Karaoke Forums

Funny or not, I also take offense to your remarks. Just like how PEP claims that when a KJ uses Sound Choice music and the people sees the Sound Choice logo, they assume the KJ is associated with Sound Choice, your remarks can be construed in the same manner. It looks like you are saying that the Lone Ranger beats his wife. Counselor, you need to watch what you say in public. I normally just watch the bantering you do on a daily basis, but this is stepping over the line.

Now you can feel what PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP goes through every day since his election and inauguration.

Kind of stepped in his own poo.....

Oops....

I didn't think the questions were smug, they were based on facts that are well known. I think there are a bunch of questions about this legal process of PEP's. I would hope that PEP would be reviewing the mistakes of the past and not repeating them. We won't know though until there are more suits brought, if they ever are? It seems that PEP is using the threat of suits to make sales, which is in keeping with their business model. I would be upset if it were true I had beaten my wife. I know the reason that Jim is upset is because SC has been beating up on hosts for years, and is upset if PEP is called on it.

Then you don't know the definition of "smug."

So, let's analyze:



First of all, I didn't say "I can't speak for APS" (although that's certainly true). I said, "I can't speak to what APS might have been doing (in Arizona and elsewhere) years ago, but they've been out of the picture for a long time." That was specifically in reference to a comment that Paradigm had made regarding tactics that he believes investigators used years ago.

We have never denied that APS was hired to coordinate litigation, including both investigations and interfacing with attorneys. What you don't seem to understand is that despite having been given clear instructions on protocols, they declined to follow those protocols; they made secret deals with defendants and kept the money; they hired attorneys and investigators then declined to pay them once services had been rendered. When it became clear that they weren't going to change their ways (and couldn't come up with the money they had collected), they were fired. On the way out the door, they caused as much damage as possible. We did everything we could to make whole the people who had been damaged by their malice. In other words, we took responsibility for their actions even though they went rogue.

And, by the way, they were fired more than 5 years ago. So, why is it that you keep bringing them up, if not to try to tarnish the work that we're doing--which, by the way, has come off without incident since then?



It was hired for that purpose, although they were supposed to be acting under Kurt directions. They didn't, and they hid a lot of their activities from Kurt. (I was not directly in the picture at that point.) But, as I have previously (and repeatedly) indicated, SC took responsibility for their actions and made whole the people they had harmed--attorneys and investigators who went unpaid.



It's uncollectible. APS's principal lost his house and car and apparently his business. You can't get blood from a turnip.



He threw out those cases because the attorney that was representing us, Donna Boris, decided to disappear and blew a major deadline. It had nothing to do with the merits of the case.



I don't know what this means. PEP is not a person. It has to contract with actual people to do investigations and file lawsuits.



And here's where the smugness creeps in again.

Investigating this kind of conduct requires a particular set of skills. You have to understand how karaoke works. You have to be able to sing credibly. You have to be willing to go into unfamiliar situations and be cool. You have to be able to work without being identified as an investigator. You have to be credible as a witness. Any deficiency in those skill sets and we don't hire you. We pay very well for this work, but finding people who meet our requirements is difficult.



There are plenty of attorneys who are willing to work on contingent fee arrangements. Again, we require a particular set of skills--you need to be a litigator (most attorneys aren't), you need to have knowledge of intellectual property law or be able to pick it up quickly, you need to be reliable. The intersection of those skills and willingness to work on contingent fee is fairly small.



There's a word for that--it's called "theft."



No, actually, I'm not. Kurt does a fine job of supervising our litigation operation. My role in the company is plenary with regard to legal matters; I handle a small amount of the anti-piracy litigation (including some primary cases and almost all of the appeals) and all the company's legal work outside of the anti-piracy litigation (contracts, non-litigation enforcement, IP solicitation, etc.). I'm also responsible for long-range operational planning and marketing. I am the general manager for Sound Choice Entertainment.



