P Taggs
website information:
Background and Copyright Issues
Updated
202-=10=08 |
S WHY DO THESE WEB PAGES EXIST?
Six reasons
Reason
1 (professional).
People often used to complain that my writings
were hard to get hold of. This site should have helped solve that problem.
Reason
2 (professional).
Other people, including students, produce
really useful stuff that can also be difficult to access. This site
contributes in a small way to solving that problem.
Reason
3 (political).
We are subjected to a constant barrage of propaganda and disinformation
via the dominant media which are owned by corporate fat
cats. This site provides the opportunity to spread other, more constructive notions of
the world we live in.
Reason 4 (both). Its the 21st century and dead trees have never been a good environmental idea. Besides, standing in front of a photocopier in a small room was never good for my health and it wasted a lot of time. I can disseminate information quicker, cheaper and more cleanly if I use this website.
Reason
5 (ethical).
I believe that freedom of information should
mean what it says, in this case that information, ideas and
knowledge should be freely available (like universal health care) to
all, rich or poor, powerful or disempowered, wherever they live and
whatever their situation. Thats why I dont charge for any
services available on this site. The only exception is asking for donations towards the costs of maintaining this site, including its book production.
Reason 6 (ethical). I regard consumerist propaganda (a.k.a. advertising) as a cultural, social and ideological scourge. I think it is essential to provide non-commercial sources of ideas and information. There is an unfortunate contradiction between reasons 5 and 6.
How do these web pages help solve the professional problem?
Many publishers steer clear of musicological work containing quotations of music in notated form because [i] the notationally literate do not constitute a huge or lucrative readership; [ii] page laying text with music examples is a time-consuming process, [iii] most of the examples quoted in work about popular music are under copyright whose clearance can involve horrendous amounts of time, work and money (See Copyright matters). It is, however, important that the results of musicological work in our area of studies be readily available for purposes of education and research.
User anonymity
To use this site you don’t need to join anything, pay anything or subscribe to anything. No cookies of any sort are placed on your computer or phone. You don’t have to waste time joining, becoming a member, signing up, logging in, rejecting the worst cookie options, entering IDs, passwords or PINs. You don’t need to to worry that data about you will be recorded —your wherebouts, your tastes or preferences— and be passed on to dubious third parties like Facebook, the NSA, the CIA or GCHQ, not to metion the pedlars of consumerist propaganda, qualified by Bill Hicks as Satan’s little helpers. I wish most sites would treat their users with this sort of respect..
COPYRIGHT ISSUES ... see also Conditions of use
Problems of music copyright in popular music studies, music an the moving image. etc. are a veritable minefield. Visitors are therefore asked to note the following.
[1] A.lthough education and research materials appearing openly on these web pages were intended primarily for use by my students, anyone visiting this site is welcome to make use of those materials, provided this sites Conditions of use are observed.
[2] Copyright subsists in much of the material presented here.
[3] Written material on this site is copyrighted by either the author (normally through Creative Commons) or by both the author and the publisher.
[4] Some notated music examples associated with certain online texts are copyrighted by a third party and are used here solely for educational and research purposes. No financial profit whatsoever is derived from such citation, neither by myself nor by any body I may represent. These music examples may not be used for commercial ends.
[5] A few extracts of recorded music under copyright by others than myself, which are used in analysis, or which students need to access in order to fulfil course requirements, are stored as MP3 files in password-protected folders on this site. No financial gain whatsoever is derived from the presence of these MP3 files on this site, neither by myself nor by any body I may represent .
For one set of solutions to problems of quoting music in notated form, see MMMSP Inc.
For
a more detailed discussion of conventional copyright laws
effects on research and education in popular music, see the following documents:
CONDITIONS OF USE
see https://tagg.org/CC-conditions.html
I assume people come to this website for information and that they can read. I have minimised animation and tried to avoid unnecessary graphics so that pages load faster, all in an effort to save both you and me time and money online. There is already enough clutter on the web! The No Frills idea comes from the (now defunct) low-budget UK supermarket chain Kwik-Save.
Non-commercial and independent
I pay out of my own pocket to keep this website running. I'd rather do that than become dependent on income from sources whose activities I oppose or on those who don't like some of the things I have to say here: for example that advertising, like the capitalism it belongs to, sucks.
The reasons I dont use FaceBook or similar arrangements are: [1] they include advertising; [2] they force everyone to join or sign up to their system; [3] they don't allow for my free book download service; [4] they don’t respect Internet privacy (see FaceSpace Blither-Blather).