09.11
DGM HQ.
A grey, wet day in the Chalke Valley.
Mulberry trees were introduced to England at the behest of James I, (James VI of Scotland) in the early years of his reign (1607- 9)
James was hoping to build a silk industry to rival that of Continental Europe. He failed, because the mulberries introduced were not the variety that silk worms found to be very very tasty.
This is our own mulberry tree (on 17th. June 2006). Its trunk is partly-decomposed & plugged with concrete, my estimate of its age - close to 400 years.
In this morning’s reading, on p.305 of Peter Ackroyd’s Shakespeare
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,23113-1779754,00.html
http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/biography/0,,1567062,00.html
… in 1609 a Frenchman named Verton distributed young mulberry plants through the midland counties at the request of James I.
The author’s reference is to a mulberry that Shakespeare may have planted at his house in Stratford-on-Avon. Our garden is downriver from Stratford so perhaps M. Verton is responsible for the origination of our own tree.
11.25 DGM Parking Lot…
The Vicar is in SoundWorld I. ..
Stormy & Robert are in SoundWorld II…
Alex would like it to be known that, while waiting for Robert to arrive, he is industriously pursuing his alternative life as a drummer…
Alex also has an alternative life as a plumber. That’s three lives already.
The Morning Shift is addressing The Fifth Day from Tartu Jaani kirik on 26th. August…
This was the last of five Churchscapes in Estonia. The audience in Tartu were superb & the space wonderful; for the player, the hardest performance of the series.
11.46 Sean Fitzpatrick, former A&R Hero, called earlier with news that the head of Universal has declared that YouTube owes it millions in copyright fees.
Universal Music pressuring YouTube, MySpace
By Yinka Adegoke
Reuters Wednesday, September 13, 2006; 9:22 PM
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Universal Music Group, the world’s biggest record company, is stepping up pressure against popular online sites YouTube and MySpace, accusing them of infringing the copyrights of its artists’ music videos.
Universal chief executive Doug Morris described video site YouTube and News Corp.’s <NWS.N> social networking site MySpace as "copyright infringers" during a Merrill Lynch investors’ conference speech on Tuesday that was closed to the press.
"The poster child for (user-generated media) sites are MySpace and YouTube," said Morris, according to a transcript obtained by Reuters. "We believe these new businesses are copyright infringers and owe us tens of millions of dollars."
He added, "How we deal with these companies will be revealed shortly."…
Last month, YouTube told Reuters that it is in discussions with record companies to offer its users the ability to watch virtually every music video ever made, but had yet to settle on a business model to allow viewers to see the videos for free…
Record companies are keen to avoid repeating the mistake they believe they made when Viacom Inc.’s <VIA.N> MTV was set up 25 years ago -- allowing their artists’ music to be aired for free.
Morris in his remarks to investors on Tuesday said MTV "built a multibillion-dollar company on our (music) ... for virtually nothing. We learned a hard lesson."
Mr. Morris doesn’t mention that, conventionally, artists paid 50% of their video costs, recuperable against record sales; a large video budget was close to a standard album budget; the video copyright (in addition to the album copyright) owned by the record company. Interesting also that Mr. Morris notes that MTV was built on our music. I wonder, who does Mr. Morris mean by “our”? Does he include the artists & musicians in this? If so, then why don’t they own the copyrights in their work?
Fun factoid. Mr. Mister’s Broken Wings is still not recouped.
These comments are opening skirmishes before the industry agrees a standard practice for copyright usage on “user-generated social networking sites”; that is, where the social networkers (ie punters) provide the content of the site (much of it the work of others) & the operators of the site make the money.
We’ve known for some time that video is a key to the future of social networking, whether it be for entertainment, communication or other practical uses. The question has always been how to make money without running afoul of copyrights and other concerns (Mike Yamamoto).
Currently, YouTube would be offline if it gave any concern to copyright violation. There is also some claim that both MySpace & YouTube claim to own copyright ownership of material used on their sites. How? Why?
12.38 The Fifth Day P&Qed.
15.12 The Fifth Day loading into i-Tunes.
15.52 Stuff. Questions. A shifting calendar.
Soon, off to Bredonborough.
19.34 Bredonborough.
Home & dribbling pitifully in extremis.
"Begin with the possible and move gradually towards the impossible."
