jeffmolnar

ah man, #drumcorps on DALnet. That takes me back.

It must be a really big deal for them to delay it this long and not just cut whatever the offending track is. Like "My Body is a Cage" big deal, if I had to guess.

Excellent recruiting tool. My deaire to march DCI only manifested after I sought out some video files on IRC. Kids will see these videos and want to do it.

I believe you’re right as far as directly taking them on. I’m more trying to think of how DCI night wage guerrilla warfare with minimal financial duress. Maybe that’s not possible, I dunno. I just feel like they have to do sometbing... even if it isn’t immediately effective. If everyone just gives up we’ll be stuck with this crap forever.

DCI's better cause is providing life-changing education and performance opportunities for youth. The recordings just exist so those performances live on forever. Also I never said corps were getting wealthy, I was quite obviously comparing DCI (and its member corps) to for-profit corporations.

True, but generally for a better cause than to just increase their wealth.

I was talking about several things, and the "all this" in your initial reply suggested that you were following that. ...unless we had a signed contract that says you will let me use your car at a certain time, in a certain way, and you don't get to ask why. I'm well aware of how the current deals are written. You made my point perfectly with your follow up post. Hmm. Hopefully someone inside the organization will eventually leak it then. Also be careful supporting a broader educational/nonprofit exemption! Think of the poor copyright trolls and publishing conglomerates!

I feel like you guys aren’t even reading what I’m suggesting. Because all that I’d like to see done is for DCI to publicize the information about why certain pieces were cut. Who was responsible and why. That’s free.

Nothing ever got changed by calmly taking it in the chin. As for the law, you telling me a lawyer couldn’t write up a clause that waived that right of the composer?

It hasn't been a huge issue though. It's only huge to us in this niche activity. What I'm talking about is an actual celebrity (or prominent "influencer," as they're called now) catching wind and stirring up a stink. I'm talking mainstream news sources putting out articles on it. Yes it's unlikely, I know you're a pessimist so let me stop you there. The point is that it's impossible for anything to happen without DCI making some of that info public. If it's out there, something could happen. Maybe. It's a long shot, but it's all we got. As I've been saying throughout multiple posts now. Write better contracts. The composer shouldn't be able to change their mind. They either sign on or they don't.

Right, so those groups should be forced to take a different approach.

I'd take #1, except corps are still required to allow DCI to put out the videos. Corps should be responsible for paying the license, but "DCI Finals" should still be a thing. Maybe kickback some of the revenue from video sales to the corps. Maybe not, I don't care. They can figure that out internally. But really, the corps need to feel the heat here or they'll never stop choosing problematic music. At the end of the day, the season is just two and a half months during the summer. The videos are what live on forever. They are infinitely more important than what is played on the summer tour. These rights need to be locked down in advance. I don't care if that's never been done before, let's make some new deals and get it done now.

...which shouldn't be the case, yes. That's my point.

It's the same group playing the piece. There is no valid reason for this stuff to be separated, beyond appeasing corporations to the detriment of a youth activity. It should be possible to lock down these rights before the season even starts.

You basically just made my point about why it’s important for the information to be public, so that other voices might become aware of it in the future. We’ll never get it changed on our own.