Vanderbilt students to offer music piracy solutions

Posted on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008 — 11:54 AM

College students, frequently the target of illegal music downloading charges, are formulating music distribution systems they hope will lead to an equitable future for everyone.

First-year students in the "Stealing in Music City" seminar at Vanderbilt University must devise a workable system for distributing music that delivers content for a reasonable price and allows songwriters, artists and other stakeholders to get paid.

"We are challenging the students to re-invent the music industry for a fair model of music distribution to compensate artists, consumers and labels," said Holling Smith-Borne, director of the music library at Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music. The class, divided into three groups, will propose three solutions during class on Dec. 2.

Smith-Borne and Sara Manus, education and outreach librarian, developed the course after the Recording Industry Association of America sued college students, some at Vanderbilt, for illegally downloading music. Manus and Smith-Borne felt there was a need to help educate students on these issues.

"It’s amazing to me how many students don’t understand the legalities of sharing intellectual property and copyrighted material," Manus said. "But none of the students have had an education in copyright law – they listen to their peers about what they can and cannot do."

In their attempt to educate the students on the finer aspects of copyright and intellectual property law, the instructors have drawn from the wealth of expertise available just blocks away on Nashville’s famed Music Row. Representing the various stakeholders in the issue have been such Music City, USA, guests as:

• Alice Randall, writer in residence at Vanderbilt and the only African American woman ever to write a No. 1 country song. Randall has had more than 20 songs recorded and is the author of The Wind Done Gone and other novels.
• Randall Foster, licensing and business development manager of Naxos of America, a classical music label.
• Jen Gunderman, a senior lecturer in music history and literature at Blair and working musician who has toured with the Jayhawks.
• Tim DuBois, a Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer who was an executive at Arista Nashville and Universal South Records before coming to Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management as a clinical professor of management.
• Steven Hetcher, a professor of law at Vanderbilt who specializes in the Internet, intellectual property and privacy.
• Sal Ortega, assistant director of network security at Vanderbilt and an expert on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.

For more information about Vanderbilt University, visit www.vanderbilt.edu/news.

Media contact: Missy Pankake, (615) 322-NEWS
missy.pankake@vanderbilt.edu