To all American Bandamp members: Congress is currently pursuing some legislation that will likely radically change our access to information on the Internet (in the proposed interest of stopping Internet piracy). Youtube, Google, Wikipedia, will be grossly altered (and smaller sites like our dear Bandamp might be crippled). Please take a second to visit the two links below and voice your opposition to SOPA and PIPA. The legislation is just days away!!!

https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Some of you might have seen that Bandamp is under attack of spambots these days.
Mods and me have discussed this and we came to the result, that Bandamp's logon procedure should be modified and supported by a captcha software.
To make this possible we have to update our PHP configuration at first. I really don't know the server's reaction. So I want you to know that Bandamp might not be available when I click the update button maybe for a couple of hours or days.
When this procedure has successfully finished I will post on here. But then some more updates are necessary.

You can reach me on Skype under tritonk

Usually bandamp members haven't signed a label contract . But the uploaded works have to be protected somehow. For that reason bandamp uploads are protected by creative commons 2.5 currently.
But meanwhile CCL 3.0 is out and Bandamp has an outdated description

If you need more informations about CCl 3.o and how it works
here´s a link to a description of current CC-licences.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

and thisnone is the complete judicial accomplishment...............puuuh

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode

These terms are the current contracts on every modern platform such as "soundcloud" , "Jamendo", "Phlow"
and many many more..............
CC can be compatible to Movies, TV and separately available.
CC-licence allows an artist also selling his music. It´s a case of individual hearing or "Pro"-conditions as they are available on jamendo for example.


safe creative

I don´t know if you have heard about "safe creative" copyright registry.
Safe Creative is the first copyright registry that informs about copyrights allowing rights holders to manage their rights in the Digital Era.
When registering a work, Safe Creative provides information, security and also self-management of copyrights.

For the U.S.A. safe creative is planning some innovations :
There are 4 identification levels which confirm an artist as creator or copyrights owner of the registered works.
If you want to know more about safe creative here the links :

http://en.safecreative.net/about/
http://en.safecreative.net/2011/06/06/the-importance-of-the-identification-level/


i-petition for musicians rights

We all know about the difficulties of independent musicians to distribute their music and keep their rights at the same time. No matter if you provide your music for free or if you want to sell your product.
When you haven´t signed a member contract with Collecting societies sometimes it comes to a collision of interests. Especially the German society GEMA is quite restrictive.
For example :
A musician who plays a gig must
1. pay for his own works (if he´s GEMA member). He looses his rights in all his  previous and prospective works.
2. or (if he isn't) he must prove that he´s the right´s owner and that he is not member of a Collecting society. The artist is always in  "burden of proof ". In German it's called "GEMA-Vermutung"

These are just two examples which demonstrate the  artist´s "struggle" against these societies.

Now, I've found a petition for the European Commission which jamendo has initiated to support artists´ interests and strengthen their (our) rights.

And because bandamp members also release their works under CCL I think it might also be interesting for us ampers. It can be a way to break the omnipotence and arbitrariness of these societies.
Perhaps some members have some experiences with Collecting societies and can tell us about them..

If anybody wants to know more or to sign the petition here´s the link

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/help_jamendo_support_artists_interests/


Only CC-BY-licence on Youtube

I found this article on "Neumusik.com" , written by Wolfgang Senges on  June, 6. 2011 in "Business News,
Creative Commons" , and tried to translate the text for Bandamp.
http://neumusik.com/2011-06-youtube-bietet-creative-commons-lizenzierung-vorerst-nur-unter-cc-by/

"Since  June, 2. 2011 on you tube is a licensing on Creative Commons possible . Reuse must be allowed but also commercially, and without further restriction. Therefore is currently the sole attribution license (CC BY 3.0) to choose from, which provides for mandatory re-naming of the author alone.
To start, YouTube more than 10,000 licensed CC-BY-videos from various sources for further use, currently primarily from news agencies like Al Jazeera and the Voice of America.

Users may remix videos directly on the editor platform, and any video that is created using CC BY-licensed content will automatically display the linked source videos’ titles underneath the video player.
 
