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Transcript

The other day a Web search showed one of my Getting Along podcast titles on an MP3 search engine site. When I visited that site, I could see many of my titles. When I downloaded some of my files from that site, they actually came from the server here at my university.

That site's disclaimer states that MP3 files found on the site actually come from remote servers; however, the true locations of my files were all hidden. That's a problem because it fails to show listeners the origins of files they download via that site.

That site has a second problem, which is much more serious than hidden URLs. Their disclaimer misrepresented the legal status of my podcast. It said that users have no right to assign, copy, transfer, share or transmit music files to any third party. That's not true for my podcast.

My Getting Along podcast recordings and transcripts are provided as a public service. They are Open Educational Resources, released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. You are free to share them with others. You are even free to quote from my transcripts and remix my recordings to use them in your own creative works. So copy them, use them, remix them, and share them. Just be sure to obey three easy restrictions. Tell people where you got them (attribution), don't try to make money from them (noncommercial use only), and share your remixes with others under the same license (share-alike).

The disclaimer on that MP3 search engine site included false statements about users' rights to my recordings. I complained to the webmaster, who responded with an offer to remove my titles from the site. The reasons for my complaint were never acknowledged, so I instructed the webmaster to remove all references to my recordings. That took some effort because I had to locate and send their URL for each of my Getting Along titles. After I sent the list of URLs, the webmaster reported that they had been removed.

Of course, on the Internet there are illegal copies of many copyrighted works that are not free. That's a serious problem for musicians and others who live by their creative work. People should respect the wishes of copyright holders.

My works are free, and if anyone tells you that you cannot share my podcast recordings, they're lying to you. Don't believe them. Check the license, and do not allow anyone to interfere with your rights.