Composer Jason Robert Brown debates rationalization of theft

[Jeffrey Korst]

Found this article a couple of links downstream from David Pogues blog for the NY Times.
Jason Robert Brown's Blog

Mr. Brown requested that people stop "trading" copies of his sheet music and posts the discussion that followed.

From there, there is a link to digital society's website in which George Ou does a very thorough job of refuting common rationalizations for piracy.

[Jonathan Townsend]

The arguments against/for are in the dialog below his article.
And what's new in that?

[mrgoat]

Reactionary, badly thought out and DREADFULLY argued points. I'm not in favour of copyright infringement but I could argue against all of those points.

[Jim Maloney]

While I'm on JRB's side here , that second article that was linked seems to have some contradictory remarks:

The problem with this line of reasoning is that if everyone anoints themselves as promoters ... then the promotional value is worthless because everyone is a promoter and no one is paying.

...

As for everyone doing it, that simply isnt true.

One thing that amused me when I read this whole exchange a week or so ago was the fact that Eleanor was trying to educate him about what it's like to be a struggling or "starving" artist -- as if he'd never been in that situation. We sometimes forget that even the successful folks (generally) also started out with nothing and worked hard to get where they are.

On a side note, I highly recommend The Last Five Years.

-Jim

[Jonathan Townsend]

Interesting, Jim. From the Wiki article about the musical: "The Last Five Years was inspired by Brown's failed marriage to Theresa O'Neill. O'Neill threatened legal action on the grounds that the story of the musical represented her relationship with Brown too closely, and Brown changed the song "I Could Be in Love With Someone Like You" to "Shiksa Goddess" in order to reduce the similarity between the character Cathy and O'Neill."

Promoting what - betrayal of one's relationships?

[Jim Maloney]

I'm just promoting a good story told in an interesting manner with good music. It's hardly the first time a story was based on a creator's personal experiences.

The story behind the story isn't really the point of this topic, so I'll just post JRB's comments on the situation from when the complaints first came up and leave it at that:

It was widely thought that the show was inspired by Brown's own broken marriage. However, Brown, in an interview with Playbill On-Line earlier this year, said the work is not autobiographical. "Everything I write comes from my life," he told PBOL. "But I'm not narcissistic or sadistic enough to make the contents of my marriage a matter of public record, you know what I mean? That wasn't the aim of the piece. I think in writing a show about a couple that fall apart, I was hoping that I'd maybe be able to come to terms with that in my own life. But I wasn't going to come to terms with it by writing something about me."

Asked pointedly if the work was a roman a clef, he said it was not.

-Jim

[Jonathan Townsend]

Jim, that's like claiming Ayn Rand's work stands without the context of her relationships with other women's husbands. You may as well have a rose growing from a garbage heap singing about how it wishes it were made of porcelain and chrome.

Jim, please get moving on the Leipzig book. I missed my chance to buy a copy of Hatch's work on Hofzinser back in the 1980's and would like to buy a copy of your book from you - soon - and before i hear it's online at some site.