Top Music School Encourages File Sharing?
At a time when the recording industry is trying to figure out how to stop file sharing, the school that claims the most successful alumni in professional music is trying to figure out how to get it started. The difference: Boston's Berklee College of Music is creating a series of audio and video materials that are intended for sharing over peer-to-peer networks.

The school recently launched its Berklee Shares program, which consists of 80 different lessons on music performance, song writing, producing, engineering, and mixing. They consider the materials to be a natural complement to the school's traditional, on-campus college and its regular, fee-based online courses.

In a recent WIRED story, Berklee official David Kusek described the effort as a cost-effective way to distribute the rich musical knowledge of the school, and a demonstration of "the legitimate use of the digital networks to distribute authorized content." He continues by stating that his college does not condone stealing any copyrighted works.

The recording industry trade group, the RIAA, concurs that the difference is whether or not one wants one's work to be shared, or whether the sharing is instead driven by "some profiteer."

Berklee's works are distributed using a Creative Commons license, which authorizes using and trading the materials subject only to three creative protections: the works may not be altered, they may not be sold, and they must be credited to the original source. (Other academic programs, such as MIT's OpenCourseWare project, are similarly protected while encouraging use and dissemination.)

Creative Commons' Executive Director, Glenn Otis Brown, is pleased. "Part of Berklee's mission is to disseminate knowledge about music as widely as possible. The cheapest, easiest way to do that is to use the built-in, free distribution of file-sharing networks."

Brown himself hopes to use Berklee's materials to learn how to record his guitar playing on his home computer.

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