Posted by Rick Denney on June 24, 2002 at 18:58:25:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Copywright vs. Punishment posted by MG on June 24, 2002 at 18:29:14:
A close friend was a band director at an inner-city school for some time when I lived in that city. It seemed to me that cumulative low expectations took their toll there. By the time they are at high school, the values have already been taught. But the notion that property is disposable and not to be respected is not just an inner-city phenomenon. It is a disease of the generation coming up, perhaps a reaction to the materialism of their parents, and perhaps a reflection of their parents' desire to satisfy their every whim. I don't expect poor kids in the inner-city school who have no good behavior training at home to get it right all the time, but if society as a whole taught more respect for property, the inner-city kids would be better than they are now, and so would the suburban kids.
But how do you expect any progress if the teachers pass out photocopies and encourage the kids to pitch the part when they are done? These are the kids who recoil in horror when we crusty curmudgeons pontificate in response to postings on Tubenet asking for illegal copies. They can't even understand what we are talking about--every role model in their lives till that time has disregarded with seeming impunity that notice at the bottom of nearly every single piece of music.
Yes, composers are paid for parts that are sold, depending on what's in their contract. It certainly feeds revenue into the system that keeps new music being published even if the composer doesn't get the residual.
If it is just impossible to address the problem in traditional ways, then school districts should take the issue on and work with the publishing companies to purchase duplication rights. The software industry does this now as a matter of course, and I'd bet that the music publishing industry would migrate in that direction if the market forces would work as they should. But instead of finding better ways to address the issue, the use of the photocopy machine just ensures that the problem will never be solved. And it may put a few marginal-but-adventurous publishers and composers out of business.
Of course, band directors and school districts take a risk with they flout the law. For example, many companies had a policy of "don't ask, don't tell" when it came to the software residing on their employees' computers. But the software houses took steps to prosecute software piracy, and after a few companies got tagged for zillions of illegal copies, others took the issue seriously. Now, my own company has no pirated software on any computer of which I'm aware (not even mine, heh, heh). That would have been ridiculously idealistic a dozen years ago. Eventually, the music industry will take those same steps as a matter of survival, and woe to the people they tag to be the example for others.
Rick "who at one (very brief) time ran a tuba music publishing company" Denney