Legal or illegal

[mindonstrike]

Originally Posted by ddouglass

Do you know what brand they are selling under?

Big Machine Records is at least doing Taylor Swifts stuff this way. both of her CD's are available as karaoke. It looks like they contracted Pocket Songs to do the graphics

Sam

[billyo]

Originally Posted by mindonstrike

Big Machine Records is at least doing Taylor Swifts stuff this way. both of her CD's are available as karaoke. It looks like they contracted Pocket Songs to do the graphics

Sam

is pocket songs the one with black & orange cover ? if it is that's probably the one i saw.

[Musicman51]

speaking of being legal...email, or call chartbuster karaoke. Tell them you own one of their cdg's, and ask them if it's ok with them if you download it on to your computer and use it with your karaoke hosting software on your hard drive, and post here what their reply is...

[RandyMcCharles]

I'm revisiting the question of legal VS illegal download sites as I can find no one naming names. I have found one propogated claim that "no download site is legal" with no citation to a legal authority stating such. And a statement from Kurt Slep of Sound Choice, “There are actually very few legal karaoke download sites. Most of the sites out there are not properly licensing and paying copyright fees on the music they are selling.” But no where can I find declarations of specific sites being legal or not. Someone earlier in this thread stated that he stopped buying downloads when he learned the practice is illegal 'in the US'. I visited several sites that have been around for awhile. They all 'claim' to be properly licensed. (Just as the CDG manufacturers claim to be properly licensed.) Few are in the US. CAVSUSA is the only US site I could find that has been downloading for years. Chartbusters says "downloading is coming". Sound Choice has a link on their site that goes to The Karaoke Channel in Canada, where you can download SC karaoke as video files.
Karaoke-Version in France offers only downloads. They won't burn a CDG.
So, is there an authority anywhere that can declare any of these specific download sites as legit or not? When Chartbusters turns on their downloads will they suddenly be legal? Or will they be as illegal as 'most of' the current download sites. As a Canadian can I safely purchase from a Canadian download site? (There are quite a few in this country.)

[ddouglass]

I don't know about Canadian Law, but the link for the SC titles is legit as they sold/transfered rights to that company for all there past releases. This would be more legal than a lot of the sites at least for SC created songs.
The Chartbuster site will be doing the same thing except they are retaining control, so they would be legal too.
CAVS, who knows I don't know where they get there songs from for downloading.
From what I can find Karaoke-Versions is a legit branch/sub-company of Recisio a French music production company, so it looks like they are legit too.
Even though a lot of the other sites claim they are legal, none of them state anything about being licensed by any of the production companies themselves. This tells me they are not legal.
Is there an authority or list of legal/illegal sites - none that I know of.
The legality issue is that a production company for Karaoke is supposed to have a license/permission to reproduce the songs they do. They in turn have the rights to license the sale of those songs by whatever format they wish to. Sale by CD is easy as they are the producers of the CDs and have their copyright on the label, but downloads do not.
If it was my site for downloading I would certainly post those agreements for each producer so everyone could see that they had permission to do so.

[muzicman144]

The KIAA has the president of Stellar Records, who did produce CDG's, on record as stating that Stellar Records is of the opinion no downloading of CDG song files to a computer is legal or has been deemed legal by any US Law. I guess that is just what it is, an opinion.
It would be a good thing if the law makers or breakers could come up with a thorough legal hearing and decide what is or is not legal in this downloading process. It seems to be worked out pretty well on non CDG downloading as there are many websites to download from. Only in the CDG side is where there is apparently a licensing problem.
muzicman144

[BooBoo]

I get the distinct feeling that the KIAA opinion is based on what they feel is best for "them". When they get into the download market, I am guessing their opinion will change.

Besides, if all the players are in the download market, who will want to fight it? Laws are only challenged when there are two sides. If all the players are in the download market, and it seems to be heading in that direction, then the "law" isn't an issue. Even if one roague decides to challenge, there are several players that can be used to refute the challenge.

Downloads seem to be here to stay and the KIAA is going to be the lone duck. They best change their stance soon if they want any support at all.

[RandyMcCharles]

I thought that downloads were digitally signed (like iTunes) to prove ownership. I am glad to hear that Karaoke-Version looks legit. Since they produce rather than resell, they have titles you can't get anywhere else, which is why I am looking at them. I suppose I could also ask the producers if certain download distributors were authorized by them. It just seems odd that with all the 'everyone is illegal' shouting going on that no one has actually made a naughty/nice list online. While I appreciate some of the information on the KIAA site, their vaugeness and lack of authority references makes me not trust their agenda.
PS. Since there are no karaoke producers left in Canada (increasing license fees have killed them), we Canadians have no option but to purchase from other countries. Many distributors (all in the US) use UPS to ship to Canada, which adds up to $70 to the cost of shipping. (UPS charges individual broker fees twice). Shipments from UK and Austrialia add about $10 (broker fees = almost zero). So bulk buying from the UK or AU isn't bad. If you just want 1 disk, however... It is much cheaper to download and burn your own disk. I haven't done this yet, but once I nail down legality you can bet I will.