Hello from Chartbuster!

Thanks for asking. Please call me and I will be glad to discuss with you. I can be reached at 800-347-5504. If you have Skype, we can do the audit that way.

Look forward to hearing from you!

Debi

 

Thanks for asking also, Thunder. Please call me and I will be glad to discuss with you. I can be reached at 800-347-5504. If you have Skype, we can do the audit that way.

You guys are my heroes. I am so glad to work with honest people again!

Look forward to hearing from you!

Debi

 

Hello Wall. Just got your message and can talk but seemed to misplace your number. Could you email it to me at [email protected]?

Appreciate it!

Debi

 

Just gave it to Mary.

I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Sorry, I have to agree with Proformance on this one. Especially since they sell their product in a computer format.

So now what? Buy it in a computer format, play it and then get sued for playing it?

I smell a really big countersuit on the horizon.

What's next? Get sued for "public performance" because it says so on the disc?

(Don't think it won't happen - it's been a charge in every Sound Choice suit so far no matter what they've told you here, read the paperwork.)

 

Diafel,

I am glad to hear that piracy is not a problem in your area. Unfortunatley yours is the only one in the country that I know of. In other words, you are definately the minority here so you don't realize what a huge problem this is the the United States. I appreciate that. I wish my life was that simple sometimes. In your situation you may be right but you cannot speak for the majority. 90% of the karaoke operators in the United States operate illegally and threw the "old school" way out long ago. They are very technologically advanced and very educated.

I appreciate your input but we too have kids, grandkids (and some of us have parents and/or relatives) we have to clothe, feed and care for, send to college along with house payments, car payments, etc. etc. and the pirates are making it difficult to make an honest living.

This is not about Kurt and Debi. This is about an idustry that has went awry, lost it's way and us honest law abiding citizens want to clean it up...and will.

Regards,
Debi

 

Since you brought up the "law abiding citizens" subject:
Will you be just as willing to provide similar proof that the tracks on the discs that you've been selling (and you'd like to audit) were ALL licensed fully and before your sales of that product?

There are quite a few "revised discs" in your catalog and this alone is cause for lots of speculation on why.

Keep in mind that I'm not accusing anyone of anything. It's just that (IMHO) it appears that Sound Choice wants to hold KJ's to a much higher "honesty standard" than they are willing to hold themselves and it appears as though you are following in their footsteps.

 

You continue to miss one of the KEY POINTS - the mere fact that a host has made an unauthorized format/media shift from the CDG to a hard drive gives us the right to accuse them of a rights violation. Once again, here is the policy followed by Sound Choice and accepted by CB and Stellar:

The complete format/media shift policy with Sound Choice is that: In the absence of written permission to perform a media/format shift from CDG to a hard drive based system, you are subject to investigation and notification of infringement (whether by letter of intent to sue or by a notice of a suit being filed or by being served in a lawsuit). However, IF you can prove that you have all the original legal discs in your possession prior to AND at the time of the investigation and continuing through the audit, then you will be dropped from whatever legal action is being contemplated or taken.

If you intend to format or media shift the song tracks from a CDG to a hard drive system (a lap top computer, for example), we will issue you a “Covenant Not to Sue” document for making the shift (and creating a new copy), which requires that you do not use the discs, but keep them in your possession and that you have a 1:1 relationship between the songs files on your computer and the songs on the original discs. (In other words, you can’t create a new copy and then sell the original discs and you can’t have any music on your computer for which you did not buy and still own an original disc). We also will try to arrange audits IN ADVANCE of any actions by Sound Choice for those that want to prove compliance and legitimacy without having to be prompted or investigated as the motivation.

 

Diafel, if you would like, I can mail the venus in your area our Safe Harbor Brochures - it provides a great bit of educational information and grants them FREE relief from any lawsuits. Uh, the one thing it would do is probably cost the pirates their jobs. But that should be fine for you, as you could pick up some new gigs in the newly opened slots.

Would you like to email me their addresses?

We are going to be doing a mailing of the brochures in conjunction with The Karaoke And Entertainment Guide to about 800 venues in the Seattle /Portland areas. It will be interesting to see how venue owners react to the offer of being indemnified from lawsuits.

 

I have spent several hours a week over the last few weeks in conversations with Stellar and will only say "They are coming after pirates, too". I won't steal any of their lightning or thunder by going over details, but those who love SGB and Music Maestro and NuTech, you are going to be in hog heaven in a few months with no SC, CB and SR content to distract you.

 

Debi,

It didn't take long to figure out the ones here that just aren't happy no matter what. Since you are new here, there is an "IGNORE" button you can use to not even see posts from some of the folks here. You will have a much better day if you selectively use that tool.

 

Speaking of "unauthorized".... Care to display any properly executed licensing you might have for some of the more questionable artists?

You don't need to do that and you know it. You can drag any KJ into court just for playing your CD+G discs and you know that as well. You have expressly denied (operative word: expressly) any "unauthorized public performance." You know as well as I that the only way a KJ can "legally" play your DISCS now in public is with a written authorization to do so from you. There is a BIG difference between "implied" and "expressly" and since you have expressly denied it, you must now expressly authorize it. It doesn't matter what agreement you have with the publishers beyond that. (or would it be Stingray Digital? Didn't you sell them your catalog?) I can't think of a single lawsuit that you've filed so far that doesn't include "public performance" as an additional charge against the defendant(s).

