[OT] Internet Censorship

[Lynn Fredricks]

> > 1)      I bought the Beatle's singles on 45 RPM records
> > 2)      Then I bought the "White Album" on 33 RPM
> > 3)      Then I got the "White Album" on  8 track
> > 4)      Then I got the "White Album" on  cassette
> > 5)      Then I got the "White Album" on  CD
> > 6)      Some of the songs were on a DVD anthology
> > 7)      Paul's 2000 tour DVD
> 
> No upgrade pricing? ;)

I've felt for some time that there is a need for versioning of some kind.
The previous problem was that you licensed something, but at the same time
you "owned" the media on which the product was stored. As a result of media
deterioration, you can no longer use the license. But it doesn't seem
reasonable to me that you and I both bought a cassette on the same day, same
store, under the same license, yet yours snapped after one year of use, but
mine works fine for five years.

On the other hand (Mr Beatles Fan, not Richard who I assume is also a
Beatles Fan), you could probably have multiple types of versions - mastering
versions, but also variant versions of songs. The Beatles did some fantastic
variant versions of songs, and ones that I may not have licensed at any time
in the past. Im sure there are a few Breakfast with the Beatles listeners
out there, other than me ;-)

Also complicating matters are when the same bits of IP are embedded into
something else. Something Ive been thinking about recently are all these
books that are coming out as something maybe closer to being an "app" than a
book. If a book is released as an app, does that constitute it being "in
print"? Many agreements with publishers allow authors to get many rights
back if a book is out of print for X amount of time. Also, consider
"reprint" rights vs "repurpose" rights.

> Ironically, I recall the SPA noting a few years ago that the 
> second most-pirated software category after games was 
> software for music production.

That's funny, but not surprising. There are some handy tools for working
with various files like mp3s that can alter the tags embedded in them that
make it harder to figure out how and where the file may have been pirated
from.

Best regards,

Lynn Fredricks
Mirye Software Publishing
http://www.mirye.com