Legal or illegal

[muzicman144]

Originally Posted by ddouglass

Hopefully we are responsible enough to know that the individual we report on is truly using illegal material. If someone is breaking into a house in your neighbor's house or you know that someone is selling drugs would you not report it? I would hope so. The same goes for piracy. It is against the law.

I would like to add this in regard to Sound Choice and the KIAA. Sound Choice moved part of their operation to Australia. When asked why they opened a branch in Australia, when the only difference was there was is 4000 more songs in the Australian SC library than there was in the US library. The SC director of operations replied, "4000 songs". Seems SC cannot get licensed in the USA to reproduce these 4000 songs, but under Australian law they can. The point of this is if SC sold these songs in the US, they would be guilty of piracy, but find no fault in selling these songs legally from Australia to american KJs, who then can be arrested for piracy for using, by american law, and illegal song file, bought legally from another country, piracy knowingly created by SC. No matter how a KJ got one on these files, they would be illegal by KIAA and USA standards. I feel SC blatantly skirted paying copy right fees on these songs by getting a license to sell these same files from Australia. If this isn't a form of piracy, then there is no such thing.
And these are the folks pushing KIAA to pursue piracy, when they have circumvented the US copyright laws for their own form of Piracy
Yes, Dale, I agree with your statement, but this thread is supposed to be about the KIAA and their method of operations. Its ironic that Sound Choice can sell a song file from another country, knowing its illegal in the USA, violating the very laws they are pushing the KIAA to enforce that can result in a KJ being arrested and fined for a illegal downloaded song sold by SC. Let's see, a USA fine per song for illegal copyright violation is around $15,000.00 per song, totaling a whopping $60 million in fines Sound Choice would face for selling these 4000 song files in the USA. Now do you combat piracy by aiding a company that is guilty of piracy themselves. That is the question here.
Muzicman144

[BooBoo]

On one hand, SC TRIED to pursue the proper channels to gain those songs and the music industry is too stupid to take advantage, so SC does what others are doing just to stay in the game.

THEN On the other hand, ppl buy those freak'n drives, "just to stay in the game"...

So the music industry will probably go after the CD makers, the CD makers will probably go after the HD users, no one can make K-music, no one can buy K-music, no one wins and Karaoke is dead...

Greed at its finest...

[billyo]

[

no one wins and Karaoke is dead...

Greed at its finest...

[/quote]

it's a losing battle, but i dis-agree with you , karaoke is not dead or will it ever, it might fizzle for a while

[madjim- with the Lord]

I have avoided getting into this conversation because it has been discused so many times in the forum but as an active member, here is my $.02 worth.

Like Musicman144, I am a musician who uses Hoster to run backing tracks. I use karaoke tracks. This lead to me being a karaoke host.

I have over 11,000 karaoke songs that I use at my shows, not counting the doubles and tracks with vocals that I paid for and don't use. That's well over $11,000 I've invested in karaoke tracks.

I have found the karaoke track indusrty to be quite a mess. Being a working musician, I have the utmost respect for songwriters and producers and have never had any intentions on doing anything illegal. I ended up paying for (I have reciepts) and downloading karaoke tracks from a Canadian company before I knew that karaoke downloads are illegal in the USA. I have since stopped.

The Sound Choice/Australia issue is just more proof of how messed up the karaoke track industry is.

There are three songs in my karaoke collection that I made myself. I do have non-karaoke versions of these songs that I paid for so I have the rights to use them, I think. If karaoke versions were available, I would have bought them.

With the present climent of the karaoke track business being so cloudy, how can any karaoke host be 100% squeeky clean?

I believe that any company or person that sells thousands of karaoke tracks on a hard drive for a few hundred dollars should be arrested and thrown in jail like any other ciminal for they are obviously breaking the law. If you are not paying at least $1 a track, you are buying pirated material. So how do we get these folks in front of an entity that will enforce this? Is it worth creating the "Karaoke Police" when we have so many other long time social issues that are unresolved?

Until the climate of the karaoke track business clears up, all a karaoke host can do is be as legal as humanly possible, stand for what is right and work hard to put on an entertaining show that is one step above the rest, IMHO. Hoster helps us do this which is why I donate me time to be a beta tester.

