Karaoke Forums

a reduction of any type is good, but we have a 10% increase, not a reduction.


and what if they were pulled over into a garage and everything was required to be kept private and hushed. no more shock factor to make anyone think twice.
your analogy works, but put in the same context of the karaoke lawsuits it works backwards from your intent.

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

Lone Ranger, I'm going to agree with you. Manufacturers are not the police. They, however, through Acts of Congress (US) and Parliament (Can), have the right to pursue and sue those people who are violating their Copyrights and Trade Marks and IP ownership. As a matter of fact governments gives businesses many rights to pursue people and other businesses in various civil torts. As a matter of fact the government allows professional associations to police, try, and give out punishments for members who violate their rules and regulations (AMA, ADA, ABA, and a whole bunch more), so what is your point other than you don't like hosts being sued. It frankly isn't your business, especially since you are supposedly leaving the business in October and you do not even own any product of the manufacturers concerned.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

I think in all my posts my position has been clear and consistent while I don't like the principle of piracy, I like the manu remedy for the disease even less. Two wrongs can't make a right, that the whole situation calls for a compromise and nobody seems willing to compromise. Jim if what you were doing was actually meant to reduce piracy I would support it. It is not meant to do so it is meant to shake up the industry and try to use suits to drive sales, period. The position of the two manus at the summit indicate that they have adopted my principles of AMNESTY and at least approval aka certification/sale of product, it amounts to the same thing, on an individual basis. In principle I see no difference in this policy than what I purposed. That for the exchange of a certain amount of money the wayward host would be welcomed back with open arms. If a host does lease your GEM series it does relieve him or her of the need for an audit right? If so then once you have your payoff you will bother them no more, and not worry about anything else in their library since your authority only extends to your product. That is the problem with this legal process of yours there is no overall comprehensive plan, authority is limited to the individual manu to remedy their piece of the problem, and you have limited resources to solve the problem. Such a piecemeal approach is doomed to failure, and that is why there are more illegal hosts today than when you started this legal process of yours. Not to mention your actions overall have a net negative effect on the industry making venues feel karaoke is too much of a risk to take. Hurting the industry you say you are trying to save. I support a one stop agency to collect monies from all hosts to pay the people who have legitimate claims for compensation. You have a right to recover I feel the fair retail value of your stolen property, no more. That is generous what you would have been paid originally is the wholesale value from the little mom and pop retailers. Walmart would have even demanded a better deal. At the end of the day I want a system setup where there is not good guys or bad guys, all are dealt with fairly and humanely. I want you to get your money and I want the hosts to be able to run the business's in peace. I don't think that is too much to ask, but then some people just aren't reasonable.

While it is true tim that I will no longer be hosting on a regular basis after October, I still am interested in the karaoke industry. It is something I have participated in for almost Nineteen years now. Like you are up in Canada and not bothered by the U.S. manus, I will also be on the outside looking in. That will make me at least an interested spectator. What I really don't like tim is medicine being forced on the industry by the manus, under the guise it is meant for the good of the patient. The cure could end up killing the patient and then all hosts will be out of work. It is true I have protected my business and the venues I work for by boycotting SC's product. I do this to protest this legal process they pioneered, it has been a failure, since today there are more illegal hosts than when they started, and it has had more of a negative impact on the industry than a positive one. At least in my opinion, that is what I have to go by that and my gut. I have really never understood this willingness to give a blank check to the manus by many hosts to solve the problem of piracy. For the problem to be solved everyone needs to be involved in a reasonable way, everyone paying into the system like the manus are currently attempting to accomplish, and the operators allowed to run their business's as they deem fit. The hosts know what they have to do, if they know what they are doing in the first place. They don't need some company micromanaging them.

Who is being micromanaged? I haven't heard anything about any manu micromanaging anybody. They are doing audits on those who want to be 1:1 and those who are not are given the option to rectify the problem by either getting out of business or buying product to legitimize their business. If the manus were micromanaging then they would be telling hosts where they can host, what to charge, how long a show should be, how a rotation is to be done, etc. None of this is being done. They are complying under current laws and protecting their product from theft and misuse. Unfortunately, you insist on insinuating they are being nefarious.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

If they payoff the respective manus tim there is no need for an audit, so if not managing they are at least shaping the behavior of the host to conform with the recovery process. They are indeed providing AMNESTY for a price. An idea most hosts rejected due to the lack of an audit. By the way SC/PR are managing because they tell the host they don't have the right to shift unless they say it's ok, even if the host has legally purchased the product.

Amnesty implies one has done something wrong in the first place. There are some of us who, of our own free will, became certified. We weren't accused of anything. Our arms weren't twisted. We did what we felt was the right thing to do.

A GEM license does not relieve one from an audit. I have a GEM and I have a large number of Sound Choice discs. The discs need to be verified. This has nothing to do with multi-rigging either.

One of these days you are going to realize that you just do not know what you are talking about. Or, maybe you won't, and you will continue to clog these forums with your nonsense. While you are planning your exit from karaoke in October, I think we should all be planning our exit from this forum since you will have even more free time on your hands to fill up the white space with your garbage.

