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  #1  
Old October 11th, 2001, 06:34 PM
Oppjd Oppjd is offline
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MediaCloq

I recently purchased a CDG from Sound Choice and could not play it with Microstudio. Apparently they put something on the Disk to prevents PC's from reading the Disk. They call this MediaCloq. If this becomes common in the future we will not be able to play or copy our CDG's with a computer.

Does anyone know more about MediaCloq.....
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  #2  
Old October 12th, 2001, 08:50 AM
George George is offline
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Oppjd...scroll down in this forum to a thread titled "copying cdg's"
posted by Vlester on 9/30

Take care

George
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  #3  
Old October 13th, 2001, 07:41 PM
admin admin is offline
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It is clear that Sound Choice has every intent to prevent any copying of their songs. I am sorry they are taking this approach as I believe the damage to their reputation will be far worse than the lost income they "believe" they have from piracy.

Post in their Forum and every other Forum how displeased you are. There is little we can do to make their discs play. They will have to take their marbles and go home if they keep this up much longer. Not many singers or hosts I have spoken with are willing to tolerate this insult much longer. In fact, there are several who are considering a class action law suit against Sound Choice. I hope they wake up before it has to happen. If not, the Karaoke CDG industry will be missing a major producer soon.

My suggestion to you... buy Sound Choice CDG discs as your last resort. The quality of their manufacturing also is intentionally so poor that if you use the discs at all in a show, they will be damaged in short-order. They then force you to pay MORE than you paid originally for them to replace your now useless disc.
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  #4  
Old October 14th, 2001, 07:25 AM
Doubletrak Doubletrak is offline
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Interesting comments, Admin. I wonder if your last paragraph could be interpreted as libel. Not sure why you would accuse a company that's been around for 15 years of intentionally manufacturing a product poorly in order to make customers buy the same product again. Personally, I've had several Sound Choice discs for over 4 years, and never had a problem.

On the Mediacloq thing, I've had the opposite experience. Sure, I'd like to be able to back my discs up, but the KJs I've spoken to are happy that at least their competition now has to buy their own discs instead of stealing them and operating a competing business for next to no overhead.

Anyway, legally you're not allowed to use the backup disc in any kind of commercial or professional use or environment. If you do, you're breaking the law, and stealing from Sound Choice, the songwriter and the publishing company. So, wow - everyone can have their own personal backup library that I'm sure they never use for illegal purposes. If you really believe that this is what your product is being used for, you're either very naive, or very willing to ignore reality.

PS - Did you know that you can download Microstudio from Internet sites at no cost? Serialized copies of your product, by the way. Now how does that make you guys feel? Well, now you know how Sound Choice, Sony, EMI, Warners, Metallica, Dr. Dre, etc feel.
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  #5  
Old October 14th, 2001, 08:54 AM
George George is offline
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Doubletrack
Let's not start catagorizing everyone who uses cdg copy matrial.
Over the last three yesrs I've purchased quite an expensive library of cdg's. I am not a kdj, do not engage in commercial enterprises of any kind(where karaoke is concerned), nor put on public demonstrations of any kind. I belong to a small(seven member) group of wannabee singers who simply enjoy getting together 3-4 times a year and spending an evening singing. This necessitates carrying discs out of the home(we rotate locations), and yes, I do want my library backed up and yes, I do it for personal use and no, I doubt I'm unique.

I started avoiding SoundChoice months ago and purchase them only as a last resort.This based upon a close look at their marketing strategy as compared to many others. SC rarely ever puts more than 3-4 songs on one cd that I ever heard of, or puts out much of anything with the entire cd devoted to a single artist's popular hits. Could it be perhaps to maximize their sales at our expense? One can't help but wonder.

Regarding quality, it's well known that Mitsui puts an extra coating on their cd's for added protection. I do not see any reference to using this type of material on any SC products, and I think it's a safe assumption to believe that if they did, they would well advertise it on their jackets.