Jim

This is today's Valdosta Daily Times front page aritcle. I am so honored to see that entertainers can have an impact on their community.

http://www.valdostadailytimes.com/lo...238233354.html

[muzicman144]

Jim, well said. Water seeks its level, and the karaoke field will also. To be a successful KJ or even a one man show is a lot of work for those of us who do the work it takes to be the best we can be. The quick dollar pirate will fall beside the wayside because of this and peer pressure. I just choose not to jump on a self serving wagon that really "appears" to have its own agenda in mind. Give the good kj time, he will prevail and "self police" as necessary.
muzicman144

[billyo]

Originally Posted by madjim

I have avoided getting into this conversation because it has been discused so many times in the forum but as an active member, here is my $.02 worth.

Like Musicman144, I am a musician who uses Hoster to run backing tracks. I use karaoke tracks. This lead to me being a karaoke host.

I have over 11,000 karaoke songs that I use at my shows, not counting the doubles and tracks with vocals that I paid for and don't use. That's well over $11,000 I've invested in karaoke tracks.

I have found the karaoke track indusrty to be quite a mess. Being a working musician, I have the utmost respect for songwriters and producers and have never had any intentions on doing anything illegal. I ended up paying for (I have reciepts) and downloading karaoke tracks from a Canadian company before I knew that karaoke downloads are illegal in the USA. I have since stopped.

The Sound Choice/Australia issue is just more proof of how messed up the karaoke track industry is.

There are three songs in my karaoke collection that I made myself. I do have non-karaoke versions of these songs that I paid for so I have the rights to use them, I think. If karaoke versions were available, I would have bought them.

With the present climent of the karaoke track business being so cloudy, how can any karaoke host be 100% squeeky clean?

I believe that any company or person that sells thousands of karaoke tracks on a hard drive for a few hundred dollars should be arrested and thrown in jail like any other ciminal for they are obviously breaking the law. If you are not paying at least $1 a track, you are buying pirated material. So how do we get these folks in front of an entity that will enforce this? Is it worth creating the "Karaoke Police" when we have so many other long time social issues that are unresolved?

Until the climate of the karaoke track business clears up, all a karaoke host can do is be as legal as humanly possible, stand for what is right and work hard to put on an entertaining show that is one step above the rest, IMHO. Hoster helps us do this which is why I donate me time to be a beta tester.

Jim

This is today's Valdosta Daily Times front page aritcle. I am so honored to see that entertainers can have an impact on their community.

http://www.valdostadailytimes.com/lo...238233354.html

hang in there Jim, my cousin too was diagnosed with it years ago, but now she's fine, had 4 kids after she was told about it and all the kid are grown up now.. she went through what you're going through now..positive thinking will get you through all these....

[billyo]

Originally Posted by muzicman144

I would like to add this in regard to Sound Choice and the KIAA. Sound Choice moved part of their operation to Australia. When asked why they opened a branch in Australia, when the only difference was there was is 4000 more songs in the Australian SC library than there was in the US library. The SC director of operations replied, "4000 songs". Seems SC cannot get licensed in the USA to reproduce these 4000 songs, but under Australian law they can. The point of this is if SC sold these songs in the US, they would be guilty of piracy, but find no fault in selling these songs legally from Australia to american KJs, who then can be arrested for piracy for using, by american law, and illegal song file, bought legally from another country, piracy knowingly created by SC. No matter how a KJ got one on these files, they would be illegal by KIAA and USA standards. I feel SC blatantly skirted paying copy right fees on these songs by getting a license to sell these same files from Australia. If this isn't a form of piracy, then there is no such thing.
And these are the folks pushing KIAA to pursue piracy, when they have circumvented the US copyright laws for their own form of Piracy
Yes, Dale, I agree with your statement, but this thread is supposed to be about the KIAA and their method of operations. Its ironic that Sound Choice can sell a song file from another country, knowing its illegal in the USA, violating the very laws they are pushing the KIAA to enforce that can result in a KJ being arrested and fined for a illegal downloaded song sold by SC. Let's see, a USA fine per song for illegal copyright violation is around $15,000.00 per song, totaling a whopping $60 million in fines Sound Choice would face for selling these 4000 song files in the USA. Now do you combat piracy by aiding a company that is guilty of piracy themselves. That is the question here.
Muzicman144

i agree with you, it's like buying a cuban cigar, you can't buy it in USA, but you can get it from another country, but still if they ( gov't ) found out that you're smoking it in the USA you'll get arrested..SC ( KIAA )doesn't care where you got it from, as long as they can get their money, they don't care where, when, how you and i use it....about these 4000 songs, do they have a list of the songs? and so if we have some of the songs on that 4000 that they could not get a license in the US, does that mean we are all illegal kj's?