Hi David
We are definitely in an age of piracy. So much media is being produced
and it is so easy to copy and distribute, that the consumers of this
media do not see the value the same way as when physical product was
involved. Whats more is that people want to hear and see media for
free. Come to think of it, the causes of media piracy are very complex
- ranging from the original spirit of sharing that the internet was
founded on and the current practice of net-based companies like Google
who give software away, to good ole human psychology (many will steal
when presented with the opportunity).
There are some legal frameworks in place for media sharing, such as
the Creative Commons Licenses - which you can see in action on
Flickr. Ultimately though, despite these 'licenses', I think its
impossible to keep people from misusing or misrepresenting your
recordings once they have been released into the wild.
That being said, there are other ways to share files that make it more
difficult for the lazy pirates to outright steal. I think the best
protection against unauthorized use is allow people to listen without
distributing the raw file. Martyn does this on his site, as do I. It
is true that the clever can ultimately find the media, but more often
than not, it is not worth the effort for the casual user.
Another approach to this that I really like is offer samples and
listening for free (non-downloadable), and then make it easy for the
consumer of these samples to purchasable media, like CDs or high
quality downloads. If a method of purchase is available, and grabbing
the sample is difficult, many people will click the buy button. iTunes
has famously capitalized on this impulse.
Would love to hear what your IP attorney has to say.
Best from NYC
David
http://naturerecordists.com/dmichael
> An issue that is often on my mind--protecting IP (that is, in
> legalese, "Intellectual Property") from un-authorized and
> uncompensated use. Indeed there is much time and expense involved in
> collecting the raw material for this work that we love--sharing it,
> raising awareness of what is out there in the natural world. So far
> the only kind of protection is somehow "watermarking" audio files.
> One idea mentioned recently, by Martyn I think, is to mix in a high
> freq tone inaudible to humans but spectrally visible. In reality the
> only "protection" this kind of watermarking affords is something to
> stand on in a lawsuit (ugh).
> Then I come to thinking that mine is a niggling complaint, that the
> rewards far outweigh the injuries from the sometimes absurdly brazen
> mis-use of my work.
> As it happens I am consulting an IP attorney of my acquaintance this
> week, I'll pass on anything I learn that is useful.
>
> Aloha from Kaua`i,
> David
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