How about putting the scatter gun away regarding other sites where MTU products are available and backing up (no pun intended)the claim by giving us the specific site addresses? Since
you posture yourself on the side of the manufacturer wouldn't this be fair? MTU is a manufacturer being abused, are they not?

Also, not being much of a sea lawyer I'd still guess that there is no libel justification in anything that's being said here on the forum, as SC would be hard pressed to prove damages, which I believe must be proven to support libel claims.

Anyway that's my 2cents worth..

Take care

George

Last edited by George; October 14th, 2001 at 08:57 PM.
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  #6  
Old October 14th, 2001, 11:39 PM
Doubletrak Doubletrak is offline
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Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that everyone who copies a disc is a criminal or has criminal intent. But, just like the present political situation, the criminal aspect of it certainly happens way too much, and it's time that something was done about it.

Not sure about damages and libel. I never do remember the legal difference between libel and slander. Either way, law is an interpretation. My point is, it ain't very smart to be the representative of a company and publicly rag other companies on your own website. Slander, libel, either way, it's risky aside from unprofessional.

As far as where on the Internet, what's your point? You seem to be on the side of being able to copy other people's property. My point would be that since you seem to advocate it when it suits your own purposes - as does MTU - then you have to allow it for everyone, don't you? The site is the same general area of the Internet where you can trade lots of things that don't belong to you. Games files, copy program files, MTU files, Karaoke files, standard music files, Windows files, pretty much anything digital that anyone asks for.

As far as Sound Choice, either you're not very tuned in to Pop music, or you're not very tuned in to Sound Choice. They have a whole line of discs that is virtually nothing BUT single artists - it's called the called Star Series. Matchbox 20, Metallica (2 volumes), Steve Miller, Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac, AC/DC, KISS, Patsy Cline, Bette Midler, Dwight Yoakam, Toby Keith, Alan Jackson, David Alan Coe, Cars, Huey Lewis, Prince, Blondie, Garbage/No Doubt, Van Halen, Roy Orbison, Halloween discs, Contemporary Christian discs, hundreds, way to many to remember.

For their current releases, they release the same songs as ALL the manufacturers. Same country songs as Chartbusters and Star, same pop songs as Maestro and the monthlies. One difference is that they seem to do all that, as well as all the specialty discs like Headbangers and Silly Songs. But, to each his own.

On Spotlight discs, just in the past two months they have released Van Halen vs Aerosmith, KISS vs. AC/DC, Prince, George Strait, Huey Lewis and the News, Funk classics like James Brown, EWF, Commodores, War, Cameo - ever heard of any of them? Not to criticize, George, I mean you brought it up. But I would have to guess that you're not really aware of popular music, or you just don't care about Sound Choice. Either one or both is fine. But you might want to get your facts straight before you put them out there as true. Just my .02 cents. Thanks.

Last edited by Doubletrak; October 14th, 2001 at 11:52 PM.
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  #7  
Old October 15th, 2001, 09:07 AM
George George is offline
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Yes, I see nothing wrong with copying material WITHIN THE FRAME WORK OF THE LAW, and resent your innuendo that I support copyright infringement. I didn't adopt this posture of my own volition. There never has been any controversy to this extent, at least that I've seen personally , over copying cassette tapes for personal use, which leaves me hard pressed to make the distinction.

Regarding my awareness of popular music, that's an individual taste situation, and I can see we differ tremendously. Of all the names you listed, I saw only four that I'd bother to walk across the street to listen to. Now don't jump to conclusions, because Blondie is one of those four. My tastes are quite varied. I dare say that if I took the time to list all my favorites, you may only come up with four that would interest you, so, don't get judgemental. That's why they have chocolate and vanilla ice cream. My comments regarding SoundChoice in that area are based on the observation that of the tons of material they have,
there's relatively little that interests me, and it's scattered. Your percptions are different, especially if you're a KDJ as your library would of necessity reflect the tastes of your audience, not necessarily your own. I respect yours, so don't belittle mine.I know my collection isn't as large as some, but out of 142 cdg's in my library, only 19 are SC, and not because of anything other than finding what I want, not the brand, so I just quit looking at them, at least untill many more releases came out. That's changed now though, and I won't look at them at all. I will not buy anything I can't back up. I've already emailed them to that effect.

