Re: [ARSCLIST] Folkways Reissues

[Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi John:

Most if not all of the recordings I'm talking about were made by the LOC, usually at LOC facilities 
by LOC technicians with LOC equipment. If they didn't get release forms signed, I question if this 
was a good long-term use of taxpayer funds and public facilities.

Also, regarding the Folkways and Cook material, since Smithsonian owns the rights to all this, why 
not make it all available for free as 192kbps or 256kpbs MP3 files? If a person wants the CD quality 
and the packaging, they should pay $15 for the CD's. But then again, PDF's of the notes and covers 
could be provided online too. Further, based on a few recent examples in the music world, if the 
Smithsonian were to put this online and note that it costs money to offer it for free and ask for 
donations, they might be very pleasantly surprised at how much money they collect.

I would like to see the LOC, sooner rather than later, get all of the unique (ie don't waste time 
and efforts duplicating what's already been done by someone else somewhere else) audio material they 
have digitized that is not copyright-prohibited (and hopefully they are not digitizing 
copyright-prohibitive material -- let the copyright owners bear that expense) online for download. 
This is the lowest-overhead way to make this available and the way most likely to reach the most 
owners of the LOC (ie the people of the United States). I would think it's OK to charge for access 
for any of this from IP addresses outside the United States, but there is a good argument to be made 
that it is good for U.S. for the rest of the world to have free access to this kind of material 
(shows the generosity of the American people plus generally shows the U.S. society and culture in a 
good light). Also, it's a good way to get U.S. citizens engaged in the digitization and preservation 
process, which then leads to pressure on Congress not to cut funding.

-- Tom Fine


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Ross" <johnross@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, December 14, 2007 6:39 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Folkways Reissues


> At  12/14/2007 02:54 PM, Tom Fine wrote:
> > This stuff the LOC produced belongs to US, it was paid for by US, it should be available to US, 
> > forever (for a reasonable production/media/duping/packaging/shipping fee, of course).
>
> The rights to the recordings may belong to the LOC, but the performances are another thing 
> entirely. Unless the performers on those recordings (or their heirs) sign off on them, the Library 
> can't always release them for public sale, even if they were less careful back in the days of 
> those old LPs and 78s.
>
> John Ross