American beaurocracy is incredibly annoying. 95 years after publication or 70 years after the author's death is too long. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that all the complexities with the time "loopholes" (1923 and 1976) and the federal and state powers on the matter make it even more frustrating. It's also interesting (not in a fun "Ohhh that's interesting" way, but more a sarcastic "wow, really?" way) to learn that all other countries give recordings shorter copyright times than the written material. Of course the US has to be different. This issue creates more frustration and ties into the second article about streaming. It seems libraries really have to jump through hoops to obtain permission to stream music. The example given, while I'm not sure how typical it is, is certainly absurd when compared to just getting a tangible recording e.g. CD. It also seems strange to consider that something intangible is so much more strictly regulated than something tangible. One thinks of internet resources as widely available and easy to access, but in this case it seems quite the opposite: one can do whatever they want with a CD, but must pay to use the content for only a finite amount of time. Yet another frustrating issue is that regulation and law of internet resources develops so much slower than the resources themselves.
I had quite a bit of fun searching through the Belfer archive's cylinder collection. There are tons of interesting and strange recordings and a very wide range of genres as well. I'm sad to say the National Jukebox Project failed to work on my computer. No matter what I tried to do, it seemed to just perpetually load and never get anywhere. So, I will share some links from the cylinder collection. It was difficult at first to choose as I kept finding more and more interesting recordings, but I've landed on two:
First: http://digilib.syr.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/cylinder&CISOPTR=1230&CISOBOX=1&REC=1
I think Olivier Messiaen would have bowed down to this man. These are some seriously impressive imitations of birdsong and I love me some birds: I was pursuing ornithology before deciding to study music.
Last: http://digilib.syr.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/cylinder&CISOPTR=98&CISOBOX=1&REC=1
A recording of President McKinley's funeral service. This one stood out to me for several reasons. One: what a strange thing to find and two: I happen to have a tumbler from the 1901 World's fair where he was assassinated.
