Karaoke Forums

Without wading into the whole Chip / Harrington back and forth (which I do quite enjoy), I find it interesting that Jim has a habit out of throwing out statements in response to others and when confronted with them, he just goes silent.

He did it with me when I questioned him about the details for his much touted "royalty pools" and the details that he said would be published on his site and never did. He did it just a week ago when KSF called him out on his post:

" But are you saying that the European operation does not supply you with any sound recordings? After all, production costs are generally higher than royalty advances for any individual track, and being able to use recordings from the European operation to any extent would be a savings that a purely domestic company would be unable to enjoy. If you don't use the European recordings, then I am happy to withdraw my comment as to your company."

When KSF responded "I can emphatically say that. My statement was definitive", you would have expected him to do as he said and withdraw the statement and apologize considering his position with PEP. Well, that never happened.

Clearly the appellate court cases and rulings against PEP have had a negative effect on the whole PEP lawsuit/threat business model. The old tried and true trademark strategy seems to have run it's course. Sure the uninformed venue owner might still decide to settle with PEP to make a suit go away, but there are law firms out there advertising their services to those owners, now that they have won against PEP.

So what does the future hold? We already know that the likelihood of PEP actually getting into the karaoke business is apparently not going to happen. So here is my prediction - PEP will make a deal with Digitrax to compliment the trademark deal for the Chartbuster logo that they made. All they need to do is buy the copyrights of say 100 songs or so from the CB library from Digitrax. Then they can avoid all the potential pitfalls of a trademark case and go where the real money is - copyright infringement. The rewards are much higher (up to 150k per song) and they would only need to find a host using 1 or a few songs to really make it all worthwhile. They could entice Digitrax with a profit share deal on the awards and both PEP and Digitrax could share both the proceeds of such suits, and the title of "trolls" of what's left of the industry in this country.

Of course the fact that CB sold it's library in all kinds of formats aside from discs could make it difficult, but perhaps there are some songs that were never offered in any format besides CDG's? If there are, those are the songs that a KJ needs to either remove from their library or find the CDG and add it to their collection. Just my 2 cents.

Ethics, got any?

What's funny, a lawyer named <redacted> created a website with the purpose of selecting the best legal advocate. (Lawyer)

The next step was to hire a pollster to determine who in fact was the best around.

Surprise, surprise, guess who won this award. <redacted won>

When a third party posted that this was probably a fake award, <redacted> filed suit against the third party.

The judge kicked the suit out of court so hard the walls shook..

:lmao:

Ethics? Got any?

I tend to compare what is coming out of PEP to the like of the current administration...They got great plans, HUGE plans, but information and time frames are slim pickings. It's not to say they won't get done, just that it all feels so clueless to me.

Aside from the confusion, I feel that PEP suffers from nostalgia and paranoia as well. They still think they are the best and they think everyone is going to immediately steal it all. The paranoia part actually might hold true, only because they simply pissed off so many people over the last seven plus years, someone is bound to want to defeat whatever copy protection they have and release copies on the internet.

Finally, PEP's marketing is also terrible. I think about how much sound choice (legal or otherwise) is out there... People who are interested will go to the website soundchoice.com and get something completely different then what they expected, an entertainment company that doesn't even list one public show.

They did a trade show, but they didn't even post anything about it. Not even a picture of the booth for the website's press release section. Software was talked about, but not even a coming soon about that (with potential features, etc.).

If you wonder why Harrington is quiet, it's because what is there to say (accept an apology to Karaoke.net)? Nothing of note worthiness is happening save for the lawsuit machine.

This is (in my opinion) RIGHT ON THE MONEY! (pun intended) And it's also the next logical step in continuing their lawsuit business model.

PEP has been shown not to be beneath "dumpster diving" for lawsuit fodder when it bought the CB trademark from "piracy recovery" which are the same folks as the rapidly-sinking Digitrax.

It's obvious that PEP doesn't have any integrity (or ethics for that matter) because what's really important to them is dollars and they don't care if they have to cheat to get it. It's what they've been doing for years and it's all they know how to do.

And, since they've now trained their guns on venues and not the KJ's, I would believe that the karaoke venues out there will simply start dropping this form of entertainment like a hot rock.

