Releasing the "source code" of music

Discuss how to promote using FLOSS to make music.

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singforme
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Re: Releasing the "source code" of music

Post by singforme »

My thoughts on that might me due to me being a christian and not totally understandable to agnostics;)
When God created the universe and other things - what kind of source code should he have released? No one would ever be able to understand it due to the fact that there are no other Gods;)
I think it's a tiny bit like that with music: How could you share the source code of that music? When Johann Sebastian Bach wrote the Brandenburg Concerts, that was just after his wife died. How could you have the source code for these emotions by this one historical person? What would be the source code for Kurt Cobain's music? If I had the stems or even the ardour files - so what? So much of music is emotion and individual expression. No binary code could ever do justice to that... my 2 pennies;)
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Re: Releasing the "source code" of music

Post by Jack Winter »

42low wrote:
Jack Winter wrote:One observation of life tells me that there are 2 kinds of people. Those that think that if someone else gets something, they must have lost something (the zero sum game people). Then there are the people that think that the more we all get, the better off we'll all be (the people who believe that sum of the parts is greater than the whole). Guess what group I consider the source of evil in the world ;)
You forget group number 3. :mrgreen:
Those who are happy with what they may use at this moment and don't look at others what they have with jealousy and/or envy. Who are happy with what they have at this moment. Because they know what it is to have and to loose.
Those kind of people exist too. :wink:

And there's nothing wrong with trying to 'get some more' or at least 'enough' out of life.
IMO it's each task to make the best of life out of respect for life itself. Were (after food/roof/clothing) enjoying life and good personal relations are much more important than material stuff.
I'd rank them in number 2 ;)

I'd agree with the getting more out of life, and that health, family, and friends are more important than material stuff..
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Re: Releasing the "source code" of music

Post by Lyberta »

Jack Winter wrote:I'd agree with the getting more out of life, and that health, family, and friends are more important than material stuff..
I'd argue that health, family and friends are also material stuff and tend to die very fast. The real question is what is important in this world? Even humanity will be extinct. But I don't know anything that is more important than humanity so I give my work for humanity. People who don't share my view are excluded using the copyright :P
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Re: Releasing the "source code" of music

Post by Lenny »

singforme wrote:My thoughts on that might me due to me being a christian and not totally understandable to agnostics;)
When God created the universe and other things - what kind of source code should he have released? No one would ever be able to understand it due to the fact that there are no other Gods;)
I think it's a tiny bit like that with music: How could you share the source code of that music? When Johann Sebastian Bach wrote the Brandenburg Concerts, that was just after his wife died. How could you have the source code for these emotions by this one historical person? What would be the source code for Kurt Cobain's music? If I had the stems or even the ardour files - so what? So much of music is emotion and individual expression. No binary code could ever do justice to that... my 2 pennies;)
Bach's source code are his notes. He of course sold those to Church or whatever kings, who then used them for their purposes. Not really free sharing, but Bach was a poor man with ~1K children.

Analogous to what we are talking about would be releasing the notes under copyleft. That would allow everyone freely to study his wicked fugues.

This doesn't mean that anyone could then replace Bach. Only thing we can do is to just stare and wonder his notes for centuries and shake our heads. That's not the point. Point is how the notes are used, who can take advantage of the notes etc.
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Re: Releasing the "source code" of music

Post by Lenny »

Jack Winter wrote:Those that think that if someone else gets something, they must have lost something (the zero sum game people).
Zero sum game may be true for baboons fighting over territory, because the roots and bananas and whatnot are sometimes limited.

If we go full baboon with music, we should then knock the shit out of some guy who came up with pretty tune, and sell it to some hit producer. Problem is that music (and mathematics etc) is not by nature similar to natural resource like banana.
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Re: Releasing the "source code" of music

Post by wolftune »

42low wrote: I guess you also know life, that if you don't protect your sources you will be overrun by those who steal your sources leaving you behind to rot with nothing. Not sharing everything, some protection, is needed and is normal.
This fear is based in a lot of real-world stuff. It's also best when just dropped. It took me a while for me to get over this fear, including some personal prodding from Nina Paley, who learned the lesson herself with Sita Sings the Blues. I still recognize the way it's uncomfortable to unilaterally disarm in a world of other hostile, secretive actors. But it's a wonderful freeing feeling that actually offers the most profitable chances when you put yourself out there more fully and openly.

For reference: http://blog.ninapaley.com/ — she gave up all that controlling and secretive stuff and it's worked out great for her. Some of her philosophy on this: http://blog.ninapaley.com/2013/12/07/ma ... not-law-2/ and my own collection of tons of links and perspectives, hers and mine and others: http://blog.wolftune.com/2008/06/ration ... right.html
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Re: Releasing the "source code" of music

Post by wolftune »

42low wrote:Thanks wolftune for this great reaction.

