[Doubletrak]

Admin, I applaud your stated ideals about illegal activity and basic honest conduct. If more people used copying technology for legal backups, instead of stealing to get something for nothing, the karaoke business would be better off. But I think there is a cultural perception that anything digital is fair game, no matter if it’s legal or not. Honest people will usually do the honest thing, and dishonest people will usually do the dishonest thing.

Interesting that you say MTU is policing its products the same as Sound Choice. Imagine how you might feel if it was costing you hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. At least that's their position. I would disagree with a couple of your above statements, though.



" The best protection for a Karaoke producer is to offer a reasonably priced solution to a scratched or broken disc.""

Don’t you think that it would be cheaper to replace "scratched or broken discs", than to design or acquire expensive copy protections? I’m sure if the karaoke manufacturers truly thought it was that easy, they would do it. It's my experience that the trading sites have nothing to do with "scratched or broken discs". These sites are just like Napster – which the RIAA did sue out of existence, by the way. These trading sites are there to enable the many users to acquire song files of karaoke songs. Not to remedy broken discs, but just to get SOMETHING FOR NOTHING.

Chartbusters products are up there, too, so the simplistic suggestion that cheap or free replacement of broken discs will stop piracy is wrong based on the actions of the many people involved. If you were to visit these sites, you can see for yourself, rather than relying on speculation. They’re not that hard to find – ask a college student. There are already several of these sites, and more crop up every month.

One of these sites from which you can download illegal song files from Sound Choice, Chartbusters, Sunfly, DK and more companies, is the same site where some of these folks offered (and sent) a copy of Microstudio, complete with serial number. Some of the users offer many of the different ripper/copy programs. Even the trademarked logos of Sunfly, Sound Choice, DK and other manufacturers companies are offered for download on the some of the same sites that offer the song files and ripping software.

Congratulations on stopping the one website, though. If you were successful in getting one of these type websites to close down or stop distributing illegal copies of MTU software, I’d bet that companies like Sunfly and Sound Choice would be very interested in how you did that.



"Sound Choice paid millons of US$ for a big cut of Eat, Sleep, Music. It has been pointed out to me that ESM makes custom discs that can't be identified as being from a manufacturer. I am told they use labels just like you have available to you, to identify the custom discs they sell, which include Sound Choice songs. Go figure!"


Don’t know anything about your information regarding Sound Choice and eatsleepmusic.com, but your statement about the custom disc is incorrect. I have one. It has the Sound Choice logo on it, and it is similar to their Spotlight logo. You can buy one from MyCDG.com, or Karaoke.com.



PS – I live in North Carolina, too. Is it ever possible to arrange a visit to the MTU workplace?