Regarding the internet addresses my point was this. Not knowing you, I was unsure as to whether you were basing your comment on fact or just tossing something out there to get to MTU, so I'm asking you to back up your statement with fact. That's all.


Take care,

George

Last edited by George; October 15th, 2001 at 09:57 AM.
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  #8  
Old October 15th, 2001, 02:54 PM
Sing1993 Sing1993 is offline
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Sound Choice Copying & Quality

Okay, now...let me put in my 2 cents worth to this topic. I do use Sound Choice disks in shows and such. I make a good living at doing this and have for a few years now. I have about 90% Sound Choice disks. For the first two to three years of my busniess, I have loved Sound Choice disks, praised them and recommended to all my customers that they go to the Sound Choice site or those sites that sell Sound Choice. I think the (Sound) quality of Sound Choice is absolutely wonderful. Up until about three years ago, I never had a problem with Sound Choice or their disks.

Now, let me tell you were my problems began. I am now a very disappointed customer of Sound Choice. Most of it is the customer Service that I've received from them since my problems began...but the disks have become a real problem. Since the very beginning until now, I have purchased more than 1000 Sound Choice CDG's. I keep up with all the current disks when they come out...I am aware of all the difference catalog titles...Star, Spotlight, etc. I've spent more than 20 to 25 thousand dollars on these disks.

Why am I giving so much of this imformation? Because I want to show just how much money I've put into building a SOUND CHOICE business and just how I've been treated or repaid for it, I should say. When I originally began, I kept all my disks, in the hard cases (Case Logic) that hold 60 CDG's apiece. As the years went by and my business grew, I got to three cases, then four...when I got to five, there was no longer any room on my tables to put the disks, so I had to change to the (Case Logic) softer cases...the ones that hold 200 to 250 CDG's at once.

I noticed that after a few months of using these cases, the paint started coming off of the front of the CDG's. Now, keep in mind that I have always taken very good care of my CDG's...all I do is slide them out of the case to play and then slide them right back in. Well, as we know, on the back of this paint is a refective material that bounces the signal back off the disk and into the laser eye of the CDG player. Well, without getting too technical, when the paint comes off, the CDG is utterly useless to play.

I began to notice this happening to hundreds of my disks over the next few months. And I even noticed it happening to ones that I would just by a week or two previous. Practically new disks (I have three right now not even two weeks old!!!).

When I conctaced Sound Choice of this problem, they informed me that NO ONE else had ever complained of this phenomina. I was apparently the only one. Didn't I feel priviledged to be one of a kind. Anyway, when I explained to the Sound Choice representative just how many disks that I had doing this and explained to him that I swithed from the hard cases to the soft because of the amount I of disks that I have, he told me....these were almost his exact words...don't use the soft cases anymore. "Really?" I replied. Well, what exactly was I supposed to do? Get 20 of the hard cases? I might as well sit my equipment on the floor with that many.

Then I said...so your telling me that I can't use a case that is supposed to be made for carrying CDG's because your product is too cheap to withstand it? Then he told me that it was just simply wear of the disks. To which I said...really? On a disk that's just a month old? Interesting. Then he told me nothing could be done. They would send me another disk at full price plus shipping. Except on the newer ones...they'd only charge me $5 for those plus the shipping. Wow? Another $10 for a disk that I just bought a couple of weeks ago? Wasn't this shaping up very nicely?

I then went back to check several dosen of my other disks...DK, music maestro, Backstage...ones that have been in my collection since the beginning and some that are played a lot more than some of the sound choice disks that are damaged. So, tell me...if it's wear on the disks, how come all these other disks...that his paint problems has NEVER happened to, seem to be fine?

