Legal or illegal

[Musicman51]

I'm sure everyone has got a song or two, putting it nicely, that are not legal. I have got original disc i have lost, lend out and never gotten back but i never deleated them, and i don't plan on it. Never really heard of the karaoke police, but i like it..lol Sure let them look my stuff over, i'm sure i'd make it. Now i don't have 75,000 songs, or a bunch of hard drives floating around but i do subscribe to chartbuster country monthly and pop. At least i try to stay current. Ebay should do a better job of watching this type of piracy in both karaoke and dj disc and hard drives. If someone told me they had 75,000 songs, i'd tend to believe they are not theirs. Billyo, i like your post, i haven't made much money at this either. I do more free things, then paying gigs lately it seems. As far as that organization mentioned, i have read mostly negitive things about them on the karaoke forum, but hey, at least it's a start. But they shore best be careful going into a club, and calling someone a thief, could result in a lawsuit or two.

[billyo]

Originally Posted by Musicman51

I'm sure everyone has got a song or two, putting it nicely, that are not legal. I have got original disc i have lost, lend out and never gotten back but i never deleated them, and i don't plan on it. Never really heard of the karaoke police, but i like it..lol Sure let them look my stuff over, i'm sure i'd make it. Now i don't have 75,000 songs, or a bunch of hard drives floating around but i do subscribe to chartbuster country monthly and pop. At least i try to stay current. Ebay should do a better job of watching this type of piracy in both karaoke and dj disc and hard drives. If someone told me they had 75,000 songs, i'd tend to believe they are not theirs. Billyo, i like your post, i haven't made much money at this either. I do more free things, then paying gigs lately it seems. As far as that organization mentioned, i have read mostly negitive things about them on the karaoke forum, but hey, at least it's a start. But they shore best be careful going into a club, and calling someone a thief, could result in a lawsuit or two.

yeah, i havent made any money doing karaoke, and i dont expect getting any of them back, i have duplicates of everything or may i say 2 of everything, bunch of 500g hhd for my kma files and cloned of my internal drives..heck i even got duplicates ( back-ups ) of my itunes music in one big binders ( 4,674 mp3's) and in my ipod ,that i bought from itunes. for .99 , i just love playing music and to see other people having a good time. i quit doing nightly gigs , nor i got out looking for one,i only do private gigs now, all the offers i got doing nightly karaoke gigs where given to friends of mine that does this for a living, i know that most of us that does karaoke is not 100 % legal..but anyway That's life....

[Lonman]

I know everything on my drive is exactly what I have sitting on my counter of original discs. I did have 2 PHM discs from 96 that I had burned from a friend, but got rid of those when I got the computer as I had all those songs dup'd on better quality brands. I do not download anything, any specialty request songs are purchased via custom disc sites so I have a physical disc in possession (and to be able to use if the computer goes down). I do not store customer discs on the drive, they must bring me their disc each time even though they know of 'others' who just offer to store their discs for them then I explain that they basically just GAVE this kj what they paid for & that I can pretty much guarantee that if someone walked in to sing the songs on that disc, the kj would not say - oh no, this wasn't my disc, I am just storing it .
I would say I am 99.9999% leaning to full 100% legal.

[WaltR]

Well I guess I am not 100%, but close. I don't know anyone that has been busted. I would assume if there really are Karaoke Police they would be hitting the clubs in bigger areas. I can't imagine that in the middle of a gig....here comes the Karaoke Police but maybe I'm wrong. If it happens to me, I guess I'll be busted. Some of my older cdg's were stolen so if I got nailed, I wouldn't have those disks and can't prove I ever bought them.

[muzicman144]

Thanks to all who responded. It is about what i figured. I didn't think anyone would come on and say they pirated all their music. You guys, that are the front runners in this forum, that stepped up are really to be commended for your honesty. It is so hard these days with the easy access to files, or just losing a disc could make one "illegal".
SESAC seems to be the body today that's working these clubs for annual money for music played in our venues. I'm more concerned with their antics than i am with the "Karaoke Police". The fees they want to charge are just beyond the capability to pay of some small venues. I reallize that protecting a writer or singer's rights and assuring they will get paid for their work that is re-produced is necessary, but, i pay for the right to perform it when i buy the disc, and they also want to charge the club where i excercise that right.
This whole business of "protecting" the artist seems to be getting out of hand. Probably 85% of any money collected by any of the "artist protection" people is going to overhead and the artist only sees pennies.
I believe an artist's protection should be limited to material that is printed, recorded material, re-recorded material, and broadcast music.
muzicman144

[ddouglass]

For one thing MTU and those of us here that do most of the helping, do not condone piracy and try hard to discourage it. Most of those who do pirate usually do not want to be known in here.
As long as the venue owner pays to required fees up front for their use of the music then it usually isn't that bad. It is the ones who don't and are visited who have a higher fee to pay or face court. That aside as it sits those fees are the venue's responsibilty. I have never heard of SESAC ever bothering with the KJ himself. That would be the KIAA. These are the people that will want to check the legality of your music.
I did find that KIAA has expanded their website and are trying to help the legal KJs and venues to stay this way. Their web site is http://www.thekiaa.org/ and there is a very interesting flyer they have done up that will possible help those of us that are legal to weed out the pirates. It is located here
http://www.thekiaa.org/kjs-avoid-losing-your-shows.html

[billyo]

i do admit that i'm not 100% legal, but who is ? most of the time they don't bother small establishments, i know caused i used to play for one,( asian restaurant/bar ) they came around and measured the bldg. capacity and this place sits about 90 ppl, including the dining room, they told the owner that he should pay some kind of royalty, and that was the last time he heard from them, till i left a yr. ago.