Democracy of Sound: Music Piracy and the Remaking of American Copyright in the Twentieth Century

by Alex Sayf Cummings

  102. “LP Jazz Reissues Squeeze Bootleg Diskers on Old Collector Items,” Variety, May 9, 1951, 42.

  103. “Platter Pilfering,” 71.

  104. “Bootlegging: The Battle Rages,” Record Changer, December 1951, 3–4.

  105. “Art and the Dollar,” Record Changer, November 1951, 7.

  106. “Our Position,” Record Changer, December 1951, 5.

  107. “2 Dealers Charged in Disk Bootlegging,” New York Times June 11, 1960, 21; Robert E. Allison, Peter Korelich (a record presser), Larry F. Lee, Carl John Marts, Charles Richards, and William Thompson (a commercial artist) were also arrested.

  108. “Fake Record Ring Broken; 7 Men Held,” Los Angeles Times, October 3, 1950, 2; see also “New Jersey Bootlegging Crackdown Dramatizes ARMADA Convention,” The Cash Box, June 18, 1960.

  109. “Pirate Records,” Brad McCuen Collection—Piracy 1969, 97–023, box 18, folder 9, Center for Popular Music, Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU-CPM).

  110. “Swaggie Records Catalogue,” Brad McCuen Collection—Piracy 1969, 97–023, box 18, folder 9, MTSU-CPM; Nevill L. Sherburn to W.T. Ed Kirkeby, May 13, 1966, Brad McCuen Collection—Piracy 1969, 97–023, box 18, folder 9, MTSU-CPM.

  111. Ed Kirkeby to Stephen H. Sholes, May 9, 1966, Brad McCuen Collection—Piracy 1969, 97–023, box 18, folder 9, MTSU-CPM.

  112. Peter Welding to Brad McCuen, February 5, 1964, Brad McCuen Collection—Piracy 1969, 97–023, box 18, folder 9, MTSU-CPM.

  113. Brad McCuen to Stephen H. Sholes, April 6, 1966, Brad McCuen Collection—Piracy 1969, 97–023, box 18, folder 9, MTSU-CPM.

  114. Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006), 31–2.

  115. With the fragmentation and diversification of the industry that accompanied the boom of rock and roll music in the late 1950s, more independent labels and record-pressing factories emerged, but in the period of the Hot Record Society and Jolly Roger few options were available for people to press small runs of records; see Robert Burnett, The Global Jukebox: The International Music Industry (New York: Routledge, 1996), 106; and Pekka Gronow, “The Recording Industry: The Growth of a Mass Medium,” Popular Music: Producers and Markets 3 (1983): 70.

  116. James Boyle, The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008), 224.

  Chapter 3

  1. Touch of Evil, DVD, directed by Orson Welles ([1958]; Los Angeles: Universal Studios, 2000).

  2. John Corbett, “Vinyl Freak,” Down Beat, November 2004, 18.

  3. David L. Morton Jr., Sound Recording: The Life Story of a Technology (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University, 2006), 97.

  4. John Corbett, “Vinyl Freak,” Down Beat, November 2004, 18.

  5. Interview with Dan Morgenstern, Institute of Jazz Studies, Newark, NJ, March 14, 2007; Will Friedwald, “Recording Jazz History as It Was Made,” Wall Street Journal, December 4, 2010, A30.

  6. David Suisman, “The Sound of Money: Music, Machines, and Markets” (PhD diss., Columbia University, 2002), 114.

  7. Brian Winston, Media Technology and Society: A History: From the Telegraph to the Internet (London: Routledge, 1998), 4.

  8. Jody Rosen, “Researchers Play Tune Recorded before Edison,” New York Times, March 27, 2008, A1.

  9. Winston, Media Technology and Society, 6.

  10. William Lafferty, “The Blattnerphone: An Early Attempt to Introduce Magnetic Recording into the Film Industry,” Cinema Journal 22 (1983): 19.

