By Stephen Downes
December 22, 2003
Why Live Music?
To put the issue
of copying in a different perspective: how many copies of
the Mona Lisa would it take to devalue the original? How
often would you have to see the image - bootlegged or
otherwise - before it would no longer be worth seeing the
original? The answer, of course, is that the original only
appreciates in value. When copying became possible,
we became deluded into thinking that the copy was of value,
that it was something we should pay for. But we lost in
that time the sense of what makes, say, a concert, an art
show, a lecture, important. "Newman's canvas
(Voice of Fire escapes the problem completely. To
bootleg his canvas, you can only allude to the place, and
to capture any sense of the experience, you have to go
there and see it for yourself - in one fell stroke of a
stripe of red midst the deep blues, Barnett Newman defeated
the entire reprint industry." Via Seb. By Gary Lawrence
Murphy, Teledyn, November 21, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
The Lesson Colleges Need to
Learn
Those of us steeped in learning object
theory and design will find this column (and the associated chat transcript a bit odd, as
the author calls on major universities to videotape
lectures and make them available for sharing. But the
article is worth a read if only to demonstrate the state of
mind of those on the outside who are not steeped in the new
technology. It should serve as a remonder: for whatever
their weaknesses, learning objects represent the way
forward, and there is no going back, because this is the
reception we would meet. By Steven Pearlstein, Washington
Post, December 17, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
RIAA: Shot Through the Heart?
The
music industry had a bad weekend, but for the rest of us it
was good news for a change, as a court in the United States
ruled that internet service providers (ISPs) do not have to
reveal the names of alleged file sharers, a court in Holland ruled
that Kazaa is legal, and Jon Johansen, accused
of illegally cracking DVD encryption, was once again acquitted. Could this be the return of
sanity? By Cynthia L. Webb, Washington Post, December 22,
2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
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