We have a (generally sensible) pro-property bias in this culture that makes it extremely hard for people to think critically about the most complicated form of property out there ââ¬â what most call ââ¬Åintellectual property.ââ¬Â To question property of any form makes you a communist. Yet this is precisely our problem: To make it clear that we are pro-copyright without being extremists either way. -- L. LessigEvery month, I read Jazz Magazine, the best french source for jazz news. It comes with a free CD, that contains public-domain works. Usually, these are rarities : tunes that were never published in digital form. The authors of these compilations are knowledgeable, thus there are often little treasures in there : for example, recordings of the ephemeral Tadd Dameron / Miles Davis quartet, or the first recorded version of Night in Tunisia, before that tune found its name (it used to be called Interlude.) They're free, they're previously unavaible, the quality of the recordings is often poor, thus no company has interest in releasing them. But they're important.
The history of Jazz has quite a few things to teach to us about intellectual property and copyright issues, versus creation and progress. More on that later. -- Title of this journal entry by John Birks Dizzy Gillespie.
