How To Listen

Court: breaking DRM for a “fair use” is legal

A federal appeals court has just ruled that breaking through a digital security system to access software doesn’t trigger the “anti-circumvention” provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Any other interpretation of the DMCA, declared the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, would permit infringement liability for tapping into a work simply to “view it or to use it within the purview of ‘fair use’ permitted under the Copyright Act.” via ars technica.

Seems like a “No, duh” interpretation, but this is still a big deal for music educators and public school IT admins.

Classical music younger, hipper than late-night TV

Alex Ross:

That’s what I conclude from today’s New York Times story about declining audiences for late-night talk shows such as The Tonight Show and The Late Show. Writes Bill Carter: “….[T]he median age of [Jay Leno's] viewers has crept up to 55.6 from 46.6. Mr. Letterman’s audience is slightly younger, at 54.7.” The latest findings by the League of American Orchestras, drawing on their own studies as well as the most recent NEA study of arts participation, indicate that the median age for the classical audience is forty-nine. In fact, that’s younger than the median age of the entire prime-time television public.

That no what I would have expected, but I like it.