RE: Samples and looping

[Jeff Larson <jeff.larson@sailpoint.com>]

> I had never seen the tenets of this view laid out before - that art is 
> information, and that because society benefits even from art that 
> 'builds on' the work of others, it should not be subject to the most 
> basic rules of commerce.

This is a theme in the open software movement which seems to have
influenced Louigi's thoughts on music licensing.

I don't have any useful opinions on how art should be licensed, but
I'm not sure open source philosophy applies here even though you could
think of digital audio as "code" that needs to be "free" so people
can "build on it", blah, blah.

I don't have a problem with open source, but I do find it interesting
that people involved with open source projects generally make very
comfortable livings.  It's easy to give something away and crow about
the good things you're doing for the world when you're pulling down
six figures.

Imagine a parallel universe where programming and software were valued
at the level that composition and recordings are now.  No one wants to
spend money on software because there are enough cheap alternatives
that are "good enough".  It is impossible to make a good living
writing software though some people will try, living in poverty because
they love what they do.   How many chest thumping open source
evangelists do you think we would have in that universe?

Jeff