Fiction_L Archives science fiction story - music Dates: 2/14/05,3:23 PM  through  2/15/05,4:24 PM  (5 postings) Search for: Select one or more indexes to search: 2011-current     2009-2010     2004-2008    1995-2003    (Matches from each index will be displayed separately in the results page.) Return to February 2005 thread menu   |   Fiction_L Archives Menu

FROM: "Franz, Patty" <[removed]@pamunkeylibrary.org>
REC'D: 2/14/05, 3:23 PM

Folks -
I am trying to find a story I think I read about music and
copyright. It takes place in the future and people are so concerned
about originality that copyright has become very stringent. Therefore,
if I am remembering correctly, very little new music is being written.
There may be a conversation with someone who sued for copyright
infringement and may be responsible with the end results. I used to
read a lot more speculative fiction in the 80's and early 90's so the
story may have been written then. However, I still read some SF, so I
can't be sure.

Thanks for your help, Patty

Patty Franz
Supervising Librarian
Pamunkey Regional Library
P. O. Box 119
Hanover, VA 23069

[removed]@pamunkeylibrary.org

FROM: Dennis Lien <[removed]@tc.umn.edu>
REC'D: 2/14/05, 3:34 PM

At 04:12 PM 2/14/2005, you wrote:
>Folks -
> I am trying to find a story I think I read about music and
>copyright. It takes place in the future and people are so concerned
>about originality that copyright has become very stringent. Therefore,
>if I am remembering correctly, very little new music is being written.
> There may be a conversation with someone who sued for copyright
>infringement and may be responsible with the end results. I used to
>read a lot more speculative fiction in the 80's and early 90's so the
>story may have been written then. However, I still read some SF, so I
>can't be sure.
>
>Thanks for your help, Patty
>
>Patty Franz
>Supervising Librarian
>Pamunkey Regional Library
>P. O. Box 119
>Hanover, VA 23069
>
[removed]@pamunkeylibrary.org

Lloyd Biggle frequently wrote sf relating to music, and his best-known
such story is "The Tunesmith." I'm abashed to admit I can't recall if
I ever read that one or not, but a vague memory of reading about suggests
it may be the story sought.

Or not...

Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // [removed]@tc.umn.edu

FROM: Diana Parker <[removed]@yahoo.com>
REC'D: 2/14/05, 3:39 PM

I think that's the title story in Spider
Robinson's collection "Melancholy Elephants". An
old senator who is sponsoring a bill to make
copyright perpetual is confronted by an artist's
widow (he committed suicide because almost all
his works flunked copyright hearings as being
"derivative") who wants it limited, thus freeing
up older works to be "rediscovered".

Diana Parker

--- "Franz, Patty" <[removed]@pamunkeylibrary.org>
wrote:

> Folks -
> I am trying to find a story I think I read
> about music and
> copyright. It takes place in the future and
> people are so concerned
> about originality that copyright has become
> very stringent. Therefore,
> if I am remembering correctly, very little new
> music is being written.
> There may be a conversation with someone who
> sued for copyright
> infringement and may be responsible with the
> end results. I used to
> read a lot more speculative fiction in the 80's
> and early 90's so the
> story may have been written then. However, I
> still read some SF, so I
> can't be sure.
>
> Thanks for your help, Patty
>
> Patty Franz
> Supervising Librarian
> Pamunkey Regional Library
> P. O. Box 119
> Hanover, VA 23069
>
> [removed]@pamunkeylibrary.org
>
>
......................................................................
> Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the
> archives?
> Everything Fiction_L:
> http://fictionl.webrary.org
>
>

=====
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Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
--Groucho Marx (1890 - 1977)


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FROM: "Sharon Custer" <[removed]@eccles-lesher.org>
REC'D: 2/14/05, 3:51 PM

This might also be Melancholy Elephants by Spider Robinson, most recently
reprinted in the "By any other name" story collection. In this story, a
woman is going to meet a politician to try to convince him to stop
legislation that would extend copyright even further from being passed. In
it, she uses music as an example of why it must be stopped. This particular
story is available as a sample chapter from that collection at this address:
http://www.baen.com/chapters/W200011/0671319744.htm?blurb

It is the first story after the prologue. That may make it easier to
determine if it is the correct short story.

Sharon Custer
Eccles-Lesher Memorial Library
673 Main Street
PO Box 359
Rimersburg, PA 16248
(814) 473-3800
FAX: (814) 473-8200
http://www.eccles-lesher.org
[removed]@eccles-lesher.org

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin

-----Original Message-----
From: [removed]@maillist.webrary.org [[removed]@maillist.webrary.org]
On Behalf Of Franz, Patty
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2005 4:12 PM
To: Fiction_L
Subject: science fiction story - music

Folks -
I am trying to find a story I think I read about music and
copyright. It takes place in the future and people are so concerned about
originality that copyright has become very stringent. Therefore, if I am
remembering correctly, very little new music is being written.
There may be a conversation with someone who sued for copyright
infringement and may be responsible with the end results. I used to read a
lot more speculative fiction in the 80's and early 90's so the story may
have been written then. However, I still read some SF, so I can't be sure.

Thanks for your help, Patty

Patty Franz
Supervising Librarian
Pamunkey Regional Library
P. O. Box 119
Hanover, VA 23069

[removed]@pamunkeylibrary.org

FROM: [removed]@emich.edu
REC'D: 2/15/05, 4:24 PM

I'm fairly sure that Spider Robinson's "Melancholy Elephants" is the
story in question, as suggested by other [removed]@s.

Another, more remote possibility is "The Right To Read", an Orwellian
projection of a future of ubiquitous copyright protection by Richard
Stallman, founder of the GNU Project and president of the Free Software
Foundation. It's available online at
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html. Even if it's not the
story the querent had in mind, it may be of related interest.

Lloyd Biggle's "The Tunesmith" is a superb story, but it seems to me
that the major force that the protagonist had to deal with was the
media-driven perversion of all music into commercial advertising
jingles, rather than pernicious copyright laws.

Bradley A. Scott
(Whose DNA very probably contains several sequences already under
patent protection, but who does not plan to request permission before
reproducing them.)

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