[78-L] quality vs appreciation (was copyright)

[William A. Brent]

At 07:31 PM 3/8/2009, you wrote:
>This is precisely what is putting me out of business. As for YouTube, I have
>heard some pretty decent audio, and about 95% horrible garbage..and this is
>what a new generation now thinks old 78s sound like.

The same holds true of old movies - when movies first started 
appearing on Television in 1951 or so
the film companies pulled whatever material they had, and distributed 
it. It didn't really matter,
considering broadcast standard back then - but the public came to 
believe old movies looked
like the worst C&C TV prints. And when you got one of these on film - 
it looked pretty
gofawful as well.  Only when Fox Movie Channel, and TCM started going 
back to the
original 35mm negs - and broadcasting sparkling images, did much of 
the public begin
to appreciate "old movies" -

think of all the awful LP compilations that came out - often in mock 
stereo with extra
reverb and taken from vinyl sources - then CDs came out, and the 
situation was repeated.

and it has become a reflection on the original material in the minds of the
great un-washed.

Now this material is turning up on Utube and other sites, and again, the masses
have no idea how good some of this (most of this) material can sound.

But there is no money to be made by the legitimate owners of the 
material - so they
won't re-issue it, and those who care enough to properly restore and 
release it - do not
usually want to take the risk.