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[ox] Musik als geistiges Eigentum?



Der Musiker Steve Coleman erläutert, warum er seine Musik zum download frei 
gibt:

http://www.m-base.org/mp3_philosophy.html
http://www.m-base.com/resume1b.html

p&l, Helmuth
________________________________________________________________


Many people have asked me what are my reasons for giving away music for free.

Well, why not?  Why should everything always cost something?  For me music is 
organized sound that can be used as sonic symbols to communicate ideas.  
Since my main goal is the communication of these ideas to the people, then 
why not provide this music for free and thereby facilitating the distribution 
of this music to the people.  However the distribution of music in this way 
is not in the best interest of commercial music companies, i.e. record 
companies, music distributors, retail stores etc.

My reasons for providing free music comes from my belief that musical ideas 
should not be owned by anyone.  I believe that ideas should be free for 
anyone to use (but not to necessarily sell to others or make others pay for 
the use of these ideas).  The concept of a commons area where ideas can be 
used for the benefit of all but for the profit of no one may seem like an 
unrealizable concept in the world today.  Basically greed runs the world 
today and it is because of this that the concept of ownership exits.

There would be no need to own something exclusively unless the use of it was 
restricted to the owner for reasons of conservation, or the owner wishes to 
rent out the use of the item to others for a fee.  The concept of wealth also 
stems from ownership and control of resources.

I believe that ideas should be an area that is common to all people.  It has 
been proven that real progress is made when ideas are shared and developed 
collectively.  The ancient Egyptian society is one example of this and the 
development of the Internet is an example in modern times.  The growth of the 
Internet is definitely due to the concept of open-source software, freeware 
and shareware.  For the most part commercial development has inhibited growth 
by introducing concepts of ownership, exclusive or restrictive ideas, and the 
concept of paying for information which in many cases is available for free 
elsewhere.

Although it is not practical in the present society to have a situation where 
all ideas and information are available for the use of all, there should be 
areas where ideas and information are free for the use of everyone.  This is 
especially true of creative ideas and inspired thought.

However people have asked me "if you are going to give away music then how 
will you survive and make a living?"  It does cost money to make recordings, 
engineers and musicians have to be paid and materials needs to be purchased.  
However it is not necessary to have the mentality that we need to make a 
profit from all that we produce.  If a person has a strong conviction and a 
reason for what they are doing, that alone should be enough motivation for 
the action to be consummated.

Money is not real in the first place, it is an agreed upon concept, in fact 
just another idea.  This particular idea has no value unless everyone agrees 
on its worth.  And generally speaking the desire for, striving for and 
acquisition of money almost always has a negative effect on the mind.  The 
quest for money, and material acquisition in general, is a barrier to 
spiritual development.

Giving some ideas and music away does not mean that all needs to be given away 
for free.  But there are some people who either cannot pay for the music or 
would never even listen to it in the first place if they had to pay for it.  
For this group of people, and for all the others who have purchased and 
supported the music in the past, there should be an area where they can go to 
listen to the music at no charge.  I envision a situation where maybe one 
third to one half of the music that I create and make available to the public 
will be free of charge.  The same would apply to other ideas about the music, 
general information, music theory, philosophy, etc.

There are still live performances that people can come to and these cannot be 
free as I need, at a minimum, to pay band members and my management team.  
Sometimes I personally make a profit on performances that my group does, 
sometimes I break even, other times I actually lose money.  Overall I manage 
to make a living.  When we go out on the road there are no big road crews, 
sound people and equipment.  It is not a big operation and no one is becoming 
wealthy.  Any extra money that I do make goes back into research, development 
of ideas and trips to places that have infrastructures that make it nearly 
impossible to make money.  As a group we have made several trips to countries 
like Cuba, Senegal, India etc. and in almost all of these cases the expenses 
have been paid by myself.

There should be some ideas and concepts that are available for all to use, to 
contribute to the advancement of all.

Peace,

Steve Coleman
 
________________________________
Web-Site: http://www.oekonux.de/
Organisation: http://www.oekonux.de/projekt/
Kontakt: projekt oekonux.de



[English translation]
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