Scribner Seminar Program
2006-2007 Titles
Music, Technology, and Copyright
Instructor(s): Ben Givan, Music
Description: Big music corporations are sending mixed messages. One company tells
kids to go ahead and “rip, mix, burn” while the industry’s trade group sues twelve-year
olds for downloading songs from the internet. What’s a first-year Skidmore student
to do? This course takes a historical perspective on some critical questions facing
today’s music industry. What is a musical work? How have reproduction and distribution
technologies such as music notation, sound recording, and the internet altered the
work-concept and the roles of composers and performers? How, in grappling with these
questions, should intellectual property laws best preserve the rights of music producers
and consumers? The course will compare concepts of the art work in oral cultures—using
examples like Homeric epic poetry, Gregorian chant, and contemporary hip-hop—with
philosophical theories based on literate Western culture. Classic writings by Walter
Benjamin and Marshall McLuhan will suggest some ways of understanding how sound recording
and the internet have changed how people compose, perform, and listen to music. Students
in this seminar will explore historical, ethical and legal perspectives on critical
questions involving the conflict between musical ownership and creative freedom.
