Archive:Student musicians
Free Culture For Musicians
Culture, like science and technology, grows by accretion, each new creator building on the works of those who came before. -- Judge Alex Kozinski
What if the ideas and styles of the musicians before you were suddenly off limits? Imagine how different your music would be if you were not allowed to draw upon the influences that shaped you as a musician.
Culture grows by accretion. We are constantly building on the past, and therefore, improving the world we live in.
The Times, They Are A-Changin
The internet has made the distribution of music cheaper and more efficient. Don't be fooled into believing this is a bad thing! As a musician, it's now much easier to get your music heard.
Unfortunately, whenever technological innovation interferes with established industries and their ability to make money, new laws get created. These laws have the potential to greatly restrict your freedom to create!
- 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (Congress has extended the duration of copyright 11 times in the past 50 years)
- 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act
- PIRATE Act
- INDUCE Act
A Little Help From My Friends
Will you be alone in your fight to maintain a free culture, where you are allowed to think, create and learn while building upon the ideas of the past? No, of course not! We're all in this together - artists, musicians, writers, computer programmers, students, teachers, librarians, entrepreneurs, thinkers, scholars, and citizens. So here are some great places to get started:
- http://www.freeculture.org - An international student movement for free culture
- http://www.creativecommons.org - Free legal tools to help you build a custom license for your works.
- http://www.eff.org - The Electronic Frontier Foundation, protecting your rights online since 1990
