I just saw a documentary called “Bruce Haack- King of Techno.” It was pretty interesting! Haack built his own musical instruments, like “The Magic Wand,” “The Dermatron” (a synthesizer that was played by leading an electrical current through physical contact with another person) and the “People-odion. He was doing this stuff in the sixties, and was way ahead of his time. He began doing electronic children’s music, and was featured on Mr. Rogers neighborhood. He later went in a more adult direction with an album called Electric Lucifer, which gained some success. He has inspired such artists as Russell Simmons, Money Mark (from Beastie Boys), and many electronic artists. You can read more here: brucehaack.com.
Jon Newton of p2pnet.net reports some students at University of Wisconsin have had to drop out school to pay the RIAA:
RIAA, MPAA, BSA: Evil is as Evil does
p2pnet news view | RIAA News:- “It’s been really hard to have to be the one to tell them they are facing this lawsuit,” University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire associate dean of student development Jodi Thesing-Ritter said recently.
“Some students have had to drop out of school in order to pay for their legal fees.”
Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG, “hate anything which even looks remotely like competition,” p2pnet posted recently.
“They hate independents and independence.
“They hate anything which interferes with what they see as their God-given right to control how, and by whom, music is distributed online.
Berkley Integrated Audio Software (BIAS) introduced their iProRecorder today. It is a new audio recording app for the iPhone and iPod touch available from the Apple App Store for only $.99. Users can quickly record with the single touch of a button using the Multi-Touch user interface. The design features a circular display, which includes a counter, progress indicator, available record time and more. iProRecorder uses the iPhones in-built accelerometer to invert the screen image if the device is turned upside down. Check it out at www.itunes.com/appstore (requires iTunes). You can get additional info on iProRecorder at www.iprorecorder.com.
Those in the Bay Area take note - on Nov 7 and 8 (this Fri/Sat) a great event is happening at UC Berkeley titled Takeovers & Makeovers: Artistic Appropriation, Fair Use, and Copyright in the Digital Age. Focusing on “appropriation rights in the digital era”, the event will feature “artists, lawyers, art historians, and representatives from the information technology community to discuss the changing field of appropriation art in the wake of the emergence of new digital media technologies that have radically altered access to and manipulation of information.” Our own Virginia Rutledge will be speaking, along with a slew of preeminent thinkers in the world of copyright including Fred von Lohmann, Rick Prelinger, and Jason Schultz.
DETAILS:
Where: Berkeley Art Museum Theater
When: 11/7 (10AM - 4:30PM), 11/8 (10AM - 4PM)
Price: FREE and Open to The Public (No Registration Required)
>
The always awesome Lawrence Lessig has released his much anticipated book “Remix”. Mr. Lessig is a champion of sanity in copyright issues, and is the founder of Creative Commons, which gives people an alternative to the traditional strict copyright. Kaplaa uses the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike-Non Commercial license. Here’s what the Remix Website has to say about the book:
For more than a decade, we’ve been waging a war on our kids in the name of the 20th Century’s model of “copyright law.” In this, the last of his books about copyright, Lawrence Lessig maps both a way back to the 19th century, and to the promise of the 21st. Our past teaches us about the value in “remix.” We need to relearn the lesson. The present teaches us about the potential in a new “hybrid economy” — one where commercial entities leverage value from sharing economies. That future will benefit both commerce and community. If the lawyers could get out of the way, it could be a future we could celebrate.
Check out the new Kaplaa channel on YouTube. This is our first post from a school project. the student used audio and video clips she downloaded for free on Kaplaa.
I urge every informed reader who lives in the United States to write to his or her Congressman to urge rejection of the RIAA-backed Pro-IP Act, which does the exact opposite of what Judge Davis has urged Congress to do.
The matter is of extreme urgency because the Senate has passed the bill unanimously.