I post on this board because it is one of my responsibilities, not because I have "spare time." I am very comfortable with the investigative staff we have right now. They are all very well trained and have long-term experience doing this kind of work.



We "owned" it the last time--more than 5 years ago.

Jim, instead of going into a long narrative about you being butt hurt, why not just admit you said something that offended some people and swallow a bit of your pride and offer a small apology. That is the problem. You seem to believe that what you and your company are doing are the "right" thing to do, and the ONLY way to do it. Can't you see that there is an opposite side of the coin and see things from a second way of looking at the way you and your company operate.

I would think that you could hold yourself to a higher standard than to make rude and condescending comments, even when you are being baited into reacting or over reacting. That same thing should apply to the others as well. It takes two to argue you know.

I don't call laying all the blame on APS and saying that SC knew nothing about it as owning it, Jim, at least where I come from that is not owning up to mistakes. What is does demonstrate is mismanagement of a sub contractor, negligence in taking the proper steps to stop the agent in acting in your interests. The only time SC complained at all about APS is when they failed to turn over the money collected by them for SC. Just like you will not complain about any pirates as long as they pay you, the minute they stop or are caught by some other plaintiff, you will disavow all knowledge of their activities, just like you have done in the case of APS.

I suppose I could offer you a hollow apology for offending you by directing a rhetorical comment at someone else. The problem is, I'm just really not sorry. When I err, I do apologize.



I have no problem with listening to legitimate criticism of what I do, or of what my company is doing. It's just that Lone Ranger's long series of haranguing, offensive questions don't amount to legitimate criticism. The represent an effort on his part to damage our reputation by deliberately misquoting my words, taking statements out of context, and generally beating a dead horse. It's not constructive to the discussion in the slightest. So he doesn't get respect from me. Why would I respect someone who openly roots for pirates to get away with their piracy, regardless of the merits?



I suppose I could avoid being rude, but I'm a human being, and I get tired of being Mr. Nice Guy.

One thing you will never be accused of Jim is being nice, at least by me. You are the general manger in charge of sales and that is basically the responsibility you are fulfilling when you come on this forum. If I get confused with your statements it is because there seems to be contradictions as to what you are doing and how you go about getting it done. The questions about investigators and hiring local talent should really be answered by Kurt since he is in charge of that part of the business. While it is true that APS was over five years ago, also the last time SC produced in any new product is farther back in the past. You still insist that SC is a viable company so if you can make that case, I think I can also say APS is relevant, especially if the same type of abuse is possible with the current method of operation. You have to learn from the past in order to avoid the mistakes of the past. I don't feel that PEP has learned much they have just changed their target from the pirate host to the venue who hires them. If I'm beating a dead horse, then what are you doing? SC has been beating the same horse now for 8 years, and it isn't any closer to getting the horse back up than when it started. Maybe it is time to look for a new mount. I have never said I support pirates, I have successfully competed against them and won, which is more than I can say for you and Kurt.

OMG! Where to I begin? The CRAP-O-METER is pegged, the FIB-O-METER smokin' hot and newest dance is the "Victim-Twist."

However, if you read the lawsuit paperwork and exhibits, you'll find that APS threatened to expose that they in fact, had not performed investigations if they were not given an INCREASE in their percentage of the settlement money from each case. Slep agreed to this percentage increase so it seems to be apparent that those involved with the contract negotiations with APS (Slep annnndd???) were fully aware of what was not happening.


"Everything?" Really? It took 109 days for you to dismiss the lawsuit against Rodney -- who used discs. You didn't so much as offer him a public apology other than to characterize him as a small statistic.
Probably because you walked away from any "recovery lawsuit" stating that your "business direction" had changed. You sued APS.... and then you did nothing and dropped it. You did not file any kind of malpractice suit against attorney Donna Boris. She has never "disappeared" and she's still active with the California bar...