What's truly interesting in all this is that while they might be suing venues for "copyright infringement" it should be noted that anyone who has a contract with PEP (and this includes "certified KJ's", gem series licensees, h.e.l.p. licensees, etc. have signed a contract that is in fact, worthless to them UNLESS they are willing to:

#1: Commit copyright infringement by creating a secondary copy of the music, lyrics and sweeps for playback for commercial purposes (forget the trademark) AND,

#2: Completely indemnify PEP for the very same copyright infringement they are engaged in.

I find it an incredible double standard that they would want to sue for copyright infringement and as a solution, require a "license" that indemnifies them from legal action for the ongoing copyright infringement which is the protection sought from the license in the first place.

Then, having been corrected, I apologize. And I am, in fact, glad that you're doing well in such a challenging environment.

Or own ALL the discs/sd cards/hard drives/SCDGs that the songs came from. That would even be better. I do!

I have an idea how PEP can start offering music and start making money tomorrow.

1. Establish a virtual mailing address in the UK
2. Customer orders all of there music from zoom, sbi etc and types in virtual address.
3. PEP forwards order for shipping plus $1

If enough KJs started using it, they might make a decent amount of money.. Of course, the publishers might come after them so it probably won't work, but it's nice to think about..

Maybe I should ask my cousin in the UK if she would be willing *ponder*


-James

Today is the first time I've visited this site since I made my last comment, and the first thing I did was to respond to Michael. I don't camp out here.

You forgot to add; "yeah, that's the ticket!"

??? You posted a day after Michael posted they didn't use overseas tracks for the US download site.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

time stamps are a b!tch...

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

I would agree.... but what if Harrington is just using "alternate facts?"

Hmmmmm. What would happen if PEP stopped suing? A lot more KJ's would be bragging about how many songs they have on their web sites. There are people out there now with over 400,000 songs. 100 different versions of "MY WAY".

And those are the ones that don't even know how to find the specific version when a singer asks for it.

Are there really 400,000 (English language) karaoke tracks now? Gosh, I can remember when it was only 89,000!

And that is probably STILL with dups. 400K with every other language and every recorded English version from every manu ever made.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

And still you are going to play depending how long the gig is only 60 to 75 tracks a performance. The rest of that material just sits there and much of it isn't used. The old saying is "it is not how much you got it is how you use it". You could have a million tracks but if you don't have the song the patron wants to sing he will tell you, "You got no tunes".

I doubt that there are more than 40,000 karaoke songs in the English language. That means that these KJs with 400,000 songs must have at least 10 versions of each of those titles on average. They probably have some songs where there is only one version of the song but songs like MY WAY and CRAZY more than make up for those. It is kind of funny but there are still people out there who would request the version that they are most comfortable with. I guess if you delete all of the PEP Controlled tracks; you can still run a pretty thorough show. There are only a handful of songs that are only available on one brand but you can just remove the logos and be free to use them too.

It doesn't matter if there are 40,000 or 400,000 songs... it's not about the library and my feeling is that if you are advertising that you have a gazillion songs -- instead of a great place to party --- then you are relying on your library to keep you employed and not your own skill set.

Sort of like the bar that advertises 500 different beers but has terrible service...

Yup, KSF Group, along with Sybersound, is making good old PEPPY/SLEPPY look like bunch of chumps!! Here is an relatively new Karaoke entity who are kicking BUTT in this country, with domestic Karaoke production, and there is the Ol' Sleppy/Peppy group, STILL making excuses why they can't produce a single track. Get out of the business!! You are getting nowhere!!

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

I can agree, here. I go up against 100,000 song KJs all the time. I have about 8,000 songs, at this point, and I have better turnouts, and more loyal patrons than most of the other guys in my area. I buy them one song at a time. MOST of my collection is customer driven. I don't NEED 100,000 because I have what my people want to sing, and I provide an entertaining, fun show. I don't use SC. Little by little, there is less and less need for SC. Many of those old SC only songs, are no longer SC only. And I will tell you, Karaoke.net puts out a good product, but KV is putting out EXCELLENT products!! Much of what KV is putting out is putting SC to shame!! I know that Harrington doesn't believe that, but it is true. I also know Harrington does not believe that one can run a quality show without SC. I am here to tell you that it is VERY possible!!

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE