Re: Best of Music Studio

[Kirk Mitchell <kmitchel@nyx.net>]

Mitchell Spector <mitch2gs@hotmail.com> wrote:
:     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?

No it doesn't, Mitchell.  A program or file that is public domain or
freeware simply makes the USE of that file free.  Not the DISTRIBUTION of
that file.  There are costs associated with archiving and distributing
these files, whether by providing the hard drive that the archives are
stored on, the server, and the bandwidth to distribute them.

A hobbiest may choose to donate such resources, and we've seen that happen
with many of the old ftp sites.  But perhaps you've noticed that their  
numbers have dwindled as these same hobbiests find new things to do with
their time and money.

There are a few "elitist snobs" who feel that it's worth a small amount of
money per year to cover the costs of distributing this software, and to
make it worthwhile for someone to organize and maintain this collection.
Why csa2 routinely scolds these folks is beyond my comprehension.

:     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.

They haven't lost their status, Mitchell.  It simply appears that the free
archives that you worship so devotely have failed you and Hendroz.  This
is an obvious and inevitable danger.  Entropy does that.  B-{)
These files remain free to use.  Finding them doesn't have to be free.

:     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.

What are these alternate ways, Mitchell?  He was told where this file
could be found.  Does he expect someone who HAS invested the money in
these archives to go to the effort of finding it for him, bundling it up
for him and serving it to him on a silver platter, while he expresses no 
interest in supporting the archives himself?

I'm sure some kind person out there will be happy to serve him.  I'm a bit
busy, myself.

:     It's unrelated in that those Music Studio files were not GEnie
specific.

Well, they were.  The best of file was the effort of Doug Cuff, I believe,
who was part of the GEnie crew of the time.  Syndicomm bought out the
assets when Genie died.  Otherwise the entire archive would have
disappeared.  The GEnie folks were responsible for the GEnieLamp that  
collected those songs.  Guess you were wrong.

: 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.

And evidently value was added by collecting them in one spot.  Hendroz
certainly doesn't appear to want to search out all those songs separately
and downloaded them, freely or not.

:     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.

If you made them freeware, how you wanted them distributed is no longer a
factor.  Shareware authors on the other hand often had stipulations on who
and how their files could be distributed.

In any case, if no one maintains those nice files that you released, they
become unavailable in time.  If someone pays a dime a day to maintain
those files, as well as providing another forum for hobbiests, plus email
accounts and webspace in addition, they get branded as "elitists" by our
csa2 cousins. But the files are available.

You get what you pay for, Mitchell.

:     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).

It sure doesn't lose its status.  It loses its availability.  Ground, and
trenco are all well and good, but as you can see if you were to compare a
list of free ftp Apple II sites from 20 yrs ago with one today, it's
getting pretty thin.

And if you want them to be as complete as possible, the maintainers of
those sites usually don't have the time to work that hard.

Who will you blame when the last free Apple II ftp site disappears?
--
Kirk