If she had "stolen" over $170,000 from me, you can bet there would be a lawsuit you could trace today... but strangely enough, there's nothing there.

Wanna bet that the "sold his assets to himself?" You know how that works right?


"Decided to disappear?" I don't think so:



And still, as of today, no malpractice suit?
[/quote]
But NOT suing an attorney for theft is responsible?

Unless it was not really theft at all...

One thing that gets me about the whole APS Donna Boris episode is 40 defendants just walked. They didn't pay anybody and they were supposed to be guilty over 5 years ago. If Donna missed dead lines and all of the ground work had been done, why didn't Jim and SC simply refile the complaints? At $5,000.00 a pop for a settlement they just walked away from $200,000.00. Those operators are probably still in the business, bragging about how they beat SC aka PEP. It wasn't worth it for that kind of money to refile? Maybe it was because they knew they would have to go up against the 9th Federal District Court, which hasn't been going their way?

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Everyone here does know (I hope) that the phrase "When did you stop beating your wife" is the oft used classic example of a loaded question, that being any question that carries with it a built-in false assumption.

Use of the phrase is a standard, colloquial way of stating "You have asked me an unanswerable question"; it's not an actual question in and of itself, nor is it at all accusatory when in this form of usage.

Nice article on the subject here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jerry-wei ... 21509.html

Just sayin'

I feel the questions are legit. Jim comes on this forum and does his song and dance and everybody is supposed to applaud the performance. There can be no questions asked and if they are, the questions are unfair, we can't answer them because of court settlements or some other excuse. If you cannot answer all questions to the satisfaction of forum participants, then why start any of this in the first place? Jim has answered that question he is General Manger in charge of planning and marketing. He is using the forum to hawk his wares, and to inform others of PEP/SCE's plans and goals. He is not prepared to answer questions that may arise from these learning opportunities he is laying out here. Part of education is not just presenting the facts you want to get out, but also answer the questions that might arise from the presentation.

I've been to many karaoke shows over the years and lately I have been seeing many younger singers wanting to sing more contemporary songs. While there are still people who want to sing the "classics" including some of the younger singers; more and more people are looking for songs that have been popular over the last 7 or 8 years. That pretty much leaves Sound Choice out in the cold. There are very few songs that are ONLY available on a Sound Choice disc any longer. The most popular karaoke songs are available on multiple brands to satisfy the average karaoke singer's needs. I would guess that there are only a few dozen Sound Choice tracks that haven't been produced by another karaoke manufacturer over the last 20 years. If 9 out of 10 KJs are pirates; they probably have all of those songs already. I have a hard time trying to figure out exactly who is Sound Choice's target audience these days? You've got pirate KJs out there with 350,000 songs in their library and even if they delete the Sound Choice tracks; they still have close to 300,000 songs to pick from. How do you scare them into buying or leasing a GEM set of discs when they probably already have them? Even If they're too scared to use them; they can still run a very good show with their other 300,000 songs.

New songs are important for sure, but I just looked at just my top 100 from last year and only 1/4 of the songs done weren't available on SC - yes mostly newer songs, so 3/4 of what was done was from my outdated SC collection (yes they are all songs available from other manus too). But don't discount the 'classics', they are still key to most shows and still done more often than newer songs to date. And our avg age group is 21-40.

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The answer is you can't scare them that is why 95% of the hosts are pirates. That is why the whole idea of PEP/SCE doing anything meaningful isn't much more the window dressing. It has been over 7 years since the legal clown car came to town and there are more pirates today than when it started.

This is a retirement town Baby Boomers and Snowbirds rule. Average age is mid 30's to 70 or 80, naturally old standards and Golden Oldie Shows are the prime tickets. There are a few teens and early 20's but those are few and far between.

Sounds like Hemit... An ER at the Hemit Elks Lodge once stated that his Officer Corps couldn't do a a really good initiation ceremony if their life depended on it, but an Elk's Funeral Service...They'd nail it every time.