I have spent a lot of money on these sound choice CDGs to have to just throw them away because they won't play anymore...and since Sound Choice apparently says that I'm one of a kind...I guess I just must not take care of my disks very well.

What am I saying in a nutshell? That I may be one of those people taking out a class action lawsuit against sound choice for their cheap products. I encourage anyone else out there with similar problems to let me know...I am tired of putting up with these disks doing this and nothing being done about it. I'm tired of throwing away money. Arent' you?

Last edited by admin; March 10th, 2005 at 03:32 AM.
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  #9  
Old October 15th, 2001, 03:52 PM
George George is offline
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Sing1993
Thanks for passing this on. I carry my discs to our small get togethers in the 200 dics softcases you use. I never take the originals, they stay at home in my jukebox type player. I always carry the back ups. I'd really be ticked if I'd bought one and couldn't even play it on my pc, which I understand is the case.
Anyway thanks for reaffirming my posture. I simply will not buy a dics that I cannot back up, and I let SC know it at their website. I hope more people do. Also thanks for supporting admin's contention that SC discs are manufactured poorly. The guys at MTU can usually be relied on to know what's going on in their own industry. Like I said in my first post, if SC were using the same quality discs as Mitsui they's sure let us know it on their labels. Thanks again.

Take care,

George

P.S. as an afterthought, wouldn't it be practical to salvage the rest of your library by applying your own labels on to them? Neato is as easy to use as any. I've used them regularly without any adverse effects. Should protect the painted surfaceJust a thought

Last edited by George; October 15th, 2001 at 05:41 PM.
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  #10  
Old October 15th, 2001, 05:52 PM
Brian Corr Brian Corr is offline
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So far the best anti-copy (not piracy) method I have came across is from Chartbuster. I bought the REM 6+6 disc. At the bottom corner of the rear cover is a small notice saying

100% GUARANTEED if for any reason CD+G is damaged,scratched or broken. Please return it for a direct replacement and only pay for Shipping & Handling

If more companies would do this less people would feel the need to back up. Theft is the only thing not covered.

I back my discs up because the price of the discs here in the UK is of rip-off proportions. I would hate anything to happen to my discs then have to fork out all that money again for something you already had.

PS. Tip to all UK folk looking for cheap discs. Use eBay. Put CDG in the search field and select the Items available to the UK dot. Many a bargain to be had.
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  #11  
Old October 15th, 2001, 08:06 PM
danny_g danny_g is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by George
Sing1993
Thanks for passing this on. I carry my discs to our small get togethers in the 200 dics softcases you use. I never take the originals, they stay at home in my jukebox type player. I always carry the back ups. I'd really be ticked if I'd bought one and couldn't even play it on my pc, which I understand is the case.
Anyway thanks for reaffirming my posture. I simply will not buy a dics that I cannot back up, and I let SC know it at their website. I hope more people do. Also thanks for supporting admin's contention that SC discs are manufactured poorly. The guys at MTU can usually be relied on to know what's going on in their own industry. Like I said in my first post, if SC were using the same quality discs as Mitsui they's sure let us know it on their labels. Thanks again.

Take care,

George

P.S. as an afterthought, wouldn't it be practical to salvage the rest of your library by applying your own labels on to them? Neato is as easy to use as any. I've used them regularly without any adverse effects. Should protect the painted surfaceJust a thought

George be careful not to get your labels wet. I had a friend of mine show me what happens if they get wet- they totally come apart on contact with water.
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  #12  
Old October 15th, 2001, 08:55 PM
Sing1993 Sing1993 is offline
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Sound Choice CDG's & Labels

