netwaves

2008-04-12

new platform for musicians in Europe

Under the bombastic subtitle "The European Digital Music Revolution" a new web community is just born, Younison:
"Younison is the first European Pressure Platform that gives Artists, DJ/producers, Managers and Organizers in the Music Industry a voice to speak up with and to actually change the way our business will be organised in the future."

In the FAQ there's an explanation for the subtitle:
"What do you mean with the Digital Music Revolution?
Besides being a great new tool for everyone in the music industry to contact each other, share friends and colleages, comment on professional experiences and even have the possibiliy to visualy compare each others calendar in order to fine tune meetings in bands and making life easier for artists, managers and organisers, Younison aims at being the first pressure platform .
By bringing you volatile news and collecting visions and votes, we aim to influence policy makers in doing the right thing for our business. We will report on the most urgent subjects that need upgrading.
By means of polling your views on certain crucial topics, we will activate a debate on high level thus urging political change, without the interference of collecting societies speaking in your name.
We do not intend to destroy, we intend to change and help rebuild what has gone wrong so long...
You give us the ammunition by joining and participating, Younison will trigger The Digital Music Revolution!"

2008-04-10

the balls of Brussels

(foto cc Indymedia) The balls of Brussels - the Atomium - were built for Expo '58 and exist 50 years. The architect of the project Waterkeyn decided to protect 'his' concept by putting his rights to the collecting society Sabam. So, everytime someone wants to put a photo of the Atomium on his website, he has to pay about 90,00 euro/month. One estimates that the income of all payments to Sabam ammounts to about 30.000 euro/year, and this goes to the heir of the late architect (he died in 2005) till + 70 years after his death = 2075. Because this year is the anniversary of Expo '58, the organisation of the Belgian heritage in Mechelen planned to do actions whereby people would send their old pictures of those old days, and to put them on the web, blogs, ... Because of the Sabam rule, the organisation did a playful call ("cultural guerilla") for 100 people to help 'photoshop' away the balls on all the photographs. Sabam replied that this year is an exception, and people can publish for 1 year the images, as long it's in a non commercial way.
Now i wonder, who ever paid this building, and who owned it then (and now). I mean, if this building is paid by taxes, i should think that the belgian state owns this building and all it's plans, and that the architect made it as an employee of the same state, and has no right to put a copyright on plans made for his employer. Can anyone help me sort this out?

links (dutch): Stad Mechelen start guerilla tegen copyright op Atomium Sabam in het nauw Dure bollen Warning on Wikimedia Commons: "Do not upload images of the Atomium in Brussels. This building is copyrighted artwork. Nobody is allowed distributing his own photos of the Atomium without the consent of the copyright holders in Belgium and other countries without the Freedom of Panorama. So all Atomium images will get deleted in Commons on sight. Thank you for your cooperation."
Freedom of Panorama??? wtf! ...

Even for the commemorative coin, the European Central Bank must have been paying to Sabam:

40 years ago in 1968: Pink Floyd @ the Atomium:

2008-04-08

Netwaves plays hommage to 1bit Wonder

netwaves interviews Mirko Schmidt, one of the co-founders of the eclectic netlabel 1bit Wonder, and learns that the netlabel has decided to ..., just listen to the man himself!

update: read also Sebastian Redenz' (Thinner) article "Netlabel who care(d): 1bit Wonder"

Playlist:

01. Fuck Off NYC - Sven Tasnadi
02. Interpolated - The Noise Tales
03. Schmukkel - Nicorola
04. Rendering Dynamix - Kiorda D�kin
05. Frank Molder - Die Galaxis
06. Am Stau - Endlos
07. Sampled Souls - Juno6
08. Overcrowded Mind - Anton Lanski
09. The Queens of King - Latex Distortion
10. Introducing Savya (Kultobjekt remix) - Stalker
11. Fuerte Psycho - Clemens Eduard Haipl