Karaoke Forums

It wouldn't make much sense to settle for $8500 with SC, remove all your other illegal tracks, receive the GEM series and then go out and illegally obtain the same music that got you into trouble in the first place. Not to mention that you sign an agreement stating you will "stay clean" and stop playing illegal karaoke music. Plus you get busted again you lose the Gem set, another lawsuit, and possible suspension from hosting karaoke.
I can't predict what someone is gonna do when named in a lawsuit, but if they go through the process of settling and agree to SC terms it would seem ludicrous to revert back to their old ways given the circumstances.

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Sound Choice and Chartbuster Certified

I don't see this happening for a very long time. There is not a system to provide error-free streaming of data for this kind of application.

There are some pretty easy work-arounds (that I know work) for this, however on a different level, I'd never depend on my work product/tools to have to rely on any "cloud."

The last thing I want is for some bird to land wrong on a wire at a data center in another state and "zap the cloud" that I'm dependent on or a power failure from a bad storm. It would be like someone walking into Joe C.'s show and walking out with his discs in the middle of a song.

My philosophy is fairly simple:

The more you depend on others, the less control you have in your own life.

I think Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and a bunch of other companies have pushed streaming along far enough that if we can expect to watch a 720p movie for 2 hours with no interuption that we can expect to listen a much lower bit rate music track for 3.5 mins at a time.



The Fortune 500 and EVERY tech company is betting on the cloud. It is going to happen.



Geo-redundant data centers for exactly that kind of issue. Doesn't mean that someone won't get cut-off mid song, but in all the years I have been a singer and the short time I have been a host, I am far more worried about the singer unplugging the mic, the drunk tripping over a cord, or the night-time work crew getting jiggy with a backhoe.



This may surprise you, but I believe that 100%. I have dreams of living off the grid someday.

I am also not the teeming masses. The move to the cloud is well underway.

The current generation of 20-somethings and younger are cloud dependent and will be forever more. To many of them their world is percieved only through a smartphone or tablet. Their expectation for any-time any-where access will drive further innovation and reliability to the point of cloud based access being as reliable as electricity or land line based phone service.

Whether the karaoke companies embrace it or not is up to them but I do believe it is the one way they can protect their FUTURE IP (current IP is lost forever).

-Chris

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-Chris

But you wouldn't be obtaining "the same music that got you into trouble in the first place" if you'd only been sued by SC, which is the only manufacturer taking legal action. There has been one KJ here who's stated that he bought the GEM series and has not been audited for 2 years and doesn't ever expect to be, nor does he expect to pay for another audit. So if you wanted to enjoy all the benefits of being "certified" by SC and not every worry about being investigated or audited again, the smart pirate would settle with SC under the sweet terms offered (just the Foundation 1 & 2 would be the cheapest route), get the certificate to show the venues, and then build the library back with illegal music.

By the way, SC can't "suspend" you from running a karaoke show. There are probably 10 ways to get around that.

I still don't know why I keep seeing the words "pirate" and "piracy" in regard to SC's actions. They aren't targeting pirates, they are targeting media shifters- period.

If they find a pirate ( someone who actually steals tracks to use in a show), it's pretty much a side effect, accidentally catching a few while going after folks who haven't done anything but not ask permission to media shift karoke tracks from a company that is not empowered to give it in the first place, per their own admission.

Chip, you'd be interested to know that two of my residences- a beach house and my main house- are pretty much set up to go off grid anytime I want to. The third is a condo, and there's not much I can do about that.

The truly hard part of going off the grid is personal ( meaning financial and also giving up certain things like driving and any other activity overseen by the government.) It's all a matter of what one is willing to give up.

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

Exactly. "It doesn't matter" indeed.



For how long without gasoline, Natural gas or LP? If you are counting a generator and a transfer switch, myself and half of New York can be "off the grid" anytime we want, but I don't think that's the lifestyle Cris is talking about when he dreams of off-grid living.

As long as I want. My generators can run off just about anything - and I know how to produce alcohol and methane- I can build a small hydro-generator on my properties (thanks to a stream and brook) plus I have hi-output solar panels, battery storage, OTA TV, medical training and supplies, herbal training, I understand hydroponics, yet can grow my food in a closed system, I can design and build ( via parts from my electonic distributorship) just about anything electronic with my education, including wind generators. On property at this time I have generators that operate on gasoline, alcohol, or natural gas. I have both a 400w windmill that can produce power in as low as a 5 knot wind, as well as solar panels for battery storage. I can get heat through solar in-ground heat exchange, electrically, fossil fuels, and solar window heaters.

No, I'm not a survivalist. This is basically a hobby based on the challenge of living indepently of others- nothing more.

However, since "the Grid" has become less dependable ( weather reports now include power outage warnings- something previously unheard of) it's nice to know that I'm prepared.

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

Except for the part where the East Coast will be the first thing to go if we are ever really attacked.

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I like everyone when I first meet them. If you don't like me that's not my problem it's YOURS!
A stranger is a friend you haven't met yet

Great... now we have to move to Montana to survive?

I would expect Montana to be first since that's where the people who are prepared to fight back live.

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KNOW THYSELF

That and the nuke silos there and in Wyoming, the Dakotas, etc. Then Pearl again along with Diego Garcia. DC really isn't that important, there are more strategic targets.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

Like Dartmouth?

The largest, natural, ice free harbour in the world with a large basin and the answer would be, yes.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

When I was looking up reviews of a heater, I found one on a survivalist site. They were stressing that it was better to have the heater than a wood stove because the freezing, starving masses would see the smoke from a wood stove and know you had heat and come kill you for it. So now that Joe has let the whole world know he is the one prepared to survive, he will need bazookas to protect it all. And he didn't mention having the tin foil to wrap his electronics in for the big electromagnetic blast. (Don't need to debate if that works or not--was just including it for a laugh as I heard people talking about it while stocking up at the Dollar Tree.)

[quote="leopard lizard"]And he didn't mention having the tin foil to wrap his electronics in for the big electromagnetic blast. [quote]

I would just start using that as a cap right now. There seems to have already been some serious damage done.

-Chris

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-Chris

Oh, you might well laugh, but have you recruited a doctor, an electrician, etc. for YOUR bunker? I have told this story before but these people were actually in the Dollar Tree buying up spaghettios to stock the bunker with and discussing their plan. They were debating whether or not foil would protect their solar panels form the blast or did they need to bury them 3 feet underground also and this one lady said, "Well, we keep ours out in the sun. I don't think they will work underground."

Yes, a Faraday cage would be nice.. Tin foil, not so much..

That's all well and good, but if a blast occurs and you're protected, how many others will be?

It will be like living on an island where you have the only printing press..... and are also the only one that can read.