Thanks George...I have thought about it myself and have also had the suggestion from a couple of other people. There are two reasons why I don't that...first of all, the cost of the fellowes labels and the cost of the printer ink. The labels come like 40 to a pack and the pack is like $15.00 for a pack. When you multiply all this by the thousand CDG's that I have, it gets pretty expensive. I mean, why doesn't sound choice just make them right the first time so that we don't have to spend more money after spending a fortune of their disks. It stands to reason that if I spend like $150 to $200 every couple of weeks to buy all the new releases, then I shouldn't have to turn around and spend another $50 to $100 to put labels on them. They should work the first time. And the second reason is because with all the crap Sound Choice is causing about piracy and how hosts are thieves (although this host seems to be the one getting the shaft right now), then I want to make sure I do have my original CDG's in case they ever do decide to come around here causing a big stink. If I put the labels on them, they'll look like copies. Granted I can pull out all my receipts for the past few years and show them...but will all the crap they're pulling, they'd find some way to say I forged them...so, it's best to just keep the originals as is, sue them for not replacing my damaged ones and maybe get some money restitution since they don't seem to want to replace my disks. And I am NOT spending the money to replace them again...I will not. But, thanks for the suggestion...
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  #13  
Old October 15th, 2001, 09:48 PM
Sing1993 Sing1993 is offline
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Sound Choice

Well, I think I should be a little more clear about my last message I posted. I don't blame sound choice for being angry about all the piracy of their disks going on. As a karaoke host I don't think it's fair for me to pay 25,000 on CDG's and then someone else comes along and gets copies at half the price. That's not right for anyone trying to run a legitimate business. I have a problem with the fact that Sound Choice comes down so hard on the piracy but doesn't try hard to take care of it's loyal customers...and right now, with all the stuff that's being stirred up with the piracy problems they have, they need all the support from loya customers as they can get...or else they will end up going under. I would hate to see this happen to Sound Choice...because they do make some of the best (Sound) quality cdg's around. But they really do need to start taking time to coat these CDG's in some way to keep the paint from coming off the them. But, because I have so many messed up, I'm really upset that they won't do something about it. Companies should take care of their customers.
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  #14  
Old October 16th, 2001, 09:02 AM
George George is offline
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DANNY_G..thanks for the tip, will take care to "keep my powder dry"

SING1993.. from what Danny says it looks like you'd have no problem soaking the labels off to prove what's underneath. You wouldn't be labeling your damaged goods anyway.Can't help but wonder what financial losses you'll incure as your inventory becomes increasingly useless or replacing them with other brands to protect your income as compared to the cost of labels. Dunno, just brainstorming.

Also think SoundChoice might be stepping over the dollars to pick up the nickels. I'd guess that the potential market loss resulting from their posture could easily outweigh their loss due to piracy.
How many more individual users are there out there as compared to professionals ? That's how many more customers they stand to drive away, even from people who have no interest in backing up. We have an excellent example right here. If it were not for their copy protection move, this thread never would have started, and you never would have shared your horror tale here. Now how many people will see what's happening to you, realize the same can happen to them, and quit buying the product, and you're just one guy with one horror tale. There are three people in my small group that use softcases to carry their cd's in. Rest assured they will get the word, and quit buying SC. How many others will react the same, and as a result of this one thread? Now expand that throught the civilized world and what have you got, compared to professional piracy?

Enough for now

Take care

George

Last edited by George; October 16th, 2001 at 09:07 AM.
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  #15  
Old October 16th, 2001, 12:19 PM
Sing1993 Sing1993 is offline
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Sound Choice