  11. Oberlin Smith, “Some Possible Forms of Phonograph,” Electrical World, September 8, 1888, 117.

  12. Robert Angus, “History of Magnetic Recording,” Audio, August 1984, 28.

  13. Lafferty, “Blattnerphone,” 19.

  14. Ibid., 20.

  15. Ibid., 27–8.

  16. Ibid., 30.

  17. On Vail and Alexander Graham Bell’s vision of the telephone system, see Jeremy Bernstein, Three Degrees Above Zero: Bell Labs in the Information Age (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1984), 1–2.

  18. Mark Clark, “Suppressing Innovation: Bell Laboratories and Magnetic Recording,” Technology and Culture 34 (1993): 535.

  19. Clark, “Suppressing Innovation,” 534.

  20. Ibid., 535–6.

  21. Millard, America on Record, 192.

  22. S. J. Begun, Magnetic Recording (New York: Murray Hill Books, 1949), 9.

  23. Millard, America on Record, 197.

  24. Hillel Schwartz, The Culture of the Copy: Striking Likenesses, Unreasonable Facsimiles (New York: Zone Books, 1996), 234.

  25. For an industrial example, see “Firms Use Tape Recorders to Cut Down Written Work,” Chemical Week, April 25, 1964, 104.

  26. Sam Dawson, “Revolution in Office Machinery,” Los Angeles Times, February 24, 1953, 19.

  27. R. H. Opperman, “Record Voice on a Hair-Like Wire,” Journal of the Franklin Institute 237 (1944): 160.

  28. Eric D. Daniel, C. Denis Mee, and Mark H. Clark, Magnetic Recording: The First 100 Years (New York: Wiley-IEEE Press, 1998), 87.

  29. “New ‘Soundmirror’ Now Used at Hunter,” New York Times, February 25, 1940, 49.

  30. G. Schirmer, “Why Did More People Buy Their Soundmirror at Schirmer’s Than at Any Other Store in the Country? (ad),” New York Times, November 30, 1947, 20.

  31. Magnetic Recorders Company, “Now a Radio-Tape Recorder Combination (ad),” Los Angeles Times, March 28, 1948, E18.

  32. David Sanjek and Russell Sanjek, Pennies from Heaven: The American Popular Music Business in the Twentieth Century (New York: Da Capo Press, 1996), viii.

  33. David Morton, Off the Record: The Technology and Culture of Sound Recording in America (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000), 11.

  34. “How We Gave a Phonograph Party,” Phonoscope, April 1899, 14.

  35. Jonathan Sterne, The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Recording (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003), 208–9.

  36. For technical guides, see Begun, Magnetic Recording; and Michael Luxford Quartermaine, Magnetic Recording: Wire and Tape (London: N. Price, 1952); Begun was the vice president and chief engineer of the Brush Development Company, a pioneer in wire and tape recording that received contracts during World War II to adapt the technology for combat use.

  37. Wallace S. Sharps, Tape Recording for Pleasure (London: Fountain Books, 1961), 7.

  38. Sharps, Tape Recording, 74; see also Thurston Moore, Mix Tape: The Art of Cassette Culture (New York: Universe, 2005).

  39. Rek-O-Kut Company, “Make Your Own High Fidelity Records (ad),” High Fidelity Magazine (hereafter, HFM), March 1955, 98.

  40. Edward Tatnall Canby, “Make Your Own LP’s,” Saturday Review, August 25, 1951, 48.

  41. Canby, “Make Your Own LP’s,” 48.

  42. Ibid.

  43. Morton, Sound Recording, 39.

  44. Paul Affelder, “Berlioz—Beatrice et Benedict—Overture; Benvenuto Cellini—Overture (review),” HFM, March 1955, 53.

  45. Radio Engineering Laboratories, “Connoisseur (ad),” HFM, March 1955, 101.

  46. Duotone, “From a Tulip Comes New Scope for Your Listening (ad),” HFM, May 1955, 120.

  47. “Scissors Dept.,” HFM, April 1955, 9.

