Well said!
Malcolm

*******

On 3/23/2011 5:09 AM, Tom Fine wrote:
> Just to be clear, I didn't comment on the law, I commented on the
> defacto practice in the marketplace today. Take a look at the numerous
> US-based companies who reissue "golden era" classical titles on CDR
> media, generally "mastered" from old duped tapes or LPs. The
> megaglomerates are very well aware that they exist, but choose not to
> go after them. That's the defacto way of things. In many cases, the
> niche market is too small to justify the lawyers. Plus, if a
> megaglomerate risked the bad publicity and spent the money shutting
> down some little guy who is publishing what the megaglomerate themself
> lock in their vault and refuse to put in print, they still have the
> issue of the likes of Naxos, the Spanish jazz reissuers and numerous
> other companies operating in places with lighter-than-US copyright
> laws and selling the same material all over the world (although,
> technically, not in the US, but this is easily bypassed as well if
> someone really wants to listen to the material -- in fact the Spanish
> jazz CDs are sold on Amazon).
>
> As in most cases, the defacto "street law" is very different from the
> dejure "book law." But, the fact is, for anyone based in the US, you
> are at risk when you do this because the copyright owner has the very
> heavy weight of the law on his side. Again, in the defacto world, if
> you're not mining a pot of gold, for instance putting something on
> YouTube (which has a policy of taking down anything they get copyright
> complaints about), it's generally not worth the owner's time to pay
> someone to bring the hammer down on you. The hammer is probably more
> likely to drop if you are profiting from the copyright violation, but
> see the paragraph above.
>
> Finally, again just to be clear, I'm not endorsing these companies
> that violate US copyright laws, especially in regard to recordings
> made in America by Americans. We have laws here and they need to be
> changed, but for now they are the laws. The laws right now dis-serve
> the American people because they put the full weight of legitimacy and
> enforcement behind those who would deny access and keep things locked
> in vaults rather than those who would serve the market and the culture
> by keeping recordings in print.
>
> -- Tom Fine
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bob Olhsson" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 10:10 AM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Thank You for responses to Unpublished Sound
> Recordings query
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From Tom Fine: "The way I've noticed that this works in the actual
>> marketplace today is that people put stuff out, either for download
>> or sales
>> as CD's. They have a website. If they get a lawyer letter, the material
>> comes down and I assume that in some cases, the people who hired the
>> lawyer
>> get paid some small damages... "
>>
>> It is a crime to make a copy of anything outside the public domain
>> without
>> permission unless there is a specific legal exemption such as
>> personal use
>> copies of commercially released music recordings.
>>
>> This risk is a lot like the sampling issue in hip hop. If you remain
>> under
>> the radar you probably won't get caught or face more than a slap on the
>> wrist. On the other hand, something going viral on the web could
>> force you
>> into bankruptcy because the copyright owner has the right to charge you
>> anything they like for each copy that got distributed and it would be
>> very
>> hard to argue that you weren't the only source of an unpublished
>> recording.
>> There are also criminal penalties and, in the case of unpublished works,
>> invasion of privacy issues.
>>
>> Bob Olhsson Audio Mastery, Nashville TN
>> Mastering, Audio for Picture, Mix Evaluation and Quality Control
>> Over 40 years making people sound better than they ever imagined!
>> 615.562.4346 http://www.bobolhsson.com http://audiomastery.com
>>
>