That is absolutely what I hope to accomplish! If Sound Choice won't take care of their loyal customers, they don't deserve to stay in business! I'm not really the only one out here with a horror story, I've got friends that do DJing around here too. Granted they don't have the amount of disks, that I do...but they do have SC disks that are doing the very same thing...i know because I checked them. You can always tell because when you look at the back of the disk (where the music tracks are burned) you can see what looks like a deteriation inside the tracks. I thought they were just deteriorating when I first started seeing it...not really sure what it was. Then, the more I investigated, I found out it it was actually just the paint on the other side of the disk, rubbing off! And when that happens, the disk just won't play. The only thing that has really saved Sound Choice from a lawsuit before was my ability to back the disks up. I had made the back-up set...so when one of them started deteriorating, I'd just replace it with the back-up and be okay. Of course, now that SC has made their disk uncopyable, looks like I've run into a real problem...when the disks mess up, I won't have one to replace it. As as far as the labels go, I still may try it. My problem is just that I don't feel I should have too. The disks should be made right the first time without me having to spend more money to do this. Having to spend the extra money is what makes me mad. If I'm gonna have to spend extra money to make my disks work, then SC should have to pay for it. You know how expensive the labels and printer cartridges can be! Another 4 or 5 hundred easily...probably more to cover all my disks. But I may have to resort to this, Unfortunately. And Sound Choice is really making a mistake with this anti-piracy thing. I mean, If I could have just been able to continue making my back-ups that worked fine, even with the original messed up, I wouldn't even be on here...like you said. I'd would have kept buying the disks, and stayed out of SC's hair...now I intend to mess it up...LOL
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  #16  
Old October 16th, 2001, 12:31 PM
George George is offline
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Gotcha..didn't realize you were already backed up was why I kept nudging in the direction of labels.

Take care
George
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  #17  
Old November 5th, 2001, 07:39 PM
cccolvin cccolvin is offline
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Sound Choice & Copy Protection

I too have mostly Sound Choice CD's (about 500). I have had about 1% failure rate per year, in 3 years. Normal use of the CD will damage it after a few hundred uses. I do expect the CD's to start failing much more in the future. Three out of four of my CD's are over 2 years old. I see dropped characters on quite a few songs. Soon after, skips start and then they become useless. It couldn't hurt them that bad to replace it. It would be nice if they guaranteed them for life.

The copy protection stops me from more than just backing it up. I use the program right now to rehearse new songs on my PC. It is so much easier to boot up than to set up my business rig at home. I want to use the Microstudio program to make my shows better and less work for me, not so I can copy CD's. But it is critical to be able to read the CD to put it on the hard drive. This protects the song from skipping or dropping characters as well as time and effort of loading CD's. Also, you look more professional if you don't have skips, etc. I pride myself on being the best sounding, if not the hardest working KJ in my 4 county area. If I can't use their CD's with the program, I will not buy any more CD's from Sound Choice. If they can't see the potential of what Microstudio has started, they will be left behind like Beta video.

I hope to see Karaoke develop into a much greater visual multimedia presentaion. Computers allow much more power for the KJ than someone just playing CD's. Wake Up! It's boring! Shows will be good because they are exciting visually as well as to the ear. Microstudio (Hoster) allows this to be possible.

Last edited by cccolvin; November 7th, 2001 at 05:29 PM.
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  #18  
Old November 22nd, 2001, 06:59 AM
admin admin is offline
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Any product can be used for illegal purposes. A knife that cuts cheese, can be used to kill your wife or children. Your car becomes a lethal weapon in a split second of road-rage. Life giving water can easily drown a young child in the bathtub. What makes a person use anything for illegal purposes? What is illegal in one country often is the accepted norm in other countries around the world. Just look at how Osama Bin Laden is revered in the Arab states for his murdering USA citizens.
There are a number of reasons why we justified our development of Microstudio. Some I can immediately think of are:
  • It is legal to make a backup of legally purchased products. What other industry in the USA other than Karaoke tries to tell you it is illegal to protect your purchased Assets?
  • Karaoke producers discontinue production of their discs, making it impossible to buy replacements. We have two clients with over 2,000 legally purchased discs, with 2/3rds no longer available for replacment.
  • Singers buy a karaoke disc usually for one song on it. If they have 100 songs they sing, they have 100 discs to take with them, and get stolen while they are singing on stage (I have heard many first-hand stories of this happening). Hosts are at constant risk of having their livelyhood terminated if their discs are stolen. Insurance companies are notoriously slow on paying for replacements, and many won't at all. I know of one instance where a Host was murdered when he refused to give up his discs to a mugger. Do you think he would be alive today if he had a backup copy that he could use to meet his contracted performances the next night? What does his wife and children do now?
  • One producer charges $50 for replacement discs, even for new discs that have no audio on them that should be replaced for free. I have heard this fact many times from clients who purchased them and then had to pay for replacements within the same month.
  • Singers want to play their songs on their computer to practice before singing on stage.
  • If you don't have a backup disc and you scratch your master, your show is down until you receive a replacement disc.
  • Countries outside the USA have no copy protection laws.
We refuse to sell Microstudio to anyone who has identified they intend to use it for illegal reasons. Our license clearly states conditions where we can revoke your license to use Microstudio.

