Letter to Peter Garrett . MP

The Hon Peter Garrett AM, MPThank you for your time. Your comments have been successfully submitted via http://www.aph.gov.au You have sent the following details: Name: Sean Wayland Address: 571 6th ave apartment 1 City: Brooklyn State or Territory: N.S.W Postcode: 11215 Country: United States Telephone Number: +1 347 5231455 Email Address: seanwayland@gmail.com Comments: Hi Peter, I am an Australian musician living in New York. I studied jazz piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of music in 1992. I am well known amongst the jazz community in Sydney. I was a founding member of the Jazzgroove Association in Sydney. I left for New York and a bigger pool of musicians and opportunities about 5 years ago. I live in Brooklyn with my wife. I am a big midnight oil fan. Jim Moginie is an online acquaintance. One time I had a lengthy conversation with Rob Hirst when we got stuck in a performers van together en-route to the Wangaratta jazz festival. I am writing to ask for your political not musical help. Australia's recorded jazz history is disappearing fast. Most recordings that still exist on LP are fading. Older musicians and independent record company owner's are dying before their copyright can be passed on. If something isn't done this valuable history will be lost for good. A solution would be to create an online database of titles with reference to their locations in various libraries. I have contacted the National Film and Sound archive about this. They are willing to give some help but jazz is a small part of their large program and the law limits what they can do. A legal solution needs to be sought that would allow out of print music to be rereleased. Perhaps if an album was out of print for 20 years the copyright in the masters would automatically refer back to the musicians or their families. If it was legal and encouraged for musicians to digitize their collections and leave them at the music school libraries (like the one at the Sydney Con) this music could be saved. With the internet an online wikipedia style database of recordings could be set up cheaply. The Australian people could edit it and take care of their own history so to speak. I also believe that a valuable business could be created if the law would allow it. My piano teacher at the Conservatorium Roger Frampton died in 2000 aged 52. He created music in the 1970's which I have never been able to hear despite quite a lot of searching. I am told it is very good. I believe that his music should be heard by Australian's and the world. It should be taught in schools. The producer of some of those old Frampton LP's is approaching 90 years of age. It is time for action. I have set up a facebook group in an attempt to gain some momentum on this issue. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_188182267891758&ap=1 Please email me thank you. I hope all is well and that you still get a chance to get into the ocean in the 2035 postcode. Yours Sincerely Sean Wayland