BAS Message
September 2009

Webmasters Note: This space will now (from May, 2009 forward) be called The BAS Message, since it may be written by someone other than the President of the BAS. —Barry

0.  V31N3 of the BAS Speaker has been published. It contains a writeup of the June 2005 AES Banquet meeting with Jack Renner of Telarc Records written by David Hadaway. David Rich dissuses "free" classical programming on the web. (Technically it is not free since you have to have high speed internet access to utilize this). Also Mark Fishman on CD rot, David Rich on problems with optical recorders, and David Moran reviews the BG corporation's mostly ribbon Z-92 Speaker. 26pp

1.  As co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at the Harvard Law School, Professor Charles Nesson is renowned for his early interest in bridging technology, law and culture and his ability to inspire generations of students to see the internet as a force of positive change, not just cables and computers. But when he took on the recording industry in an eagerly anticipated civil case over sharing music online the champion stumbled. On July 31, a jury handed down an eye-popping $675,000 judgement against Joel Tennenbaum, a Boston Univerity graduate sudent who was defended by Nesson. Tennenbaums's offense was downloading and sharing 30 songs. While artists deserve to be paid, Nesson said, the solution is not to threaten and punish those who love music through a copyright regime that "produces absurd results." In 2004 the Recording Industry Association of America contacted Mr. Tennenbaum, 25, who studies physics, and threatened to sue him over songs he had downloaded and shared without paying. Nearly all of the thousands of people confronted by the industry settle for a few thousand dollars, but Mr. Tennenbaum chose to fight. Nesson took him on as a client for free. The $675,000 result could have been avoided by paying $4000. The crucial blow came on the stand when Nesson encouraged Tennenbaum to admit freely that he had downloaded and shared songs, after having denied it in depositions, "because it's the truth." For his part Tennenbaum said he felt that Nesson did an "absolutely brilliant" job in a difficult case and in getting a far smaller penalty than the maximum of $4.5 million. NYT 11Au09

2.  The BAS CD-1 is now available as a pressed CD. The advantages over the CDR are compatibility with all CD players and archive quality. If you bring your BAS CD-1 to a BAS meeting it will be exchanged for the pressed CD at no charge. If you are out of the area a copy will be mailed to you for a $2 handling and mailing charge (do not return your old copy). You may want to pay as part of renewal. Send an email to dbys2@aatt.biz

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updated 10/9/09