There are many clients who are legally using Microstudio to protect their investment. Copyright law gives you the right to protect your Asset investment. It also is to protect the rights of musicians, songwriters, publishers, and producers. The misuse of any product for illegal purposes hurts the industry. Napster is a perfect example. Tell me why RIA didn't sue Naptster and MP3.com and others out of existence immediately if they are worried about this problem?

About your question Doubletrack, how do you think we feel about our software being ripped off?

We have actively persued every person we find stealing and distributing our product, just as Sound Choice does. However, we don't prevent you from making a backup of your legal copy of Microstudio.

The first day back at work after a 5-week bout with Pneumonia, a UK client reported a website with a free download of KHProducer. Before I went home at 1AM that site was off the Internet.

If anyone is concerned about illegal use of products, why don't you push for your local school board to adopt and teach ethics courses at your local elementary schools to teach kids that making copies of songs and giving them to others is illegal in our society. That way, future generations will not be faced with the problem we have in American society today.

Brian Coor is absolutely correct. The best protection for a Karaoke producer is to offer a reasonably priced solultion to a scratched or broken disc.

As to my statements, facts substantiate our claims. If Sound Choice doesn't change directions soon, you can expect to see a Class Action law suit started against them. I know of two right now who are ready to spearhead it.

Our Hoster Program will allow copying your songs to a computer hard drive with WMA compression. I could easily support MP3+G like Tyrannosoft and others do, that encourage and enable theft, but we are spending the extra engineering time to recombine the RW graphics/lyrics bytes back into the audio so it is still identified as from the manufacturer. Hoster has a Start Show button. Once this is clicked, the Import Tracks operation will not function. Why you might wonder? Because we are actively discouraging a host from taking a singer's disc and importing tracks to the hard drive... that is theft. However, it is time consuming for us to do what we are; providing the ability to enter songs into the Play List that are located on CDG discs (not on the hard drive), or VCD or DVD discs. But that is what the Host requires to run a public show... legally. So we do it. Our focus - every minute - every day - year in and year out - is forcing legal use of the products we develop.

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!

As George and other have pointed out, any company who refuses to take care of their clients deserves to go out of business. As we sell our products like Karaoke Pro and Karaoke Home Producer, that empower users and hosts to make their own songs, that will further damage the monopoly that some companies have enjoyed. I can't tell you how much I thought about what our products would potentionally do to the industry. However, companies like Chartbusters and Stellar Records who turn out a quality product and protect their clients, will always be around providing their products and services. I work very hard every day to insure that MTU will also.

Lord willing, we will unveil a MASSIVE upgrade in our support, customer contact, eCommerce store and delivering our software by the end of November. You can see first hints of this at our development news page. We are very excited about being able to give our clients better service and lower our costs. This will allow us to provide free upgrades to our clients. No, major upgrades will still carry our small $15 charge. Hey, when I can afford to drive a newer used car than my 1992, I'll give our clients the upgrades. Until then... help us pay for the good engineering we give you.

QED
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Old November 23rd, 2001, 03:59 PM
Doubletrak Doubletrak is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2001
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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?

Last edited by Doubletrak; December 2nd, 2001 at 09:56 AM.
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