  48. Radio Engineering Laboratories, “Connoisseur (ad),” HFM, March 1955, 101.

  49. Louis Biancolli and Lester H. Bogen, Understanding High Fidelity: A Guide to Hi-Fi Home Music Systems (New York: David Bogen Company, 1953), 3.

  50. Roy F. Allison, “An Audio Lexicon: Part II,” HFM, March 1955, 83.

  51. Nathan Broder, “The Battle of the Bach Bows,” HFM, March 1955, 52; Fred Grunfeld, “When Mahlerites Meet: A Tournament of Titans,” HFM, March 1955, 58.

  52. Dana Andrews, “Living with Music,” HFM, May 1955, 41; see also Sony Corporation, “How to Explain to Your Wife Why You Spent an Extra $400 for this Stereo Receiver (ad),” Stereo Review, January 1970, 30. />
  53. Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era (New York: Basic Books, 1999), 146.

  54. Canby, “Make Your Own LP’s,” 48.

  55. The Gould legend was spun by Joseph Mitchell in a 1942 New Yorker piece and later in his book Joe Gould’s Secret, which was adapted for the screen in 2000; see Mitchell, “Professor Sea Gull,” New Yorker, December 12, 1942, 28–42; Mitchell, Joe Gould’s Secret (New York: Viking, 1965); and Joe Gould’s Secret, DVD, directed by Stanley Tucci (New York: USA Home Entertainment, 2000).

  56. James Goodfriend, “Piracy and Ethics,” Stereo Review, February 1970, 43.

  57. Ibid., 43.

  58. Begun, Magnetic Recording, 220.

  59. Russell Sanjek, American Popular Music and Its Business: The First Four Hundred Years: Volume III From 1900 to 1984 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 18, 199.

  60. “The Vice Guide to Killing Your Parents,” Vice 12, no. 8 (2005): 64.

  61. Electronic distribution through the Internet has dramatically reduced the fixed costs of production and distribution in the early twenty-first century. Through its iTunes store, Apple can make available a much wider array of music in less-popular genres like classical and jazz than the typical record shop, which has limited shelf space and cannot cater to all niche markets. Sales of classical music have grown by leaps and bounds. See Barbara Jepson, “Classical, Now without the 300-Year Delay,” New York Times, March 26, 2006, 23.

  62. Goodfriend, “Piracy and Ethics,” 43.

  63. Ibid., 45.

  64. Ibid., 43.

  65. Ibid., 45.

  66. Clinton Heylin, Bootleg: The Secret History of the Other Recording Industry (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994), 28.

  67. Philip L. Miller, “Mapleson Cylinders in the New York Public Library,” Notes 13 (1942): 12–14.

  68. Morton, Sound Recording, 92.

  69. William Livingstone, “Piracy in the Record Industry,” Stereo Review, February 1970, 62; for coverage of the original performance, see Henry Pleasants, “Miss Resnik Sings at Baireuth Fete,” New York Times, July 27, 1953, 14.

  70. Livingstone, “Piracy,” 60.

  71. Ibid., 64.

  72. Ibid., 68.

  73. Heylin, Bootleg, 35.

  74. Livingstone, “Piracy,” 65–6.

  75. Boris Rose, “Roost Book,” “The Sound of Hollywood,” and “A World of Nostalgia Greats,” Boris Rose Research File, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University at Newark.

  76. Interview with Dan Morgenstern, Institute of Jazz Studies, Newark, NJ, March 14, 2007.

  77. Telephone interview with Elaine Rose, August 22, 2011.

  78. Capitol Records v. Mercury Records, 221 F.2d 657 (U.S. App. 1955).

  79. John E. Mason Jr., “Performers’ Rights and Copyright: The Protection of Sound Recording from Modern Pirates,” California Law Review 59 (1971): 555; Capitol, 221 F2d at 663–4.

