Re: Best of Music Studio

[Mitchell Spector <mitch2gs@hotmail.com>]

Kirk Mitchell <kmitchel@nyx.net> wrote:

>Mitchell Spector <mitch2gs@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>:     Granted, but the person who started the message thread isn't interested 
>: in the GEnie Apple II archive, he's simply looking to get ahold of what
>: amounts to a 3.5 floppy disk filled with _public domain_ song files for a
>: _long-dead and forgotten_ (in the mainstream world at least) computer
>: platform. And for what purpose? To promote awareness and nostalgia for
>: the forgotten machine.
>
>That's nice, Mitchell.  And he was pointed to the Syndicomm ftp library
>which unfortunately for him is a pay service.  Others recommended TIAB
>which also costs.

    My concern here is about public-domain (or freeware and shareware)
Apple II software somehow becoming exclusively available only from pay
services. That kind of defeats the whole purpose of that kind of software
and data files, doesn't it?

>:     Considering those bunch of Music Studio songs are in the public domain
>: (which means you can freely copy, distribute and even modify) couldn't
>: someone with them offer to send them over? It rather bothers me that when
>
>Thank you for volunteering to send them over.  

    I would if I could, but unfortunately I only have a handful of those
songs files listed in that GEnieLamp issue. The "Time in a Bottle" CD
as a whole is a copyrighted work and I hope you don't think I'm hinting
that it'd be OK to share it as-is, but at the same time I would hope that
individual files that were originally public-domain haven't now somehow
lost their status because they reside on the disc.

>: there are actually people STILL interested in the Apple II series, they get
>: responses of "if you don't buy product x/y/z, we'll thumb our noses at you!".
>
>Now you're getting insulting, Mitchell.  Go build and beat your straw man
>elsewhere.  Only on csa2 do folks offering suggestions get scolded by the
>likes of you.

    I liked the suggestion of "Time in a Bottle" as an option (I was actually
going to post that myself). He's looking for some files, they're on the disc,
and by pointing it out makes him aware of this great archive collection he
might end up learning about, gets interested in and buys. Fine. 

    What sort of got me is after it was pointed out, he said he's not
interested in TIAB, and instead of alternate ways to get ahold of these 
files (which make up a minuscule piece of it) was essentially told--if you're
unwilling to pay to get them, then too bad.

>: I'm not trying to downplay the value of "Time in a Bottle" (I think it is
>: worth paying for) just that what he wants is something unrelated.
>
>His file is on it.  How unrelated is that?  Sheesh!

    It's unrelated in that those Music Studio files were not GEnie specific.
They're just a bunch of miscellaneous public-domain song files you could
download from most anywhere (maybe not all in one place) for free from
BBSes, usergroup libraries, FTP sites, etc.
 
    I released a lot of MIDIsynth song files and wavebanks years ago
as freeware. I'd be a little annoyed if someone, one day, was looking
for them and was told if you want them, you have to pay. That wasn't
how I wanted them distributed.

>It's also in Syndicomm's library.  Will I send it to him?  I think he'd be
>insulted if I did.  You know, coming from a "commercial" source and all.

    Sorry if I gave the wrong impression, I don't have anything against
selling something where a lot of time, work and effort went into, just
like TIAB (or Golden Orchard, or any other of the CD collections out
there). I just get a little concerned when I see free software somehow 
losing its status because it's been absorbed into a commercial source.
(sure it makes a great case for purchasing a collection or joining a
service, but let's not get carried away).

Mitchell Spector