I remember an instance a few years ago when some AFRS discs were being sold on ebay. They were pulled, as recall, by request of the government? yet, in recent years I have seen them being sold online again. I believe we all know the legal status of these discs…and thankfully not all of them were destroyed. Happily, as is well known, dealers have been and continue to sell them through their mailing lists. While I don't cruise ebay much, I haven't encountered any reel to reels of broadcasts…no doubt there is some out there.
I have also encountered record dealers selling reel to reel tapes and cassettes of broadcasts via their mailing lists. I know of no instance when either the seller or buyer had any trouble. I would assume we all would agree that the practice is not legal.
Then there is the collector, Mr. Skeene (sp?) who had many recordings of the NBC archives. He started his "Eyewitness" Record label. He made one offs, on demand, of items from that collection. He sold them on ebay. As far as I know, he flew "under the radar."
With the amount of broadcast recordings being shared freely on lists like symphonyshare and concertarchive, I would assume the only market would be for items that are indeed rare…got any BSO from the 50s or any live Cincinnati or other orchestras?
If I felt that there would be much of a market for such things, I wouldn't have dumped several thousand of broadcast tapes that were given to me… is there anyone out there who would have wanted Maazel doing Beethoven?
You speak of the company (ebay?) not being aware of the practices outlined in your note. I would guess they are not aware of the legal status of much of what they allow to be sold.
A friend of mine recently sent me some dubs of a few So-A-Tone discs. One could think of these like one would think of the Masterworks from France series. I could not imagine anyone at ebay having the foggiest notion of what these things were.
Just my non-legal professional response…go for it.
Karl
On Sunday, October 26, 2014 10:45 AM, Steve Smolian <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Reel-to-reel tapes fitting the descriptions below are sold regularly on Ebay by U.S. sellers. Some are recorded in the U.S., some not.
Commercial recordings
Record company protection copies of released LPs, thousands, by a few dealers, for at least the past 5 years
Copies made from commercially recorded tape masters of music by recording engineers and others for their own collctions.
Radio
Tapes made at live concerts. Some were broadcast, some not.
Dubs to tape of records, presumably for airplay, some with announcer commentary
Tapes sent to radio stations for broadcast by syndicators
Tapes made off-the-air by private collectors of classical music
So.
I have found no Ebay policy statement regarding these issues. Given the selling price, quantity and length of time tapes fitting the above descriptions have been sold through them, there is no way the company could not have been aware of this activity.
What is the legal vulnerability of sellers to such sales? What is legal according to the first sale doctrine?
When responding pleased do not include comments about what would be nice if only things were different.
Steve Smolian
|