McGrath,

"Though no sillier than any suggestion that anyone should be denied the right to sing any song."

Have you encountered instances where someone was being denied the *right* to sing a song? Or is that some kind of strawman or exaggeration?

A First Nations group (say) has a song that only they (in that group) have sung, and they say to outsiders "Please don't sing our song. (In fact, don't even record our song when we sing.)" An outsider says, "free speech! free country! I'm going to sing it anyway!" That person does have a legal right (unless the song is under copyright). They *may* have some kind of God-given (?) right, if that's your philosophy. But really, *should* they do it? Perhaps they should, perhaps they shouldn't. I don't think *that* question is silly. If the outsider does it with no consideration whatsoever, merely asserting his/her "right," it sounds to me rather entitled at best, an asshole at worst. It's putting one's desire to have a thing ahead of the desire of the previous owner's. I see no reason not to *consider* the "rights" of both parties. If it's found that the previous owner's claim to exclusivity is unreasonable, then so be it.

I'm reminded of the Anglo opium traders in China: "Free trade!" The dudes wanted their profits from illegal opium. So they assert this seemingly inarguable value of "free trade" as a bludgeon. Lucky for them they had a more powerful navy.

Are musical practices such generic objects... just a bunch of meaningless pitches and rhythms floating around... that everyone is equally entitled to everyone else's like oxygen molecules? Maybe, but I think that devalues them. If the pitches, rhythms, texts etc. are not bound in a relationship to those people which gave them a particular value, then what's the point of having them? Why not get one's own pitches and rhythms? I think the answer is that the creators created something powerful, and we want a piece of that power, the product of their work. If we want that, it seems only decent to consider their (the creators') terms before proceeding. Keywords: Consider and Should (not Can).