Crap!

[boji.livejournal.com]

This Fanlib approach to user generated content isn't just happening to fandom. this article in the technology section of The Guardian Newspaper talks about musical publishers seeking yearly licenses from fansites that quote/archive song lyrics.

And I quote:

In answer to the question of why aren't we giving away lyrics free now, the better question is, why were we giving them away for all those years? We've looked at the huge demand and decided that this is an untapped income stream."

eta:

Now admittedly this product in this instance - the lyrics - do belong to the artists who penned them and haven't been altered, transformed or used in a derivative way by the people hosting them on websites, for the most part. But... I find it oddly mercenary, though not surprising.

The wonder of the web is, for the most part, user generated content, be that meta, discussions, fiction, blogs, lyrics, wikipedia... And I can foresee them trying to force us to pay for access to what we, as a collective, create. And that's on top of paying our ISP's of course.

Comments

[scarah2.livejournal.com]

Hoboy.

Well, in the US anyway it's Fair Use to reprint excerpts of things for the purposes of analysis or critique. Works in their entirety are another story. So these guys may have a point.

[boji.livejournal.com]

Works in their entirety are another story. So these guys may have a point.
Yes, I just edited the post and said so... having thought about it BUT there is still something insidious in the wind.

I guess it's because for most of us (at least as I see it) the net functions as ones own personal access point to a public glut/library of information.