[Fsfe-uk] music ramble [was Re:GNU/Linux, Linux Divide]

[Richard Smedley]

Anthony Ogden wrote:

> What would Open Source music be though?   They would have to supply you with
> the raw musical data so you can alter it too? 

But music has always been like this :-)

Prior to _widespread_ use of musical notation 
(the middle ages, initially just for sacred music)
anyone could hear a tune, learn it. play it,
develop it.
Musical notation made this even easier as it was 
more portable (and more permanent) than some musician 
carrying a tune in her head.

During the classical period, when musicians started
to make as much from writing and publishing profane
music as from writing to order for a patron, music
was still transmitted quickly - although now in the
form of unauthorised copies by publishers in other
cities.

To a certain extent copyright law came about to protect
the rights of composers in these circumstances...


> I guess when you can take
> the music
> alter it and re-distribute it.. that's "Open Music" with "Freedom"?

... to open up music again simply publish the
notation of your tunes under a Free Document 
License. You can still sell the recordings
(the complied code ;-) under the traditional model;
but if you make available the "source" (the score),
under terms of Freedom, you have a musical equivalent
(well, close parallel anyway) of the GNU GPL - as
well as a modern version of the freedoms our ancestors
enjoyed with music for centuries (and still do in the
case of folk musicians :-)

</end ramble>




 
> >
> >Nothing like some irrational beliefs to keep you sane...
> >
> Believe me... I'm far from sane.  Insanity all the way.   They only way


In a mad world, insanity is the only
reasonable approach ;-)

- Richard

-- 

Richard Smedley
Production Editor, Linux Format

Telephone +44 (0) 1225 442244 ext 5038