Karaoke Forums

This copyright stuff is all federal. It's all congress stuff. I have a fairly directly line to my local congressman, who also happens to be Japanese, and also happens to sing "My Way" once in a while down at 7 Bamboo. Here's a copy of what I sent his assistant.

Hi Meri!

It's been a while. I was wondering if Mike had some time to talk
about issues affecting the karaoke industry. I can try and boil it
down here.

Karaoke has changed a lot in the last 20 years. A lot of folks run
their shows from PC's. (A lot pirate the content, but this is a
separate issue)

There's a few US karaoke disc makers that are trying to say that
copying CD's you bought and paid for to your hard drive is against the
law. They're really causing a big stink over it, and scaring karaoke
DJ's into submitting themselves for an audit with nasty attorney
letters and the like.

This would be like saying, "I heard this one karaoke DJ was growing
pot in his house, I don't know which one, but let's search them all"

I myself don't pirate content. Anytime they can look at my stuff.
Problem is, I don't agree with this tactic.

Here's where the issue really gets interesting... They're also saying
that any paid for, downloaded karaoke is against the law too, yet
there are legitimate companies (not these companies spreading the FUD)
selling karaoke on Itunes and other download sites. In the last few
days this has all erupted into a burst of discussion on one karaoke
forum I hang out on.

viewtopic.php?p=296174#p296174

If you can scroll down a bit on the above link, you can see one online
karaoke download site (tricerasoft1) trying to set the record
straight.

I want clarification on these issues. Who's right? The US companies
saying artist/label sanctioned karaoke downloads and legally purchased
content copied to your hard drive is legal, or the US companies saying
it's all illegal?

Because if the former is right, I have nothing to worry about at the 7
Bamboo. If the latter is correct, then I've just broken the law 444
times (the number of legit CD's we have) when I copied the CD's to 7
Bamboo's hard drive, possibly creating a trademark/copyright liability
for the 7 Bamboo.

Thank you so much.

Yours Truly,
Robert Cortese

I should have a reply in the next few days, and if not I can just stop by his office.

If we really want a definitive answer on these issues, everyone needs to do the same. Everyone needs to find out who their local congressperson is and bug the hell out of them.

When you send you letter, include that "Robert Cortese from San Jose CA has contact Mike Honda's Office" Each person that writes a new letter, append the names (and your name) By the time we get to the last few congress people, we'll have a chain of people listed that have asked the same question across the country. Let's keep this list rolling, on this thread.

I want karaoke forums to support me on this effort (staff) This is the way to get final, done, no more question about these issues answers that we need. I hope you'll trim any "anti" statements against this effort. This is the "RIGHT" way of getting the answer, nothing out of line here.

I'm not hiding behind anything, not even anonymity anymore.

So again..

Write your local congress, include my name, and the name of the congressperson I just mentioned.

Don't hide behind anonymity. Include your name, and your congresspersons name on your replies to this thread so others may include it on theirs.

Let's put an end to this argument once and for all.

not as cool as congress, but at least it is something, better than nothing.

So not a congressman, but still a good promoter.

My friend, long time customer is in charge of SONY SCEA marketing. This is the Sony arm that promotes the Playstation products in the US. I have a writeup on facebook about this. He saw it and said he's going to forward the story to some of his friends in the press.

Stay tuned.

that would suck, but at least there would be a concrete answer.
not knowing anything for sure is the worst part and is the cause of a majority of the arguments on this and any karaoke forum.

Those trademarks are properly displayed as the owner wishes and that goes for prooperly licenced articles, ie t-shirts, jackets etc.

Now if you create a clone or close duplicate of anything (without permission) and put the manufacturers' trademark on them, then it is called a knock-off and illegal (think of fashion knock offs). When you copy a disc without permission, then it is a knock-off. Now whether the karaoke manufacturers have the legal authority to permit copies or not is another matter (it would depend on what rights the copyright holder gives).