Letters.(Brief Article)

CCRMA and Intellectual Property

When I read the review of the 1999 Beijing International Computer Music Conference in Computer Music Journal 24:2 (pp. 77-83), two things jumped out at me. In addressing the topic of open-source software, the reviewers stated that Common Lisp Music (CLM) is by Fernando Lopez-Lezcano and Juan Pampin. Although these two composers are very experienced users (and even developers of certain modules and unit generators) of the CLM software, the sole author is Bill Schottstaedt of the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University, as Fernando and Juan would be the first to acknowledge.

Mistakes like that are easy to make when reviewing the ICMC, in which there are scores of developers present and it is therefore perhaps difficult to keep names straight. However, I was shocked by the reviewers' later remark that the trend towards more open-source software is a welcome development away from the "protectionism begun in the Chowning years"! In context, the implication is that John Chowning was somehow responsible for creating a closed and secretive environment in the computer music world. I …