To me it is no fear, but just pragmatic practical oppinion.
And i am free in mind. I do share. I live by being nice to and good for people. But i expect it back.
Though reality is that not all (most) can live with that and abuse the situation. Fine to me if they live like that, but i am not going to be abused (as i don't abuse either). I give when i give at who i want to give, not otherwise.
Okay, it's a different attitude than fear. It's still irrational and speculative. To release art into the world where not *everyone* is sharing as freely as you is definitely *not* being abused, there's no fair way to describe it as such. If your art isn't something you wish to share widely at all (you only share it privately with select people), that's fine, that's a different matter. If you want to require that anyone who uses your art share their derivatives under the same terms, just use copyleft licensing.

Let me clarify the point of my post above: Of the various reasons to share or not share and to include or not include sources, here's a reason that is invalid: "Others will steal my ideas". Basically all notable creative work of all sorts, even quite personal, is built on preexisting ideas. Remixers will remix. You can exclude your work from being remixed because you don't want that to happen, and we can argue about the merits. But in most cases, when you share your work and sources for others to remix, nobody will. In the cases where they do, it will almost always be a good thing, and with copyleft licenses, they will be required to share the same way. So, if you don't want to share (or prefer to share selectively) for other reasons, we'd discuss those other reasons.

When I said "fear" originally, I mean this idea that bad things will happen because you shared your work freely. That is the idea which I was referring to holding myself at some point in the past and having learned to drop (because it's a mostly irrational and counterproductive idea).
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Re: Releasing the "source code" of music

Post by Lyberta »

When there is nothing to lose, there is no fear. What you have to lose is entirely inside your mind. I do not fear people using my work because I don't lose anything. It would suck if someone would have taken my work and put it into proprietary stuff. If I had money I would probably filed a lawsuit in that case. But I would be upholding other people's right to share, I would not personally lose anything.

When you are young, you have a lot of expectations, a lot of self-worth. You think that your work is genius. But when you get older, you understand that you are just one of billions of people. You get the perspective.
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Re: Releasing the "source code" of music

Post by wolftune »

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Re: Releasing the "source code" of music

Post by Lyberta »

wolftune wrote:my own collection of tons of links and perspectives, hers and mine and others: http://blog.wolftune.com/2008/06/ration ... right.html
This is an amazing article! You've mentioned public musical instruments there and I decided to dust off an old planned project of mine and push it to a first public release. :D
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Re: Releasing the "source code" of music

Post by Michael Willis »

Lyberta wrote:You can make the public aware that those who don't share are bad people...
I don't really want to make such sweeping stereotypes. People aren't so one dimensional as that. Anybody that I know has their moments of selfishness, their redeeming qualities, their bad habits, and times that they're really trying to do the right thing.

It's a fool's errand trying to use shame to spread ideology. Shaming accomplishes nothing but increased enmity and alienation.
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Re: Releasing the "source code" of music

Post by Lyberta »

Michael Willis wrote:
Lyberta wrote:You can make the public aware that those who don't share are bad people...
I don't really want to make such sweeping stereotypes. People aren't so one dimensional as that.
So you are saying that Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Warner Bros, DreamWorks, Activision, TakeTwo, Valve, Elsevier and countless others are good people? Do you know how much suffering they've inflicted on humanity? Do you know how many people died because of their actions? These people are criminals, they are the most dangerous criminals in the world because they write their own laws. They deserve to be executed in a most slow and painful way.

You don't understand. This is the war. This is the war on our freedom. If we don't fight, we will lose everything. Just look, look. We've already lost our freedom when using mobile phone. We will lose our freedom when using cars very soon. We've lost our freedom when using x86 computers. We are losing because of people like you who don't understand the seriousness of the situation. People like you is what puts me in suicidal mode and in psychiatric hospital. You may not value your freedom but try not to be selfish and understand that there are people out there (like Stallman, EFF folks and others) who value their freedom and they are facing a dire future.
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Re: Releasing the "source code" of music

Post by wolftune »

42low, you can have your views, but please stop making invalid analogies. Ideas are NON-RIVALROUS which means copying is NOT theft. You can indeed discuss reasons for your views without relying on those completely non-sequitur arguments.

Lyberta, make your arguments about specific actions please, it's just more effective most of the time. Not-sharing of non-rivalrous works is an anti-social *action* but it doesn't mean we can just judge the actor as fundamentally a bad person, people are complex. Criticize the action/view/decision rather than making ad hominem arguments.
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Re: Releasing the "source code" of music

Post by Lyberta »

falkTX wrote:If this really pains you, then stop coming here.
I'm coming here because I have no other place to come. There is no forum dedicated to FOSS music. I'm cornered, angry and alone. Do what you want, pull the trigger, give me more fuel to kill myself. Just remember, when you will not have a hardware that can run GNU/Linux, when you will not have the means of survival, remember that I warned you.
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Re: Releasing the "source code" of music

Post by wolftune »

Hey hey, don't make the awkward back-and-forth in pure text chat get all crazy.

Lyberta, your concerns are welcome here, but express them without ad hominem please. Your worries about the future are totally valid, but that future isn't inevitable. Try to get to some libre-focused conference or meetup if you can to get a proactive way to get some social support from others who understand the concerns. Always remember that plain text is far too easy to misinterpret and miss nuance.

Here's the stuff I put together trying to keep healthy online discourse: https://wiki.snowdrift.coop/community/honor-users I hope that's possibly useful.
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