IDM Mailing Archive

quoted 2 lines What makes you think you have an innate right to hear a given recording?

>What makes you think you have an innate right to hear a given recording? >You're just rationalizing an illegal and unethical practice.

this is actually a really interesting question. it's not really analogous to the comment about the mercedes ("I want that new Mercedes, but it's too expensive. How else can I own it, if I don't steal it?"), because what's at issue here is *reproduction*. additionally, the issue isn't the high price, because, when something's really out-of-print, it's not available. and if it *is* sold, at whatever price, whatever markup, the artist (and label) of course see none of the money, because it's second-hand. (remember the flap about used cd's a few years ago? who was that, some country bumpkin, right?) so the issue, as i see it, is the question: what gives you the innate (or inalienable) right to hear a given recording? and there's certainly no easy answer. i would like to suggest, however, something like this: the public sphere as an open forum, as a collaborative effort in which each individual has an equal right of participation. mind you, i'm not talking about a situation existing *in practice*--if that were so, the art market would have to be abolished, culture would have to be decommodified, my university library would have to throw open its doors to non-students (i'd say "the great unwashed," but some of those hippie undergrads can be pretty crusty themselves). as an ideal, the public sphere--of which artistic production is an integral part--is a purely democratic space, offering equal access to all. (remember, too, that *listening* and *ownership* are two different things.) none of this is helpful, of course, because the reality is driven by institutions and practices which are grounded in capitalism and the idea of ownership. but if we're talking about the *right to hear* a given work of art, then i think we are talking about an ideal. ethicists and aestheticians, flame on-- phil

On 31 Oct 97, Philip Hugh Sherburne wrote:

quoted 2 lines so the issue, as i see it, is the question: what gives you the

> so the issue, as i see it, is the question: what gives you the > innate (or inalienable) right to hear a given recording?

It can only do the musician/s good to have their music disseminated - that is, after all, the reason they record it, rather than just sit in their bedrooms plinking away quietly to themselves. I've often been introduced to music via a mixed tape from someone and then gone out and bought the CD, which I would not even have been aware of before hearing the compilation. I *