-Chris

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-Chris

You are right about one thing Chris I have little knowledge of leasing GEM or SC products in general since I don't use them. Tell me something then, you might be checked for your SC content of your shows, since SC has the authority to check that. What about other materials you use in your show, DK, MM, or whatever other brand is used, will SC be checking them also? Amnesty really means that all crimes proved or unproved are forgiven, it doesn't necessarily mean wrong was done in the first place. What it means is that it is a blanket pardon for any offense. Usually there is a set date to apply for the amnesty, if acts are committed after that date you can't get the amnesty. It is a way to clear the legal books and get everybody back to be honest productive citizens. Which I'm sure is what the manus are interested in. The new honest hosts will be their customer base. I hope one day you will realize that the manus are not really trying to help legal hosts, they are trying to recover money, period. If they help legal hosts that is just something extra. The sloppy way investigations are conducted, and the in mass filings of cases, indicates to me they really care little about the average host.

That much is obvious.



I am GEM licensee #1. I have had the GEM series longer than anyone on planet earth.

To date I have:

• Never had an audit.
• Never had SC show up at a show.
• Never had a phone call from SC.
• Never had a knock on my door from SC.
• Never had any legal email from SC.
• Never had any legal snail mail from SC.
• Never had a "demand" for the discs back
• Never told I owe more money.

All things that over the years I was told would happen. Yet...nothing.

The only thing I got from SC was a GEM update disc.

Micromanaging indeed.

Well of course you are not going to be Micromanaged you already paid them off Bazza, you are one of the good ones SC don't have to worry about. I'm a little confused though Chris said you are supposed to be audited for at least your SC content, and that has never happened? So really if you were a pirate and leased the GEM series, that would be the end of it not even an audit? Sounds like amnesty to me. Oh by the way you will have to pay nominal renewal fee when your lease expires right? I'm just asking since I know so little about the SC product.

Well call Ripley's......you don't know the answer to the above? Given all of the expert opinions you have provided so far, the answer to this one seems beneath you.

You know SC checks only their own product because several of us have posted about our audits.



I came to this conclusion a while back. Sound Choice has been pretty clear about what their primary goal is. They deserve to be compensated by those that have stolen from them. I believe it does have some positive impact on legitimate KJ's as well. I don't lose any sleep over their activities.

-Chris

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-Chris

Even their AMNESTY program Chris with no audit?

I paid nobody off. I licensed the product. The best base set in the business in my opinion.



That has never happened to me.



Two errors. It is not a "lease", and it doesn't "expire". The perpetual licensing agreement states that after five years, I may have to pay $100 every three years thereafter ($33 annually). That's 20 minutes work at my rate. Personally, I do not believe that I will pay a dime. This is known as a "Peppercorn Clause" in legal parlance and rarely if ever enforced. It is there to provide the necessary "consideration" required in certain legal documents. But even so, I would gladly pay $33 to re-license. Well worth it for the quality of the product.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppercorn_%28legal%29

In my case I did a voluntary audit of my discs almost a full year before purchasing a GEM license. However, It seems logical to me that regardless of a GEM license, Sound Choice would still want/require an audit of non-GEM SC discs. I still provide updates to SC of my SC discs as they change significantly, but they have never asked for it.

Ranger - all you are doing is flopping around in the shallows muddying up the water. All of this is a lot simpler and much less devious than you want everyone to believe. As several people have pointed out over time, your willful desire to see Sound Choice fail at everything they do is obvious. It is also petty and very unbecoming. Furthermore, I believe most people see this and roll their eyes when they see your posts.

The only reason I respond to any of your posts is to correct mis-information. It is becoming more and more apparent that a blanket "ignore everything Lone Ranger posts because it isn't truthful or accurate" stance is the best approach. You pretty much dig your hole deeper every time you post.

-Chris

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-Chris

<Sigh> I am not comparing anything. It's call an analogy. You need to take a high school English class.

Here, this may help: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analogy



Yes, yes...you keep saying the same thing and I keep asking: WHAT NUMBER WOULD YOU FIND ACCEPTABLE?

C'mon. You can do it.

I can tell you one thing Bazza the number would have to be positive and not going into net negative territory. If there has been an increase in the total number of hosts by 10% and 90% of that 10% is illegal, that means the total effort of this legal process is in negative territory. If you have settled 1,000 hosts or venues and 4500 have come on line you are about 3,000 or more in the hole than when you started. That is not winning unless of course you are Charlie Sheen.

I think you are the one flopping around Chris. It is hard to come to grips with the fact if you are a pirate all you have to do is pay off SC or PR and you have purchased peace of mind with no audit.

Well Bazza you don't physically own GEM do you ? I mean at the end of 5 years if you don't re-license for whatever reason you have to turn back in the product don't you and take it off your system, right? What are you doing if not leasing, burrowing it like a cup of sugar? Ok it's a re-licensing agreement not a renewal, you should know you signed the contract. You licensed the product it is true, it is also true than when you did so it satisfied all the SC requirements and nothing more was needed or checked you were good to go.

Stopping Piracy has about as much chance as stopping Illegal Immigration.
For every one that SC catches 10 or more popup, (crosses the border).

While they think they are putting a dent in it they really aren't and never will.
Recouping monies... well you can't get blood out a stone and there isn't a debtors prison so what are they going to do?

The border patrol catches 10 while 30 or more sneak across while the first ones have been detained. They send them back and they are crossing again next week.

Same with SC it catches 10 and 30 more popup in places they haven't even started to investigate yet.

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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

May I also suggest, as Chris just has, that everyone just ignore him.

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-- Mark