New, from our own sources, with videos can either be placed under the standard YouTube license or a CC-BY-3.0 license.
GigaOm points to the possible motives for the restriction on CC-BY licenses:

Creative Commons has in the past been struggling with the fact that the majority of users tends to adopt more restrictive licenses. The organization estimated that two out of three Creative Commons-licensed works can’t be reused commercially, and one out of four can’t be reincorporated into a new work at all.

Considering the options, the use of YouTube compared to Vimeo is severely limited - there are all CC versions accepted. On the other hand, the benefit to the community is not to be underestimated. Putting one on YouTube a CC license, which comes from the local fund, so you can be sure of the availability (if the content provider has correctly licensed). In addition, the adjusted and labeled to YouTube via YouTube editor used material. That will leave the processor at Vimeo."

This could be a good thing for youtube and many users who search background music for their videos. But what is about musicians who do not want to make their music available without limitation for every possible contents?

What is about videos of, for instance Denis or other bandamp members, which may be used now also for Youtube channels filled with advertisements or suspect contents?

Or somebody works on the videos and produces Remixes?

U.L.I.

People come and people go, we're all passing through one way or another.
Some come to go, some come to stay
But we all stay a while in some way

And in that way we all have a lot in common....
We all love the Muse, the music and the magic
And all of us here love bandAMP, for what it is, a place to share your latest 48hour creation or to upload some stuff you made 20 years ago.
A place to come to ask advice on guitars, fruity loops, microphones, vst plugins, studio setups, recording drums, sound cards, album covers ..... and the beat goes on !
It's also a place to come and hang out, chill out, shout out and get completely wound up about !
Whether your following a certain subject or conversation, listening to a certain artist, randomly going through the Audio Review or listening to the Hall of Fame in the Amp Player we all spend time at this wonderful site.

As to an end to bandAMP ....... I dont think so !

Mud is being contacted in different ways and is being asked to join in the discussion if only to enlighten the community to his plans.
When Mud does further explain his intentions the members who are ready to take over the site can then make the necessary decisions.

Otherwise it's business as usual to be honest with you ..... 

And now for some personal requests...
Tim: No changing code ... OK!
Denis: Where are you ?
Swordy: ...... Breath!

We have recently received word from Mud, (who many of you know is the owner and originator of the site) that he is undergoing some financial challenges and thereby may choose to discontinue financial support of the site at the end of this year. This has serious implications for the continued operations of the site, as Mud has been financing and providing occasional maintenance to the server. This issue has been met with some discussion among the three of us, (Tritonkeyboarder, who has served as our volunteer site Programmer and Administrator, Kings and Battlecat who have served as volunteer Moderators) for the past couple of days, as we pondered the best way to approach this situation.

Responding to some questions posed recently in an email exchange with Tritonkeyboarder, Mud states: “It's $100 per month for the server (including bandwidth ect) it's running on, past that there are no expenses—it's running on an 100mbps unmetered line, it's a bit overkill, but not much more expensive than a metered bandwidth line.”

This news raises more questions, such as: Can the BandAMP community achieve a takeover of the expenses for continued operation of the server? If the community is indeed interested in doing so, how will we raise the money? (Donations? Memberships Fees? Allowing commercial advertising on the site?) If we were somehow able to produce the money each year, would Mud continue to maintain the server for us?

 Naturally, it was agreed that we should bring this issue to the BandAMP community for discussion and possible action.

Originated in 2003, BandAMP is quite unique in that it is a community that is extensive, yet intimate. People from all over the world have been able to develop friendships with one another that have existed for years even though they may never have seen each other in person. Originally designated for the promotion and development of independent music artists, the site evolved into a community of people that converse about a variety of topics, from world events to mysticism to celebrations of a member’s birthday. People who are separated by thousands of miles of ocean have been able to create music together through collaboration projects. Efforts are currently underway to produce an album compilation of BandAMP community member’s music. Through participation in the forums, people are able to exchange information, support and inspiration for the continued development of their artistry.  These are merely a few of the activities that are taking place on the site.

Undoubtedly, this issue will warrant further discussion and action. Some questions remain: Do you feel the site is worth saving?  Would you be willing to chip in and help in any way you can?

Suggestions and assistance are welcome.