I personally was in meeting with the owners of SC approximately 3 years ago. This was in Derik Slep's office (President) with Kirk Slep (VP Marketing), Joe Senter (owner of SPIN), CM (SC Engineer) and one of my associates.
The purpose of this meeting was two fold...
First, to discuss their buying 5 of our Karaoke Pro workstations. Several of their staff, including CM, had already come to Raleigh to see customized demonstrations. To date, SC has not purchased any MTU Karaoke CDG mastering or other MTU products.
Second, whether they were interested in working with MTU to develop a copy protection means so their songs could be sold and downloaded over the Internet to play on computers. They were not even mildly interested. It is interesting to read their General Manager stating a different position from the owners in the past. I wonder if the owners know and agree to his position?
During this meeting, one of SC's owners challenged me on our Microstudio product for making backup copies. I asked them what a KJ was supposed to do when the discs he/she has are no longer in production. The immediate and very excited answer from him was "they should have purchased their discs from a company that is still in business!" I, my associate and Joe Senter were stunned by this answer as it was self-incriminating.
Do any of you own a SC disc that is no longer in production?
Most of you know very well of MTU's position on doing everything legal. I have been a VERY VOCAL opponent against the MP3+G format because it was designed from the start to encourage illegal distribution.
Further, in our software license agreement every customer agrees to, you do not OWN the MTU software you paid us for. You are only LICENSED to use it. If we find you are violating the Contract Law clauses that you agreed to, which are FAR MORE LEGALLY ENFORCEABLE than "interpreted Copyright violation", we will revoke your license to use our products. If anyone communicates to us they want to illegally copy discs, we refuse to sell them Microstudio to our financial detriment. SC knows very well that MTU is a staunch proponent to legalizing Karaoke and preventing illegal copying and distribution of discs. AND... that we stand firm for the professional KJ who pays good money for legal discs and deserves better quality.
Without SC's help, MTU has continued to move forward to insure we are positioned to be able to provide copy protection for songs sold to run on our computer software players. Everyone who owns Hoster (and now Karaoke Pro 4.008 also) realizes that it is HIGHLY PROTECTED to run only on one computer. Further, we will one day be able to protect songs so they cannot be illegally duplicated or distributed... but be fully legal to backup in case of a hard drive failure. We have several Karaoke Manufacturers interested in distributing their songs for Hoster in .kma file format... without copy protection.
Why does SC now fund KAPPA, after driving Joe Senter out of business, after selling him SPIN? Joe is a licensed Private Investigator who has now returned to Germany where he practices his professional trade.
Why doesn't KAPPA quote the exact laws that state clearly on their web site that a legally purchased disc cannot be backed up?
Why doesn't KAPA list any court cases where they have successfully prosecuted a paying client who is using a copy of their purchased SC discs in their show?
Why indeed! What company would EVER persecute a paying client who is using common sense to protect his/her investment? What Judge would ever hear such nonsense before the court?
Do you not recognize the Fear Tactics being used here? Does it make a grain of sense to you? If not, then get on with your lives and your profession!
Many of you know first hand about the quality of SC's manufactured discs, both as to the blank CDR quality and the silkscreening quality. There are numerous references from SC customers in these Forums. Suffice it to say, SC has a vested financial interest in you not making quality backup copies of their product. Until recently, they charged $50 for a replacement disc when a new one was only $30! This brought them a goodly income over the years. Make your own judgements why KAPA holds the position they do interpreting the law the way SC wants to. Joe Senter used to prosecute true bootleggers before the US Court system. Whose statements and background interests make more sense to you?
We have studied the law and cannot find where it is expressly forbidden in the USA to use an archive copy in place of the original for commercial purposes. We have documented our research
and links to the Copyright Office Law so you can make your own determination with your lawyer.
SC would save their good name from further ill repute by switching to quality CDR blank media and using high quality silkscreening inks that will not flake off and destroy the discs they sell. Instead, they are shifting to using MediaCloq to protect their discs from being played on a computer, or being duplicated for archive purposes... or being imported into CAVS or Hoster for playback from a hard drive.
I personally have phoned and emailed the MediaCloq developers to try to work with them for insuring songs are protected and yet allow the songs to be imported into Hoster. They have never acknowledged my communications. It is clear they have no desire to work with MTU. Thus, we will use a different form of DRM (Digital Rights Management) to protect songs we distribute...
and insure you CONTINUE to have the right to make a legal backup copy of your songs on your hard drive.