Neal Pomea

When A burns B a copy of a CD, and B buys works by the artist because her interest was aroused, it seems ethical and economical to me for the artist, the publisher, and owner of the master to pay A for the publicity and marketing. For 2, 3, or 4 generations. Facetious? The US copyright law seems facetious.

Wake me up when the discussion turns to the ethics and economics of long copyright terms and the public domain. No, seriously, this has been an interesting thread

Thanks! Is there any reason we can't have a thread called Baseball (Non-Dan, Non-Yankee/Red Sox melodrama)? I don't think that's a cantankerous suggestion at all. Cool it

Economics? Lower volume, higher prices. It's a formula that works all over, not unrealistic. If you don't want 11% Nielsen ratings, shorten the season 10-20 games, raise ticket prices in the regular season because the games become more meaningful, shorten the playoffs, and watch ad prices in September increase to make up the difference once the drama is restored and the competition is less. ISBY

Interleague play works differently each year, depending on which division in the other league you play. One year for the example the teams in the NL East will play the AL East teams, the next year they'll play the AL Central teams, and the next year they'll play the AL West teams. Etc. So the number of games reserved for interleague play will change yearly and affect the number of games played within their own league. National League East has 5 teams Central has 6 teams West has 5 teams American League East has 5 teams Central has 5 teams West has 4 teams

Well, some compromise might be in order, because if my proposal was unrealistic, so is the expectation of MLB that fans' interest will be held until November (fans unlike us, who remained interested). If the wild card is what keeps people interested, then keep it the way it is with 3 division winners and a wild card in each league, but go 7 games for each round (possibly 21 in all), but shorten the regular season by 10-20 games.

This makes the most sense to me. Of course, higher ticket prices would result. But I think it reflects the reality that attention turns to football in September. It just reflects badly on baseball that its World Series could dip into November. As an alternative, go back to 2 divisions per league, a 7 game playoff between the 2 division winners, and a 7 game World Series. That would finish before the end of September. Alternate each season between AL and NL advantage of 4 games at home.

Congratulations St. Louis!

Well, if StL wins tonight, Eckstein has a good shot at being named MVP! Another RBI to take the lead. I picked Cardinals in 6 at post 1165 on page 78, admitting that I have no idea. I wonder how the ratings will be. The best ratings seem to occur when the sports media drums up a story on NY or Boston (Don Zimmer's hemorrhoids will do), though last year's matchup was compelling enough with the Black Sox curse and Houston who'd never been to WS before. And though ChiSox swept, you have to remember that each game was contested down to the wire and Houston could have been the one to sweep. This year's series was sort of interrupted by rain, in both the NLCS and WS. Threw the Tigers out of whack. If it falls to StL, it is poetic justice, revenge for the 68 series game 7 that should have been called because of rain. The conditions of that game threw Gibson off, and the runs were scored because Flood slipped in the wet outfield. Unless, of course, the Tigers take game 5, 6, and 7!

I found this quote on the U.S. Copyright Office Web site about protection for sound recordings, which I believe applies to masters. "Note: Sound recordings fixed before February 15, 1972, were generally protected by common law or in some cases by statutes enacted in certain states but were not protected by federal copyright law. In 1971 Congress amended the copyright code to provide copyright protection for sound recordings fixed and first published with the statutory copyright notice on or after February 15, 1972. The 1976 Copyright Act, effective January 1, 1978, provides federal copyright protection for unpublished and published sound recordings fixed on or after February 15, 1972. Any rights or remedies under state law for sound recordings fixed before February 15, 1972, are not annulled or limited by the 1976 Copyright Act until February 15, 2047." What particular state laws do you think apply to masters before 1972 that are being preserved by Universal (the label named as spending a lot of money)? Do masters made before 1972 even qualify for being the subject of compulsory licensing? I am just asking. This section of the law on compulsory licensing appears to apply http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#115 This clause applies: "A person may not obtain a compulsory license for use of the work in the making of phonorecords duplicating a sound recording fixed by another, unless: (i) such sound recording was fixed lawfully; and (ii) the making of the phonorecords was authorized by the owner of copyright in the sound recording or, if the sound recording was fixed before February 15, 1972, by any person who fixed the sound recording pursuant to an express license from the owner of the copyright in the musical work or pursuant to a valid compulsory license for use of such work in a sound recording." That's a complicated set of conditions. There were copyrights for musical compositions in the jazz genre from early days, but I don't think that was the case for some other genres like country music until there was a publishing industry (Acuff-Rose).

