Read me my rights

I've spent the weekend mulling over a document which the nice people at http://www.own-it.org/ have sent me. They kindly had a look through my software concept and have set down their thoughts on the Intelectual Property (IP) implications of the idea.

Their basic summary is that they think my users could use my software to breech copyright, and that there's a possibility that I (as the software creator) could be held liable for "Secondary Infringement" as a result. They've noted that this kind of case hasn't been tried in a UK court since tape-to-tape copying machines back in the 1980's, but with Napster and Kazaa being found guilty in similar situations (within other duristictions), they think it possible that the court may decide differently this time.

Part of the issue hinges around reproducing music which is under copyright. Copyright expires 70 years after a composer's death and so most music used for learning a solo instrument are free from copyright because of their age.

My idea is much smaller than Kazaa and Napster and, having read the Own It document, I feel certain that the majority of my users will use the software legally. I guess that this could still potentially leave me open to lawsuits, but my hunch (without getting accredited personal IP advice) is that this is unlikely. For me, the big issue is whether I want to persue a piece of software that could be seen as "unjust". The IP laws are there for a reason (to protect the IP of creative people) and trying to get away with as much as I can just for my own ends doesn't seem right.

Dilemas all round! I'm having a think to see if I can come up with any other potential ideas. Anyone out there with a burning desire for some music software?!

"Lawyers have been known to wrest from reluctant juries triumphant verdicts of acquittal for their clients, even when those clients, as often happens, were clearly and unmistakably innocent." Oscar Wilde

Too busy to be lonely

Have you ever stopped being busy for a moment, and found things not as you left them? I sometimes realise how lonely and insecure I am, and how much my priorities have changed.

I suddenly realise how much my friends mean to me, and how careless I've been with our relationships. Then I realise what a great honour it is to have the friends that I have, and how grateful I am for their wisdom, humour and grace.

"When Christ said: "I was hungry and you fed me," he didn't mean only the hunger for bread and for food; he also meant the hunger to be loved. Jesus himself experienced this loneliness. He came amongst his own and his own received him not, and it hurt him then and it has kept on hurting him. The same hunger, the same loneliness, the same having no one to be accepted by and to be loved and wanted by. Every human being in that case resembles Christ in his loneliness; and that is the hardest part, that's real hunger." Mother Teresa

You'll never walk alone...

I'm still in the denial stage of grieving following our (Liverpool's) failed attempt to win back the Champions League tonight.

"Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I don't like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that." Bill Shankly, In Sunday Times (UK) Oct. 4 1981

Never the same

The sunsets recently have been awesome! Apologies for the blobs on the shot - it's just dirt on my bedroom window.

How to take over the world

Conventional wisdom dictates that success comes to those who wait (along with ketchup). Never being one for convention, I've spent the last few months doggedly pursuing one of my childhood dreams of running my own business. Some people have suggested to me that it might be more prudent to build up experience before I launch into this adventure, but whilst I value their advice, I like to do things the hard way!

I'm a musician and a software engineer, and after a lot of research into other software markets, I started wondering about combining the two together. I've now built up an idea for a product that I hope will be successful, and I'm going through the process of checking it out before I launch into writing it. I'm hoping to document the journey here, as it happens, so feel free to join the ride! Failure is a possibility, but that makes the adventure even more fun!

Your thoughts, advice, support and encouragement will be very much appreciated along the way.