Internet based guitar educational tool OLGA.NET has closed doors temporarily, after being threatened by lawyers representing the MPA and NMPA. OLGA.net (which stands for Online Guitar Archive) has been threatened before, however is the longest running website for guitar educational tools I can think of. It has been running for over 10 years.

Now, here’s the thing. I pay for my downloaded music. I prefer that when the album I have been so carefully crafting for 4 years now is finished that it not be bandied about in peer to peer applications like soulseek or bittorrent. However, if some kid in his dorm room decides one day to learn what I did in my music, and writes that down to help teach some other folks how to play the guitar, I’d be flattered — not looking for royalty payouts. In fact, any of the music on OLGA can be learned by ear, though some with more work than others. Is the music industry so starved for cash that it has to go after educational tools to get by? I doubt it, but next I may hear something about guitar teachers being threatened because they taught “Guitar Rock City” to their students.

Interestingly, the list of cited works that is being used to target OLGA is only six songs long. Now, to be fair, this isn’t new news. The letter is dated June 9, 2006. However, it is important to note how long they have bogged OLGA down without being able to operate. It seems to me that the MPA and NMPA are attempting to use strategic litigation to deny public participation to OLGA. SLAPP laws exist to protect people against over-burdened litigation that would functionally shut them down. I wonder if OLGA’s lawyers have looked into this.

Why is this a huge deal? Well, the MPA and NMPA apparently feel that any representation of their copyrighted materials deserves royalty payment. However fair use does, as one point of discussion, take into account “the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.” Let’s examine that.

Ok, so people are learning to play your music without paying you. What is the impact of that? The obvious answer is that it generates more interest in your songs and thus drives up sales. Even if you take into account people purchasing someone else performing your song, you will get a cut of that. If they perform it live in a bar or club, most likely that venue pays flat-rate blanket royalties to cover that performance. So what is the gain of trying to swindle a few pennies from OLGA users or OLGA itself?

I think the DMCA of 1998 attempted to address many concerns, and I think it is woefully inadequate. As I see it, those tab files are simply information about a song or composition, and should be free (as in beer.) What the person does with that information later in regards to recording or performing it should be the focus of the music industry, not how that person learned it.

It has been a while since this site was updated, and I apologize.  We have been very busy around here working on several projects, and you may have noticed we’ve moved host machines.

More updates to come soon!

-Admin

Welcome to 2007. I am not sure how 2006 treated you, but in general there are ups and downs to every year. I hope for everyone there was more up than down.

This year brought some great memories for me. I was lucky enough to be able to interview some people I greatly respect at The Amazing Meeting 4. I was honored to give a guest commentary for James Randi’s weekly commentary “Swift.” I expanded the capabilities of the production company with new equipment. The best moment was marrying my wife. My blood tests and bone surveys showed no progression of my Multiple Myeloma. It was a good year, overall.

2007 starts with all the hope and dreams we can put into it. The slate is clean, the next months are fresh canvasses for us to paint whatever we want of our time. Yet the past is not forgotten. It still colors us, shapes us, and guides how we take our new time. Tragedy, hardship and painful times do not fade quickly and can overshadow our happy moments. I wish for everyone’s pain to lessen, for our time to be valued and not squandered, and for all of us to take whatever life has given so far and make the absolute best of it.

“The goal is to live a full, productive life even with all that ambiguity. No matter what happens, whether the cancer never flares up again or whether you die, the important thing is that the days that you have had you will have lived.”

-Gilda Radner

I hope all of our days are days we can say we truly lived.

Happy New Year!

And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere,
And gie’s a hand o’ thine,
And we’ll tak a right guid willie-waught
For auld lang syne!

Skepchick, Ltd. has put toghether a fundraising calendar for sale. This year, both a skepdude and skepchick calendar has been put together. I hear the skepdude calendar has an interesting picture on the back cover…

Order your calendar today! Help Skepchick, Ltd. in their fundraising effort and get a very nice calendar with some great models from the skeptical community in it.

-Ducky

Almost a year ago I was at The Amazing Meeting 4, hosted by The James Randi Educational Foundation in Las Vegas. While I was there I was able to help out the very cool folks at Skepticality by doing some interviews. Among these interviews were Rebecca Watson of Skepchick, Ltd., Jeff Wagg of the James Randi Educational Foundation, Robert Lancaster administrater of stopkaz.com and stopsylviabrowne.com, and of course, Adam, Jamie, and Kari of the Mythbusters. These interviews are available to download from the iTunes store, or from Skepticality’s website.

On a personal note, it was great fun and my honor to help out Derek and Swoopy of Skepticality as well as to meet so many great folks and do these interviews at The Amazing Meeting. I was also honored a few months after The Amazing Meeting 4 when I was able to contribute to James Randi’s weekly Swift articles. You can read that article, and all of his weekly commentaries, here. Very soon The Amazing Meeting 5 will be happening in Las Vegas at the Riviera hotel. While I won’t be able to attend, rest assured I very much wish I could be. If you have the means and time to go, I suggest you do. Nowhere else have I seen a convention of so many friendly, wonderful people together interested in critical thinking and science education.

That’s all I have for now. Stay tuned for more News and Events from me.

-Ducky

To celebrate the new year we have put together a package for artists wishing to record live shows. We are referring to this new service as the Live Production Service Package. For a flat rate fee Fowlsound Productions will schedule a live show with the client and provide live sound reinforcement mixing (no PA services, this applies to shows where PA is provided by venue) and also record, mix and master the show in redbook format ready for pressing.

For more details, please contact us from the details on the “Contact Us” page ask about the new live package service.  Have a happy new year!

Thank you for your support.

-Site Admin

Make yourself at home. We did some remodeling. Please don’t spill on the new couch.

More will be added over the next few days. Thanks for your support.

Cheers,

-Site Admin