Soul, blues, or jazz

I remember that game 7. The mound was a mess with mud. Gibson was continually cleaning out his spikes. At the time I thought the game should have been called because of rain. Was it the next year the rules changed and the mound was actually lowered?

A completely outmatched St. Louis Cardinals team leads 7-1 in the 6th inning. Sweep...

Who's been impractical and stupid? The public or Ellington and Armstrong, etc. for not providing for their estates? Look, copyright is just supposed to promote creativity. It is not and never was meant to be the vehicle for social welfare and covering risk takers. This is Thousand Points of Light politics for artists, with entrepreneurs unjustly bearing the burden of caring for the heirs of creative people, when really there should be better care all around, no matter if your dad or mom was a genius or worked hard for the sake of art. "These folks don't want solutions, they want cheap music when they want it. Selfishness on all fronts." Don't impute motives to me, please, as we should not impute motives to you. Do you have a sense of the public domain, and our grant of copyright, or are we just nothing because we are not entrepreneurs? What's this about a compulsory license in the last paragraph? That might be interesting and practical after all.

Cards in 6 (I have no idea)

I think you're wrong there. Look at the enormous effort that goes into preserving ancient texts. This is not done for the sake of future sales. The real difficulty is that the amount of material has increased exponentially over the last fifty or sixty years. And who shall say what is worth preserving for the next thousand? MG I would be glad to be wrong in my remarks! Good point about the efforts to preserve old texts, and not merely for the sake of future sales! Who'll say what's worth preserving? Good question...

Doesn't section 108 of US copyright law enable a library and archive exception? I thought UK would have one. In any case, in the US or the UK, a few copies scattered here and there among libraries and archives is hardly what anyone would understand to mean "available." The only things available are things that continue to make money (or might conceivably make money in the future) for copyright holders, whether we agree with that or not. If the UK libraries want the masters, they should pay for them. I don't think US libraries and archives store masters but I might be wrong. But I doubt that masters would be preserved well without the incentive to preserve them for the sake of future sales. In the US, there would be strong calls for cutting funds for preserving our history and culture, the way "nonessentials" like libraries are among the first to get the knife. At least that seems to be the way the thinking goes. Personally I would never say libraries are nonessentials. Since this is an emotional political issue, I thought it would be in the politics thread and had a hard time finding it once it wasn't in my View New Posts section.

The day Herbie Mann lost his hair

Wow! Buster Olney made the same stupid original pick as me, i.e., A's over Padres. What an idiot! I am a librarian.

Oh, is the series going to be on Fox? I wish it were ESPN with Jon Miller and Joe Morgan.

Congratulations to the Tigers and their fans! I had predicted the A's to win, but they never seemed to get it going. I didn't expect a sweep. Attention turns to NY and StL. I am a National League man and will root for either of them in the WS.

From 1960, Thelonious Monk Quartet Plus Two At the Blackhawk.

I like the one with the Cubs fan sitting in a tree, too.

I didn't mean "backed in" in a bad way. They deserve to be in the post season, because they had such great years. I should have said they slumped toward the end and almost didn't make it, which would have been a shame. I think the A's can hit the Tigers pitching. They hit Minnesota's! Anyway, I sort of hoped for an all West-coast series. Their stadiums (well, not Oakland's) are beautiful. They would start their games at 5 Pacific time, still daylight, which is a throwback to the past, then the shadows would creep in and help the pitchers. I don't particularly like the prospect of players seeing their breath if the Series goes to Detroit in late October, early November, but they are deserving and an exciting team to watch. I didn't even know about that kid who pitched in the 4th game! Take a look at this interesting article about Detroit and 1968: http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/history/2003/031020.htm I didn't remember that Detroit was troubled by riots at that time, and the Series brought the city a little closer together. I was just a dumb kid I guess, no hair on my head, no shoes on my feet. (I feel a country-western song coming on, so I had better take my leave).

Time to pick the next round winners. A's/Cardinals A Tigers/Cardinals WS would sort of be nice. We'd at least see some replays of the 68 Series! I was a kid but I remember that one well! Gibson's best year. McLain won 30+ games. And the MVP was Mickey Lolich, who pitched 3 complete game victories! Though the Tigers and Cardinals both sort of backed in as they slumped at the end of the season, they both woke up quickly and are playing well now.