RE: digital Beatles -- the mother of all licensing

["Ken Masters" <kmasters@ithealthed.com>]

Hi Michael

Oh, absolutely, there are plenty of other sites from which the 
music can be, and is, downloaded.  I chose Youtube as an example 
because it is so open, and is not a standard p2p network like 
most of the others.  I think it's precisely that semblance of 
legitimacy that makes it attractive, and the fact that the music 
companies are not taking action even though it's in the public 
eye.  Also, its user-interface is generally much more easily 
navigable than most of those other sites.

Also, a lot of those sharing sites are blocked by universities, 
but Youtube is generally not (well, in some countries, yes). 
So, a student can sit in a computer lab on campus and download 
off Youtube without much concern.

If the music companies ever change their minds, that might be a 
different thing.

Regards

Ken


Dr. Ken Masters
Asst. Professor: Medical Informatics
Medical Education Unit
College of Medicine & Health Sciences
Sultan Qaboos University
Sultanate of Oman
E-i-C: The Internet Journal of Medical Education


> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: RE: digital Beatles -- the mother of all licensing
> From: "Fitzgerald, Michael" <mfitzgerald@udc.edu>
> Date: Wed, November 17, 2010 6:43 am
> To: "liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu" <liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
>
> Dear Ken,
>
> Alas, I think even you are a bit naive regarding how the youth 
> of today access digitised music (many? most? certainly not all, 
> though). There's absolutely no need to go through elaborate 
> contortions that involve extracting audio from youtube videos. 
> If someone wants every single Beatles recording (and much much 
> much much more), it's out there in the dark and not so dark 
> alleys of the Internet. And the site that gets shut down today 
> will reappear somewhere else tomorrow. Youtube has some 
> semblance of legitimacy compared to the many blogs and 
> bittorrent sites that exist.
>
> Michael Fitzgerald
> Electronic Services Librarian
> Learning Resources Division
> University of the District of Columbia
> Washington, DC 20008