Business do Brasiliero – and no copyright!

Since its party day for OpenBusiness and we are having our first MiniBar this seems an appropriate story: Henrik form the Free Beer crew in Copenhagen went to Belem in the north of Brazil to make a documentary about copyright and the sound system parties they have (which are part of a flourishing music business with no copyright). He was inspired to do so by our article on OB. He made a Flickr Photostream about it.

Here a snippet from our old article:

“A music scene called Tecno Brega making use of an alternative business model has emerged in the city of Belem in Brazil. (…) the music lies outside the realm of traditional copyright and is used as a method of marketing events. Every weekend the sound system parties attract thousands of people to the outskirts of Belem to listen to the Tecno Brega music. The parties are advertised by the distribution of the music itself. (…)
The Tecno Brega music is “born free” in the sense that copyright protection is not a part of the business model developed by its creators. The CDs sold are utilized as marketing material– advertisements for the highly popular weekly “sound system” parties. The Tecno Brega CDs are sold by local street vendors as per arrangements with the local recording studios. At a mere US$1.50, the CDs are highly affordable by the local population, thus providing greater access to the music at a grassroots level.”