The Equalizer

I recall watching a television series years ago called the Equalizer, a well-acted show with good writing and moral purpose, but containing limited plot potential. Its basic premise was centered around a man who "equalized" the odds by using his intellect, experience, and superior skills. A show about a man who watched out for the "little" guy, a hybrid of a Charles Atlas type hero mixed with Chuck Norris, a man whose goal was to put an end to the bullies kicking sand in people's faces. Yet even as the Equalizer evened up the odds, he also educated people in the art of being their own "Equalizer," not unlike teaching a man to fish rather than just giving him dinner. Unfortunately, the drama turned into an international espionage conflict that soon lost the interest of viewers.

I was recently sent a website containing thousands of files of music in public domain. The files could be downloaded and printed for study, practice, or even performance. A musicians dream. Yet, one particular file appeared to have been copyrighted in 1961. I decided to avoid that file and moved on to the ones obviously in public domain. Later, however, in reviewing copyright law, I discovered that it was more likely the company who published the work in 1961, a work written in 1860, had broken the law by attempting to copyright a work in public domain. The publisher had a right to publish the work, but not to try to prevent others from copying it. A sticky issue for sure but one worth studying. Aside from that situation, I was and still am in awe over the music that is now available at my fingertips.

In a strange but expected turn of events, the internet has become an "equalizer" of sorts. The "little" guy is now the poor musician who cannot afford to pay $40 for a piece of music that was written 200 years ago, but yet would like to perform it. So along comes the internet, with its pdf files, scanning abilities, and wide range of possibilities, and suddenly, almost overnight, the musical world is available for very little cost. The "big" boys in publishing cannot kick sand in our faces any longer. We musicians bought the armbands, worked out, and became the publisher that Charles Atlas wanted us to be. We now can download thousands of pieces of music and perform them without having to deal with some restrictive giant called a publisher who holds the "rights" in his thorny palms.

Of course some publishers do create "fancy" editions for their music, with nice covers, readable notation, and supposedly accurate scholarship. Plus these "elite" works look nice on a shelf, in contrast to pdf files that are simply paper, paper that may or may not look great, paper that will probably be thrown away or filed for future performance. As in all great markets, the choice is up to the consumer. But the market, the people, speak again, clearly and loudly, for it seems as though most musicians would rather download and use the not so "fancy" music in favor of the free version.

Is the Internet the great equalizer of our world? With its vast storage of knowledge, books, and articles on virtually any subject imaginable, the Internet is giving us little guys, people without much money, people who are not politicians, people who are average, blue-collar workers, laborers, commoners, and middle class a wealth of tools that until recently were restricted to the so-named exclusive of the world. And now with open source software, public domain materials, the vast sharing of knowledge, and tremendous opportunity for individual improvement, the Internet gives rights to everyone desiring individual and collective development. The Net is slowly demystifying many of the elements that we once thought were outside of our grasp.

Unfortunately there are also many consequences, one of which is the mad scrambling of big businesses, especially publishers, to protect their own interests and their own antiquated systems. But let's cover this "problem" later!