I requested just such a license for public performance from Sound Choice (Slep-Tone Entertainment) on April 11, 2000 in a certified document sent to you (and all other known manufacturers) and signed for at your office by a Shirley Wooldridge on April 14th 2000. As expected, I never received as much as a courtesy reply.

Why not provide a link to this document? That should make us all happy right?

Your "Covenant Not to Sue" document means nothing other than you can sue them at anytime in the future that you see fit. Notice that it is not a "license" that you claim you cannot give anyway. It's the same with your "Safe Harbor" program. Where you say you won't, but you still can and just might.

 

I admit, I had to remove a poster off of ignore for a second, then read their post & was reminded why I had them on ignore in the first place! :laughpill:

 

If you take them off ignore to read their posts... then they're not really being ignored are they?

Bwahaha! :laughpill: You can't resist! :laughpill: Bwahahaha!

 

This is just my opinion (based on law and facts)

When a song is copied from a disc to the hard drive a violation has occured, period, when it is sold, copied to multiple systems or given, traded, or sold to someone else seperate and multiple violations have occured. Being angry with the ones the material is stolen from for trying to recover their losses isn't going to change anything. SC CB PHM or any of the other manus don't even have to agree to a settlement or even a 1:1 agreement, they have every right to go forward into court even if you own every disc with every song on the hard drive none of the manus have to say it's OK.

I understand that there are a lot of pirates who are angry about having to either leave or pay up for the product, but those who are legit operators and are telling others to ignore this you are playing the wrong side of the fence.

Anyone that is familar with the federal court system already knows that it can take years and thousands of dollars for a civil case to make it onto the docket for trial, anyone who understands what interrogitories and depositions are also knows if you don't answer them voluntarily, gets sanctions and an order from the court to answer them.

The defendants in the Federal case I was involved in were sanctioned $2500 for not answering the interrogitories properly, one of them was sanctioned $5000 for not showing up for his depositions and they had a lawyer such as he was. After that they hired another attorney, by the end of the case (which was dismissed) they had spent well over $150,000 and were unable to recover a single penny The plaintiffs had over $40,000 in it that they couldn't recover. This case took 4 years from the time it was filed until it was heard!

Even if the manus don't win a single dime from the defendant in court, the cost will be so extreme that most KJs will not recover.
People that make statements to others indicating that they don't have to follow the rules of the court are doing a major disservice to others who just don't know.

I do know that those who have it set in their minds that these manus aren't really going to go forward with these cases into court are fools, it is going to happen!

 

Not trying to ruffle anymore feathers, but using your own words, it took years for the case to be heard and look how much money was wasted on both sides. If you look at it from a logical standpoint, you will see that is a double edged sword. They may get there and lets say the manufacture is awarded damages etc...if the person sued is broke, what have they really achieved, sure they got a pirate out of the industry, but at what cost to themselves. If you sue someone who has nothing, you end up with nothing...what a guy in jail? Still no money to be had.

Don't get me wrong, they may sue a few to get the point across, but they can't sue them all. It would cost to much and they would bankrupt themselves in the process. This is why i suggested to go after the HD Sellers. Especially the ones who do it with monthly auto renews and pirated discs monthly. They are you biggest threat, sure all the OLD catalog would still be floating around, but if they really cracked down on the actually people making serious money off them, and with all the violations, they could bury them and scare the hell out of any potential future sellers.
This would cause the new material released a chance to prosper. I don't think I am wrong here. Plus another upside to this is you still have an edge because all your material is current, and people notice that.

Oh BTW, I noticed alot of these websites that offer monthly subscriptions, CLAIM to be licensed to do this practice.
I will see if I can find them again, been a while since I ran across them.

 

Sanction penalties are discretionary on the part of the Judge.

Court rules are rules....

 

First, I am in Canada, and as far as I can tell, things are quite different here. I could be wrong, but anywhere I've been outside of my own area does not appear to be rampant in Piracy. Perhaps the larger cities are, but I'm not hearing that so far.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying you shouldn't go after the pirates. If they've stolen from you, you have every right to go after them, and you should.
All I'm saying is that you asked me why I won't start speaking to my local venues about piracy, and I answered you. There was no malice intended towards you or SC or any other manufacturer. I was just relaying the facts as I see them for my area and my personal situation.
You have a family to feed, and so do I, but I'm not about to put your family ahead of mine, especially when there is currently no need for me to do so.

 

Thanks, but no thanks. As stated earlier, piracy is not an issue in my area at this time, so obviously there won't be any new gigs to pick up.
Please see my previous post on the subject:

 

To be a little more objective - it actually is all about you.

You see, the computer isn't going anywhere - that technology is here to stay and it is now the media delivery format of choice across ALL A/V and entertainment platforms.

You are wholly dedicated to an OBSOLETE format (CD+G disc) and an obsolete business model as well. No one denies that piracy plagues your products - but, your obsession with piracy is blinding you to the larger issue - the state of your current product is out of step with customer demand.

Take a closer look at your own language: you continually use the word "supporters" instead of "customers."

Does that sound like a business interested in customers? Both of you have an enormous amount of feedback that you simply choose to ignore and for that I have little sympathy. Even the level of piracy itself is a form of feedback.

DJ/KJs like myself do not want your product - not simply because of your legal threats but, because we no longer want to stockpile the discs which we have no need for.

Complain all you want - but, sooner or later someone with a better idea will prevail and this noise will matter no more. The DISC is obsolete and unless and until you can grasp that reality these problems will continue to plague you.

We don't need a safe harbor program, we don't want your terms, and we don't want to business the old way.