Maria Schneider: Taking Action against ‘Data Lords’

  I  
Image

When Maria Schneider (pictured) testified before Congress about the current U.S. copyright law’s (DMCA) notice and takedown provisions, she urged legislators to make major changes.

(Photo: Jimmy Katz)

When Maria Schneider testified before Congress about the current U.S. copyright law’s (DMCA) notice and takedown provisions, she urged legislators to make four major changes:

1) Congress should require streaming services that want protection from copyright infringement lawsuits to effectively educate their users on creators’ rights, including a commonsense set of “checkpoints” at the time of upload. Uploaders should have to sign a statement, under penalty of perjury, verifying ownership, permission or precise grounds of “fair use”—just as copyright owners must do for a takedown.

2) The use of fingerprinting technology (like YouTube’s Content ID) should be required of all streaming services. Fingerprinting for blocking uploads should be offered to all copyright holders, without discrimination.

3) Companies should be required to use and share the best technologies available to prevent infringement.

4) “Take down” should mean “stay down,” so that musicians are not stuck in an endless game of “whack-a-mole.”

Schneider and other songwriters founded MusicAnswers.org to educate and mobilize musicians as well as consumers. “Every musician and fan should sign onto our campaign,” Schneider said. “Go to MusicAnswers.org, get educated and sign our Declaration of Principles. Google and other large corporations heavily lobby Congress. But we have our numbers and our stories. We need everyone on board, so we can become a massive force to be reckoned with.

“The music-buying public needs to understand which music sites to patronize and which to avoid. We care so much about the sourcing of our food and our clothing. We want music fans to be just as careful about the sourcing of their music.” DB



  • Zakir_Hussain_2011_Symphony_Center_copy.jpg

    “Watching people like Max Roach or Elvin Jones and seeing how they utilize the whole drum kit in a very rhythmic and melodic way and how they stretched time — that was a huge inspiration to me,” Hussain said in DownBeat.

  • John_and_Gerald_Clayton_by_Paul_Wellman_copy.jpg

    Gerald and John Clayton at the family home in Altadena during a photo shoot for the June 2022 cover of DownBeat. The house was lost during the Los Angeles fires.

  • KennedyCenter.jpg

    Queen Latifah extols Harlem and the Apollo Theater at this year’s Kennedy Center Honors.

  • Jernberg_Photo_Jon_Edergren_2_copy.jpg

    “With jazz I thought it must be OK to be Black, for the first time,” says singer Sofia Jernberg.

  • Deerhead_Inn_courtesy_Poconogo.com_copy.jpg

    The Old Country: More From The Deer Head Inn arrives 30 years after ECM issued the Keith Jarret Trio live album At The Deer Head Inn.


On Sale Now
February 2025
Sullivan Fortner
Look Inside
Subscribe
Print | Digital | iPad