Aneesh

Aneesh

This friend was looking for Jhaji’s books near Jamshedpur and that was his experience. Will keep in mind to check out underscore more often.
I am far removed from the world in India. Re the exclusivity of the archival recordings and the reasons for the same seem quite irrational now that you have explained it.. Aneesh in Aust when things are put in writing most authorities are expected to provide a formal response however if none is forthcoming the media latches on pretty fast. Hope some sense is brought to this issue and it is resolved on a mutually beneficial basis.
Will dedicate a post to this topic on my website. Keep it coming.

Rgds
Sumi

I’ll try to respond to the issues you have discussed:

1. As mentioned in several of my earlier posts and rejoinders on this blog, we are not against making archival music commercially available. We are aware that archives don’t have great funding resources on a long-term basis, and making archival music commercially available would benefit them. However, we are discussing two aspects here – ethical and legal If some property belongs to me, then I should have the right to decide whether it should be sold. No one can go about seeking tenders for my property without first discussing the matter with me. It is as absurd as me seeking tenders for the NCPA complex, and then discussing it with the NCPA once I am happy with a particular quote.

2. You and several music lovers need to know that most archives don’t make their possessions accessible, which goes against the very definition of an archive. Yes, I am aware that an archive plays quite a different role from that played by a library, but if scholars, musicians and students, don’t have access to this work, I am not quite sure what this talk about preservation is all about.

3. I am not sure how many musicians would be interested in supporting an archive through fund-raising concerts. I certainly don’t believe they would support archives which did not part with copies of recordings that feature these musicians, as they believed at the time that musicians would misuse these recordings by making them commercially available. I don’t need to point out the absurdity of their argument . . .

4. I am surprised that your friend had to hunt far and wide for Jhaji’s books. They’ve been displayed and sold on http://www.UnderscoreRecords.com since 2003. Besides, most students of music and musicians in India seem to be able to access these books without great difficulty. However, I am painfully aware of the vagaries of retail business. Publishers, distributors and retail outlets are equally to blame for such a sorry situation.

Best,

Aneesh

Interesting obviously a tender, sensitive topic.. Appreciate what Shubhaji and you are trying to do say! Above I see several Copyright Laws and performer’s rights issues discussed – all valid. However lets take a step backwards:

William Dalrymple wrote ‘The Last Moghul’ spent 5 or more years researching and dwelling into archives in Delhi and London. What a gem he has brought to us with pictures and poetry from1826 from Bahadur Shah Zafar’s life – William D presented his creative work to the world and his right in copyright rests with him however I do not know whether the dusty halls of the Archival institutions benefited from this monetarily. I guess no one expects them to.

The essential function of an archival body is to preserve music, art, texts, poetry for generations to come. Considering the length of their project where and how do they raise their revenue? The outlay for the production of these CD’s would cost tens or thousands. Do artists feel there is a need for a centre where funds are collected for the maintenance for these archives? Do Artists contribute to the cost of its production or for its maintenance by the NCPA ? These are questions that need to be discussed and I guess opened for every one to consider.

Heirs, both apparent and virtual, also have a duty to preserve the ‘ART’. Ideals aside, many artists and their heirs may not have the resources to preserve this music themselves for generations to come, may feel privileged to allow such recordings to be preserved, copied and commercialised by NCPA.

Transient nature of Retail Business means that in an ever changing world these CD’s are removed from the retailers shelves in less than 6 months. We had a great singer and musician Jha sahib whose 5 volumes of books were brought to me from India. My friend had to hunt far and wide to get printed copies of the same and finally was literally given these books for close to nothing as the shop keeper was glad to free the space these books were taking on the shelf. This no doubt occurs with CD and DVD sales as well.

Living abroad I want timeless music to be easily accessible and CD’s are a great way to get that accessibility not to mention for preservation. Therefore if the problem is that the tender has been sought without seeking the permission of artists well all they need to do I guess is to seek their permission. But is that the only issue?

“What are the artists and their families getting out of the “tendering” for the purpose of sale of older recordings” As one of the other writers has said above “tendering” itself does not infringe. May be the solution is that a percentage of the proceeds is given as royalty to the artists families. If there are more than two heirs apparent then the share is reinvested into NCPA so that it can continue its work of preserving these artefacts and hold Events where it calls artists such as you and Shubhaji to perform.

I think NCPA and the artists concerned should work together to iron out these issues to make it more beneficial to each other and to the community at large. We cannot afford to take a short sighted approach. Thanks Aneesh for drawing my attention to this discussion. Posted the comment here hope I didnt take too much web space..

Kindregards
Sumi Krishnan

Incidentally, I would like to inform everyone of the present status of the matter. We received a letter from the NCPA, several weeks after our mail to them, informing us that they were wanting to promote Indian music by way of making the collection public and that they would respect the rights of the musicians at all times. To date, we have received no response to the point we raised about getting copies of our recordings that were in their possession with or without our knowledge. I don’t foresee much of a proactive approach from their end, given this state of affairs.

Aneesh