Personal Feelings

by Dean FH Macy, Lit.D.

Our founding fathers, in their bold idea to separate from the rule of England, did so to enable them to prevent slavery to England and to enact laws to govern a new society. That is a whole different animal then what we face in the music community. When I purchase an album I also purchase the right to play that album on my music system. I am not limited by how high I can crank that system or who can hear the music from that album played through my system. I also have the right to donate that purchased album to another person or a library, or to sell it to regain my costs at a yard sale or to a merchant who deals in used albums. The same freedoms apply to sheet music- I can play it on an instrument, sing from it, and write a new arrangement of it should I choose to do so. All these rights are provided to me by the legitimate purchase of that music. What I see and what I object to is an agency who seeks to take those rights away from me. Especially an agency whose sole purpose is to protect the composer and musician from illegal use of their music in a concert hall or other public forum and to provide the means whereby a musician can collect usage fees both from the manufacture and sales of their music which is embodied in a "fixed medium of expression" like a CD or Tape or Phonograph Record or due to sales of the same or the playing of these via a radio or TV station. I don't understand why we would ever need an agency or group to lobby for freedoms already granted to us under the law. Our problem lies not in needing protection under consumer sales; it is the interpreting of the laws as we see fit in so much as it does not negate the rights of the musician to collect his/her rightful fees for the performance of his/her music in a paid forum. As both a composer and a musician I would loathe to see a group formed to deny me those performance rights under the law. However I want the right to rearrange another's music just as I want them to have the right to rearrange mine without penalty and without paying some outrageous permission fees to an agency (which doesn't have the right to collect those fees in the first place). The format I have always used, since the sixties anyway, is the MIDI format. Using MIDI, I and other musicians could share musical ideas with each other, using sounds instead of having to try to interpret a musical format via hastily written sheet music. We would exchange these arrangement ideas by way of tape and music sheets. With the introduction of the BBS we could do all this faster and now with the inter-net, with even greater speed. I believe that my rights as a composer are being restricted by banning the transportation of MIDI files over the inter-net and/or the charging of fees to do so. I believe that the private usage of MIDI either through the inter-net or in my studio or home, without intent of charging others for the privilege of hearing that music, is against my constitutional freedom of expression. Free speech doesn't necessarily mean the spoken word: it protects, or is supposed to protect, the singing word also. If I choose, I can state my opinions to a group by standing on a park bench in a public forum. I believe those same rights are granted to me regardless of the form of those opinions, spoken or sung. To "tax" me for the spoken or sung opinions I offer to anyone who would listen to me, free of charge, is against my constitutional rights. That is what I fight! -- Dean FH Macy, Lit.D./Mus.D.

Forward To - Conspire Page 3
Back To - Trouble Page 1

The Music Relief Association
This Site Has Become The Central Source For Our Side Of The Story
We Must Have A Central Source If We Are To Ever Win This War!!!
(This Site Is Updated Almost Daily!)