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So....Tresona is actually just enforcing the laws of God. Got it. That helps explain why they demanded that DCI not just fork over a check, but invade Music for All, kill all the men and livestock, and keep the women as slaves.

Just keep doing what they're doing. They're trending upward slowly but surely as are their shows, difficulty, and performance levels. No need for any big changes that I can see.

Actually, you can play John Mackey music, buy buying it. It's written for wind ensemble, so you're granted the liscence to perfrom it as-is. But when you want to arrange it for marching band, that's where seperate rights come into the picture. A band could absolutely play it as-is outside on the field with no issues.

I don't like much about the current swamp of licensing rights, nor the extraordinary length of copyrights, but the above statement I cannot agree with. John Mackey, for instance, composes music primarily for wind ensembles. Take away all the "public educational institutions" (i.e. elementary schools through college), and just how many wind ensembles remain across the country to actually pay Mackay any money for the work he put into those compositions? If schools don't have to pay, then he stops composing for schools, and schools no longer have music to play. Bad for all.

The issue of qualified immunity for public employees is not applicable to DCI, since drum corps are private charitable entities. Corps employees are not school teachers performing their school duties. While this may, however, provide some protections in the short term for high school band directors, all it is saying is that until more light is shed on the current grey area of what is actually required with regard to licensing rights, we won't hold our public employees liable (in legalese: Tresona must establish that the director was violating "a clearly established right" that "a reasonable person would have known"). Ironically, the more legal actions brought by Tresona, the more modern judicial precedents will be established that will clarify those rights (and it will be harder and harder for band directors to continue to claim they were not violating clearly established rights once all the band circuits are making it clear to them that they are required to obtain licensing rights). Furthermore, only the band director gets that benefit - Tresona's case remains in place against the booster organization and the individual officers thereof. The issue of the defendant having actually received licensing has little bearing, since it is fact-specific to the case: the copyrights were co-owned by others as well as Tresona, and the co-owner granted retroactive licensing rights. This actually serves to both (a) reinforce the clarity that licenses are indeed required, but also (b) muddies the waters over whether Tresona is the appropriate entity for granting and enforcing them (see #4 below). The statute of limitations issue has no bearing on the issue if licensing rights. It just means that Tresona should have sued earlier. The one issue that will be interesting to follow is whether the attack on Tresona's standing to sue holds up on appeal. In essence, this holding requires that whenever the copyrights to a piece of music are owned by more than one person (as is often the case in popular songs with words), all owners must have assigned their rights to Tresona before Tresona has the power to bring legal actions of copyright violation. Since that didn't happen in this case for the songs in questions, Tresona lost. That legal point will be interesting to follow, although from a practical point of view Tresona may continue to make the claims that people must pay Tresona licensing fees, and it will take certain bravery (and due diligence as to whom actually owns the copyrights and whether they've been assigned to Tresona) on the part of a director to thumb their nose at Tresona. And of course, regarding works that Tresona truly does have 100% control, Tresona may choose to withhold licensing altogether until the directors cave on those songs which are only co-owned.

shouldnt this be pinned?

Neither of which were the creative forces behind the surge of the Bluecoats.

I have a problem with the names of the bowl games nowadays. The Depends Undergarments Holiday Bowl*. Gimme a break. *not a real bowl name. Just making a point.

Nope, the person who created and continues to run Blast is Jim Mason.

Not sure I'd agree that Westman, Rarick and Thrower aren't "main creative forces" but ok.

And THIS is why we cant have nice things anymore. What's become an annual post during the holidays - from our family to yours, wishing you all a very Merry Christmas.

This would push me right out of drum corps as a fan. DCI has already gone way too far afield in instruments that should be allowed. Technically there's no difference between an electric violin and a violin playing into a microphone: a transducer converts acoustic energy into electronic patterns which are then converted back into acoustic energy via transducer and amplified. Yet the former is allowed and the latter is not, and neither should be allowed because speakers cannot match the quality of sound of acoustic instruments. In the drum corps movement, brass and drums worked well for so long before electronics for a reason: they are powerful, cohesive and complimentary. Adding electronics has only caused endless struggles of compensating for one weakness or another. My view is that if an instrument can not stand on its own without amplification in any context then it should not be used, and woodwinds IN NO WAY can balance brass unless used in enormous numbers, and solo instruments would rely totally on amplification. In most if the contests I've attended recently, the speaker systems were more ear-shattering than satisfying, because the mixing crews are rehearsing for finals week instead of paying attention to what it sounds like at the particular venue they're in at the moment. Adding woodwinds may seem like the logical next step in DCI, but for this fan it would be the last straw.

What about hostrauser? He did a great job with his rankings page for many a season!

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BK's Vaughan Williams was lovely!

I miss the rains down in Africa.