structuralism

[hoopyfrood at juno_com]

Jarred brings up structurlaism and I smile.

Then I think:

Actually the catch is that "ownership" does exist within this structure, made of arbitrary signs or not.  La parole contains a sign for intellectual property rights, and its existence in the chain of signifiers can lead to punitive measures.

But if we jump to poststructuralists, say Foucault, we can examine the notion of "intellectual property rights" historically.  Then we would see that it is a relatively new notion, with its application to music being even newer.  600 years ago, writing a song did not guarantee that you would have control over who performed it in the future.  It was pretty likely that someone would use big bits of it to write other songs, like when Ray Parks Junior used that Hughey Lewis bass line in "Ghostbusters" and got his pants sued off.  Frankly, this whole construct as applied to music stufles the creative interaction of musical bits and pieces.

But it also makes rock stars and record companies rich, so it won't go away.

Plus, it costs a gazillion dollars to make an album and market a band, so there seems to me a legit, common sense claim for companies and artists to hold on to some sort of right to make cash money from their products.

HOWEVER, common sense also dictates that letting people copy one's music does not lead to financial desperation.  It may help you spread your product, become more famous, sell more $40 T shirts.  Bootlegging never hurt the Dead.  

The smart ones are going to accomodate CD burning, not try to squelch it.  It's a phenomenon to which the market can adjust, eventually.  But, to jump back, Jack, in time, to Althusser, burning--"ripping"?--CDs rubs a little more aura off of the musical composition in the age of mechanical reproduction, and the eventual effect of that may mean less cash money for rock stars.  But you know what?  A world where rock stars make only a 100 grand a year ain't such a bad thing.  If Karin and Linford were clearing a 100 grand, we'd have 'em guaranteed for life.

Sorry about the theorists.   :)

That's all,

Fred



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