Re: [ARSCLIST] Podcasting--explained a bit...

[Mike Richter <mrichter@xxxxxxx>]

Mwcpc6@xxxxxxx wrote:

> While I have some problems with the technology, it is the rights issue that 
> is most inhibiting to me. There needs to be some way this material can be made 
> accessible to the Internet world, as if it were a museum or library display, 
> without the unlimited liability the present law provides.

I have often wished that something akin to what the RIAA tolerates now 
would be implemented by law. That is, it does not inhibit analogue 
duplication of digital material, judging that in sacrificing the 
particular (if dubious) advantages of DDD fidelity, rights are not 
sacrificed. For years, I have espoused a philosophy of 'horizontal' 
sampling: offering complete works in modest fidelity as representation 
of the whole rather than selected moments in highest sound quality.

To know whether the selection is worth the time and money of 
professional processing, it is sufficient to hear a low-fidelity 
transfer. Why not declare that such a recording is within fair use if it 
provides cataloguing? It is the audio catalogue - in this case, of 
candidates for high-quality processing - that is sought. If someone 
wants to use the catalogue entry, so be it; that happens in the art 
world as well where the reproduction in a show's catalogue is sufficient 
for some purposes in representing the work itself.

Of course, it's not a small point that posting a modest-fidelity sample 
fits Internet (and hard-drive) constraints. If someone is interested 
enough to create a 96/24 transfer and to apply the skills and tools such 
as CEDAR, he is interested enough to clear rights. But let us first use 
whatever capture we have to produce a 32 Kbps monaural MP3 for the 
Internet, where the recording can be auditioned though fidelity is lost.

Frankly, it's what I've been doing for a decade.

Mike
--
mrichter@xxxxxxx
http://www.mrichter.com/