous friend of Liszt (on a Saturday night at least) and, yes, it is still under copyright.

Tsk! Don't you guys (and gals) know anything? ;D

"I don't BELIEVE it! What sort of a forum do you call this, members don't even know such basic things ... !" (wanders away muttering under his breath).

Grumpy old man.

[Emerald Midi]

johng11 said:

Surely you know that simple one Weegeo?

It was Brahms a famous friend of Liszt (on a Saturday night at least) and, yes, it is still under copyright.

Tsk! Don't you guys (and gals) know anything? ;D

"I don't BELIEVE it! What sort of a forum do you call this, members don't even know such basic things ... !" (wanders away muttering under his breath).

Grumpy old man.

John, you crack me up! Thank you

[JohnG]

Umm! Nearer the truth than I should admit, Pat!

i.e. Grumpy old man. Victor Meldrew was my hero.

All the best,
JohnG.

[weegeo]

What can i say i always wanted to be a hero lol lol lol lol

[jacqui01]

I just wanted to say I've learnt a lot by following this recent post, it was an interesting subject, if not a little heated at times.
I just wanted to check out a comment made- :
The files created by MidiMart (for which they pay a copyright fee to create and make available) are licensed to gold members to use
How does that work if you obtained the files before MM had the Gold membership scheme?
Jacqui

[themd21]

I think I'll cut the wrists or demolish my keyboard.
Better still all those who have a guilty conscience that they may be using midis that just may be under copyright, please send me the monetary penalty and I'll ensure that it goes to a good cause.

[weegeo]

I hope you mean the `weegeo benevolent fund` situated at the nearest pub.com lol lol

[cptkay0s]

I'll drink to that!!!!

Warren

[JohnG]

Yes, of course, you're quite right to draw our attention back to the thread title. MidiMart would have trouble if it acted as a third party in the dissemination of copyright material.

Jacqui, I'm not an administrator but imagine both before and after the change in the site that Glenn has made sure that members can use the files found here legally. If you want to be certain then you should post privately but personally I'd not bother.

As for Jimmy G, I hope you're not contemplating stealing copyright fees for your own nefarious uses, are you? ;D
Make mine a large Scotch, OR, considering the country of origin, a large Jameson's please!

Tsk, tsk, tsk!
Shocked,
JohnG.

[JazzCat]

Oh don't get me started on this one, I'm a copyright reformist as Glenn and others know all too well!
I have been the MRA ( Music Relief Association) Director and was the newsletter editor, writer for a while in past years. We never got anything accomplished, and so I take my chances with what I do and dont do, as do we all.
Fact is you aren't even supposed to sequence a cover tune and GIVE it away without paying fees! It's utterly rediculous and its something that just burns my hide every time I think about it.

[JohnG]

Hi JazzCat,

Hmmm! Have you, I wonder, ever written a book or created a technical course, or done something very creative as part of your living / career / whatever i.e. your main job? I'm talking about an act of creation where the apprenticeship is long, many years, and the creative effort is considerable lasting certainly weeks, maybe months, possibly even a year or more? Maybe you have, I don't know. Is it then fair for somebody to take your work, change the format, then give it away without your permission?

Let's take a contemporary example. Tolkien spent much of his lifetime writing his Lord of the Rings trilogy. Would it be fair for someone to scan it all in, convert it to pdf, and then make it available, for free, on a web site? If not, why not? Okay, say I pay Christopher Tolkien a fee for allowing me to copy it. It's going to take many hours if not days or weeks of my work to scan then OCR and then correct and format the pdf books. Can someone else then give my work away for free? Remember I defined this as the way I make my living.

Why then is making a copy of someone's creative musical work as a MIDI file and making it freely available acceptable? I certainly don't feel prohibitive fees should be charged as they sometimes are but do feel the artist should be allowed to profit from his act of creation. I know that you will argue that most of the royalties go to the record companies or to an agency but the fact is that has been the only way that an artist could get published in the past. Just as someone who writes a book has had to go to a publisher.

As someone who feels he has been ripped off in the past by a large corporation I probably have a very subjective view on this subject but I'll stick up for the copyright laws even if they do seem to be a bit draconian sometimes. And I agree that some people / organisations can go a bit crazy on the little guys whilst seeming to let the major offenders get away with it. And I think the laws could be changed in that respect.

And please don't feel that I'm personally getting at you, nothing could be further from the truth. I just hold a slightly different point of view.

Certainly the copyright laws could be reformed but free-for-all-midis? No, I won't vote for that one.

All the best, so pleased the SD2 works well through the PA,
JohnG.

[shyamwestwind]

JohnG what you have said makes a lot of sense and though I agree with your point of view, I dont want to agree because I am selfish and want to use those creations for my benefit and for free. Its true and though I feel rotten about it , I still contribute to the piracy. I truly wish there could be some blanket fees I could pay to cover the midis that I use ....... it would make my conscience feel good !

[gibbo]

Shyam, Send me $100 per year and I'll send you a return email reading,
"You're a good boy and you're allowed to play whatever you want!"
Will that help?
Just kidding , Dave.

[JohnG]

Hi Shyam,

Yea, I know what you mean! It's normal human nature to want things for free, and when MIDIs are so tiny in size the perception is that they therefore can't be worth much.

It's often not until you've been ripped off that you suddenly begin to see the point of view of the other side. i.e. why should anyone be allowed to freely distribute my work that I've taken so long to learn how to do and spent so much time creating?

Someone once said to me "the things you give away are worth nothing in the perception of others". He was talking about training courses when a customer was asking for a free seminar to see what we were like. We made a charge that was refundable against a larger booking and got the business. Other companies just try to get a free days training.

Just my tuppence worth,
JohnG.