Hello from Chartbuster!

I think you missed the point Rumbolt;

Proformance will correct me if I'm wrong, but what I believe he is saying is that if you feel you'd be "out of business" if you didn't have SC or CB -even in your area- then you are relegating yourself to being nothing more than a delivery system for SC and CB tracks. And if you didn't have that "product to deliver" you wouldn't have a business at all.

I can tell you from experience - not conjecture or speculation - that dropping the SC brand has done nothing to affect my business or the patrons that come in. I still get an hour and half rotations with no complaints.

Did I get complaints when I first dropped the brand?
Of course I did. But I can tell you this; it was far less than I anticipated and only for about a week.

Did I lose any singers because I dropped the brand?
Realistically, I think I might have lost two.... and believe me, it was no real loss for me.

 

Take it as you will, but we just got the call that we got a job and it stemmed from our use of an SC disc. A singer rode his motorcycle to a bar 45 minutes away and told the owner she needed to jump on hiring us. Yes, there are other things about us that he likes but what initially impressed him was the quality of music on the SC version of "Texas Flood." He went from saying, "Let's not get carried away, it's just karaoke" to perceiving us as being more professional than other shows and saying he always has fun when he comes. Certainly we work hard on the fun part and the professional part seems to come from just not passing out drunk mid-show but in no way does having good versions of songs detract form that. It adds. All part of the package.

 

Not pointless at all...it's the truth...when people on this board accuse people, they need to see the whole truth. I wouldn't believe for a second that none of the people ever used a blank TDK, Maxell, BASF or Memorex. That would just be ridiculous to believe. So next time your calling someone a pirate...look in the mirror. And just for fun, I will add another one here on the list.

If you have ever watched a You Tube video that was uploaded by someone other than the copyright owner...then you are supporting piracy!

 

Nobody that I have seen other than Joe C has ever said they haven't copied, the point you are missing is the difference as between private use (Rob posted) and commercial use.

Everyone of us who run computer based shows has commited an act of piracy the difference is being willing to get right with those that have the ability (and drive) to come after us. One other difference is between those who have done 1:1 copying and those who just have a pirated hard drive!

 

Oh--and Rumbolt, I know what you mean about not being able to do your shows without CB. We are in a country area, also, and when we first started out, just buying the CB Country Classics set took care of a huge amount of songs that our singers regularly sang. Add the 50 song sets by Merle, Johnny, Willy and Waylon and that took care of another big chunk. Certainly the songs could have been bought from other manufacturers but having those collections meant taking care of a large amount of songs that would actually be sung with just a few discs. Less costly and less to lug around. And we do get country sung off of our SC Foundation also. And I would have to say that another contender for "Difficult to do a show without" would be our Zoom Eagles. So while I won't say that a show CAN'T be done without our choices, having good collections and good renditions certainly can't be discounted as far as adding to the convenience and quality.

 

Well now your talking about a degrees of piracy. Based on your post, it's okay to steal a cassette copy by recording a dup of "The Eagles - Greatest Hits" to listen to while driving around in your classic car etc...

However if you take that same cassette into work with you and play it over a PA, it becomes a bigger piracy issue?

Excuse me...but your logic is retarded. :rolleyespill:

 

I think that logic makes complete sense. In one case it is used for your own personal enjoyment, on the other side of things you're making money off of someone else's product without properly paying for it, hence a MUCH bigger problem.

 

I understand your making money off of it, but the same can be said for dubbing it too...is that not money you didn't spend, so still money in your pocket?

While he may or may not play it at a venue, its still piracy..and why would you have a problem one and not the other? That's convenient!

And if you do have a BIGGER problem with the venue over the car...again..why would the pirate care, he already didn't pay for the dup.
What the heck is the difference?

:yahyadda:

 

Court case: Somebody or other vs Diamond something or other MP3 player. The courts found that it was "fair use" for an individual to give their purchased music "portability" by switching it to an MP3 device. So a standard for fair use for private use was established. It isn't so much Thunder's logic as he understands that is what the court case said.

