cybersnyder

Was thinking bondage suits, but maybe my mind is in the gutter too much.

It's not even the original composer. Vanilla Ice can't give you permission to do "Ice Ice Baby" on the field. (Now that would be a show!) You need to obtain the licenses through something like ASCAP or BMI. Let's say the fee for a particular song is $500. I tried to calculate a fee on the ASCAP site but it was not straightforward. I wonder how much of that would go back to the original composer and how much to ASCAP. I don't know for sure, but I have my guesses. But is a recording of a portion of a parking lot warm up fair use or copyright infringement? Did the owners of the parking lot pay ASCAP a performance license for the copyrighted material to be performed there?

Under the DMCA you're supposed to be able to file a counter claim. Good luck on that. ;-)

Honestly, I think the bigger issue is with an IP system that was created long before the Internet and the burden of defining "fair use" is placed on the little guy who has no legal power against mega corporations.

"Entitlement"? Hardly. I just don't like to roll over and give up the principle of fair use. '89 Cavaliers would be an issue where the Cavaliers didn't do their proper legal work when putting together a show, not a case where they posted a warm up on the 'Tube.

Creators are usually paid through ASCAP, BMI or a handful of other licensing agreements. Bands (the four piece guitar, bass and drums variety) perform copyrighted works (covers) at bars or venues and the venue must have a license for public performance of the copyrighted works. Recently BMI and ASCAP have been going after venues and that has caused some to stop having live bands perform. There's been a lot of discussion on this on the guitar forums. I'm not sure if DCI would have the agreement with these organizations or if they would need to ensure that the venue where the performances occur would need to have purchased the performance licenses. It could be as part of this agreement that there is a provision for any recordings of the performances. I'm not sure and I am unable to find a statement on dci.org regarding this. I completely understand them going after performance recordings, but when they go after parking lot warm-ups -- that's when they lose me.

IMHO, DCI is going beyond copyright enforcement and suppressing fair use. I didn't see anywhere in my post where I "#####, ####, or moaned". I'm just stating my opinion. DCI can do what they want and I will react in the manner I see fit.

The heavy handed DMCA/DCI police it what turns me off on drum corps. If you're posting recordings of performances, that's copyright infringement. If you're posting parking lot clips, that to me, falls under fair use. Unfortunately the Supreme Court ruled that it's up to the defendant to prove that their infringement falls under fair use. That effectively wipes out the principle of fair use for all but those that have very, very deep pocket. So my response is simple, I will purchase no DVDs. I bought the Fan Network this year, but it will probably be the last time. Don't be too upset with U-2be. Under the DMCA they have a safe harbor provision that protects them against lawsuits however they must react to DMCA infringement complaints that must be submitted under the penalty of perjury. If they don't react, they can be sued.

With corps, like any sport, you're watching the journey through the season. Unfortunately complicated shows take time to develop and while the season starts in June most are in school/college up to that point and can't do two months of fulltime prep prior to the season. I watched the kickoff of the Cadets show in Chambersburg and I was impressed with where they were. If you only want the final product, watch finals.

The man actually answers email. I asked some minor questions about T-shirts, sent to a generic yea.org account and Hopkins answered. I felt bad that I wasted his time on a trivial thing. Well, actually he said the shirts were cut for young, skinny kids. So I guess he called me old and fat. But that's ok, it was Hopkins. The guy is a machine -- must never sleep. He has my respect.

This is my first year of the Fan Network so I don't have anything with which to compare it. So far I'm loving it because of the archived performances. Yeah, the On Demand performances from this year aren't that great, some white balance would be much appreciated, but for $59 I'm happy. That said, I probably shot better video with my iPhone than some of the videos that I'm seeing. I know, no recording of performances allowed, but I shot a few clips just to test the camera. Surprisingly the sound and video from the little phone was great.

My daughter did it for a couple years but with some of the squads it can easily be over $10k per year. The squads she was on were less, so I'm not 100% crazy. Now, she likes snare. Phew...

Try competitive cheerleading. ;)

A nearby school had a $500 per season activity fee for marching band and a fundraiser commitment. In Maryland school systems are county wide and this year all activity fees were banned. So I'm not sure how that will impact that particular band. It was a relatively small band (~40 members total) from a school in a wealthy area. Marching band isn't as popular here, so I don't know if it's popularity, the activity fees or the director's desire to compete in a smaller category that kept the band small.

Saw Crown at Chambersburg, PA and didn't even know what the show was titled at that point. Had no idea what was going on and I hated the show. Now, it's the show that I watch over and over on the Fan Network.

If anyone is into that style of photography, check out strobist.com. People are getting fantastics shots using cheap flashes and homemade light modifiers.

I think you need to read the whole quote in context instead of picking apart pieces.

Hopefully they won't change venues after tickets were sold. I bought tickets when they went on sale for the 2000 finals supposedly at FedEx Field and got great seats. Happy Happy! Then I find out that the venue changed and by the time I received notification by mail, everyone that was close to DCI headquarters got first dibs on the new seating and I ended up with crappy seats at the new venue. Talk about ######!

Maybe the corps should go to a national draft with some kind of profit sharing to keep competition levels more equal like they do in pro sports. I think DCI's biggest weakness is the lack of competition both in judging -- it's almost like everything is preset and the winner will be one of 3 corps. It will never happen.

Never played in a corps and only observed from the stands, but the old stuff may have been cool in the day but if time travel were possible the 70's corps wouldn't stand a chance against today's corps. But today's corps owe a lot of where they are now to building on what was started back in the 70's. Is DCI dying? Nah. I think there was a bit of a renaissance during the mid eighties to early nineties when things were changing for the better and corps were making rapid evolutionary changes. Then again, maybe that was my heyday of interest and I'm remembering things better than they actually were. Now it almost seems like some of the changes are steps backwards. Take the #### speakers off the field please!! What's next, DJs with turntables scratching during a percussion solo? DCI has to change. Evolve or die -- just be careful with what direction you decide to evolve.

That's better than what I was thinking - that DCI wanted to maintain complete control of the image presented to the public. I don't think Joelesch would lose any sales to photos taken from the stands, but I can see their concern. Technology is advancing quickly and the quality of the shots from the stands - even with the 6" lens limitation, is rapidly increasing. But just make the limitation that you can't sell the photos, not that you can't post photos to websites.

I'm a new poster, so a quick background -- my prime years for corps membership were spent in the Army in Germany, so I've never had the experience of the corps from the inside. College marching band was a compromise but kinda like playing little league instead of making it to the majors. So, to the current and former members, I'm envious. ;-) After 5 years of being DCI-free, we went to the Allentown Saturday show. It was a last minute decision, so the seats weren't the usual good seats that I've been lucky to get in the past. Hello 10 yard line. Watching the shows, I made a comment to my wife that I really don't think I'm in to this anymore. There didn't seem to be as much energy as I remembered. But then I took my 3 year old for ice cream (far more important to him than the show) and briefly saw the performance from high near the 50 and "click". There was the magic. I guess I'll have to get my tickets in advance from now on.

Yeah, i was worried when I saw the sign. Had the camera bag and then I saw "No cameras". I didn't want to walk all the way back to the car, so I just went to the bag check and they didn't say anything. I just can't figure out why DCI doesn't want any pictures posted on the Internet. Seems like free advertising to me.