  80. Capitol, 221 F2d at 661.

  81. Ibid ., at 663.

  82. Mason, “Performers’ Rights and Copyright,” 556.

  83. Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Stiffel Co., 376 U.S. 225 (1964); Compco Corp. v. Day-Brite Lighting, Inc., 376 U.S. 234 (I964).

  84. John Shepard Wiley Jr., “Bonito Boats: Uninformed but Mandatory Innovation Policy,” Supreme Court Review (1989): 283–5.

  85. Wiley Jr., “Bonito Boats,” 284.

  86. Michael Riordon and Lillian Hoddeson, Crystal Fire: The Birth of the Information Age (New York: Norton, 1997), 1.

  87. Nick Lyons, The Sony Vision (New York: Crown, 1976), 39–43, 55.

  88. David Hall, “Record-Industry Notes,” Notes, 2nd ser. 25 (1968): 213.

  89. “Listen as You Drive to Elvis—or Yourself—through Auto Stereo Tape Components,” Business Week, October 9, 1965, 105; Peter Goldmark reflects on his quest for the ill-fated under-dash record player in the memoir Maverick Inventor: My Turbulent Years at CBS (New York: Saturday Review Press, 1973).

  90. Abigail Lavine, “Earl Muntz, the 4-Track Madman,” 8 Track Heaven, http://www.8trackheaven.com/archive/muntz.html, accessed 11 August 2008.

  91. Robert A. Pease, “Mad Man Muntz!” Electronic Design, July 23, 1992.

  92. Bill Golden, “To Whomever,” 8 Track Heaven, February 1, 1996, http://www.8trackheaven.com/archive/golden.txt, accessed August 11, 2008.

  93. Telephone interview with Bill Golden, December 2, 2007.

  94. Ibid.

  95. Richard Rashke, Stormy Genius: The Life of Aviation’s Maverick, Bill Lear (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985), 254.

  96. “Lear Takes the Controls,” Business Week, March 7, 1964, 111.

  97. Rashke, Stormy Genius, 255.

  98. Ibid ., 256.

  99. “Will Stereo Tapes Bring Music to Detroit Ears?” Business Week, November 6, 1965, 34.

  100. “Music Maker for the Masses,” Business Week, February 24, 1968, 108.

  101. Golden, “To Whomever.”

  102. Rashke, Stormy Genius, 256.

  103. “Will Stereo Tapes Bring Music to Detroit Ears?” 34.

  104. “Listen as You Drive to Elvis—or Yourself—through Auto Stereo Tape Components,” Business Week, October 9, 1965, 105.

  105. Frances Rumsey and Tim McCormick, Sound Recording: An Introduction (St. Louis, MO: Focal Press, 2006), 178.

  106. Ed Christman, “Vinyl Solution?” Billboard, April 28, 2007, 11; Morton, Sound Recording, 181.

  107. Bob Thomas, “Earl Muntz: Hi-Fi(nance) Comes in 4 & 8 Tracks,” Los Angeles Times, May 12, 1967, K11.

  108. “Music Maker for the Masses,” 109.

  109. Bruce Weber, “Is Number up for 4-Track? Tape Executives Say Yes,” Billboard, March 14, 1970, 11.

  110. William T. Drummond, “Admitted Music ‘Pirate’ Tells How Bootleg Market Started,” Los Angeles Times, July 20, 1971, B1.

  111. “Music Maker for the Masses,” 108.

  112. William Burroughs, “The Invisible Generation,” in The Ticket That Exploded (New York: Grove Press, 1967), 208–9.

  113. Ibid ., 208.

  114. Paul N. Edwards, The Closed World: Computers and the Politics of Discourse in Cold War America (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997), 161.

  115. One of the first references to a “content provider”—a person or organization that furnishes information—can be found in Seymour B. Sarason, The Preparation of Teachers: An Unstudied Problem in Education (New York: Wiley, 1962).

  116. Lyons, Sony Vision, 28.