The court case didn't cover commercial use but again, whether or not you agree/disagree that it should cover format shifting for commercial use, the core issue is still the format shift wihtout ever having obtained a legitimate primary source for the shift. Karaoke companies are trying to sccomodate by putting out products in different formats. SC has the GEM series, like it or not. PHM has been putting out MP3G discs for quite some time. CB has come out with the SD card and says that their downloads can be used in shows. So they have been dragged into this century as far as recognizing computer use, even if the law has not caught up. But it is computer use using stolen music that they are truly after.

 

I am pretty sure that one is private (fair use) and the other is commercial (monetary gain)! Was my keyboard stuttering?

 

And I am pretty sure I said making a COPY of someone elses cassette.

Which is what the whole Napster debate was over...was it not?

So there is NO DIFFERENCE. You keep avoiding the OBVIOUS to try and get YOUR point taken as gospel.

Artist and record labels fought for years about people copying CD's and tapes etc..How are you gonna say one is okay and the other is not. :nopill:

 

Blank cassettes had a fee percentage attached to them that supposedly went to the artist and labels, "Music" CDs also have this fee applied to the pricing!

All it takes is a little reading to get the facts if you are interested in them!

 

Was that comment really necessary Thunder?

Does it somehow make you feel smarter?

It's these exact little "back-handed digs" that you can't resist to throw in that pisses people off. It's a very condescending method of communication.


Give it a rest!!!!!!!!

 

AGAIN, using your logic..and while I KNOW about the small fee attached.
I am sure they weren't referring to places like Limewire, Kazzaa or any other download site. Copying from a friend is the SAME thing!

DID YOU OWN IT? NO...did you own a copy YES.
WTH is the difference?

And another thing...you keep referring to law. I am referring to common sense.

If the logic behind your argument is "Well They paid a small fee" , maybe we can get Seagate on board to pay such a small fee as well, then we wouldn't have this whole SC argument would we..

You jump around the question worse than a politician.

 

I already knew it, but because that wasn't the argument it wasn't worth bringing up, it was just a way for him to skirt around another issue.

 

Chip, first off it wasn't a dig, second I was talking about the copyright laws!

 

Apparently we aren't even in the same discussion! :rolleyespill:

I was responding to Joker's post and I assumed since you qouted it as well that is what you were discussing, but apparently I was wrong. Exactly what were you discussing with me? Because as I repost Rob's thread again below and reread it I still can't find any mention in his post of Limewire, Kazzaa or any other download site or copying from a friend. As I read it I don't see any mention of a friends CD, tape or anything else either, so unless your screen picks up something mine doesn't ............ what the heck are you talking about?

 

I never said our conversation was totally based on "You Might Be A Pirate If" that's just where it started.

The whole thing was you might be IF, I added the IF's I wanted to hear responses to, and either you misread them or we still have an argument.
I said I doubt anyone can say they never used tapes , CDS to duplicate a master, borrow a tape from a friend, copy a CD instead of buying it etc. ,and MOST people would not equate that to copying your own...sorry i didn't spell it out more clearly.

And I went on to say that if your watching You Tube and I know you do cause you have posted them before, your supporting piracy unless you only are watching what is posted by the copyright owner.

If you have taped music off the radio, what is the difference from that to downloading single music tracks from a torrent or p2p site? There isn't really.

Ultimately your copying something in which you did not pay for.

I don't know how I can make my point anymore clear to you.

I find it crazy to fathom you have never done any of these things.

 

When the pirates go, to take your show. Who you gonna call? CHARTBUSTERS!

 

My first question is, How many SC songs did you drop from you library?

If you want to consider me a delivery system, OK. So is anybody the sells branded clothes or any other branded product or service. That is business.

When I started in this "business" I used a lot of DK and other now defunk labels then when I found "better" sound backing tracks, I switched and my business continued to grow and I got positive compliments as to my library from my customers (afterall, without customers I don't get a paycheck) so I will continue to use CB and other top shelf brands including SC and no matter what of how you or Performance feel about my business or a specific manus is moot.
If you are unhappy with a specific brand for whatever reason then that is between you and them and is no reason to attempt to discredit other "professional" KJs to justify your own issues.