Karaoke Forums

I noticed this on the PEP site and think it's relevant to share because some ODB operators may prefer to work from burns to protect their originals. Don't do it!


"We try hard to avoid naming original-disc operators in lawsuits, but there are certain situations where our investigators might miss that you're using original discs instead of COPIES or a laptop, for example."

(I'm trying to figure out exactly how an "investigator" could fail to see a KJ pulling his discs out of his binder or whatever and put it into a player or the laptop drive whenever he plays a Sound Choice track.)

Even though I am certified and have GEM's, I have considered making signs to post at our venues that say "Ask us where our discs are!". That way, if we were to get sued by anyone, we could point out that we want people to ask us where our discs are and if the person suing never bothered to ask, how can they sue us?

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-Chris

Easy the KJ works in a booth where the patrons can not see what he is doing. I have gone to a club that the KJ is no where in sight. Input was on a kiosk so no slips and no interaction with the KJ. Another was a club that you handed him a slip through a little window but the equipment was not in sight so you could not see if he was using discs or not. Some say that you can tell by the picture on the monitor but I disagree. Lots of things can cause the picture on the monitor to look fuzzy, stretched, or otherwise not looking like an original, other than it being played from a computer. The place where the KJ was in a booth with the window was at least 150 feet from the monitor and no cables in sight so they must have been laid and hidden a long time ago. This is a 7 day a week Karaoke bar that runs from 4pm til 2am and has been there for years and pretty certain that the cables have probably never been changed. Yep his picture was a little fuzzy but then again his monitor was a early 90's TV. So who knows if he was running discs or not.

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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

Chris, Attached is a picture I have on the front and back of all my song books. You would be surprised on how few people even care that we own our music! . Currently the photo is in black and white about 1/2 a page, but I'm going to change it to full page and color. I actually have couple hundred more that aren't in the photo, but I think this gets the point across.

Definitely the singers don't care about piracy. I've seen a guy downloading Sound Choice tracks with one of those Verizon thingamabobs right in the middle of his show.
You try to explain that to a singer and their eyes glaze over.

Great collection Mr. Marog!

Thanks Lone Wolf - good answer.

There is absolutely no way you can make tracks that are piracy proof. No way... That goes for every type of audio or video. The sooner the music and movie producers realized that, the sooner they started making money again.

How is it that iTunes make billions selling @ 99 cents?

Volume and a path that buying provides less resistance than stealing.

It's not that, or not just that. I once asked him if he would get audited and certified if we offered it to him free of charge. No dice.

Many great minds and billions of dollars have tried to come up with a solution that allows sales of digital products impervious to pirating. No one has succeeded yet. Permit me to express some skepticism that it would be "easy". The best they have been able to do is reduce the price to a point that casual piracy is reduced.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Incorrect!

Sell only encrypted downloads that need a dongle to play them.

If you could overcome the market resistance.

But even then, you have to send the stream to the audio and/or video device, and you open yourself to analog stream hijacking. Your scheme would require compliance by all TV makers and require use only on sanctioned TVs.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

That would let you sell the dongle one time, but how much would you have to charge for it to get paid reasonably and God forbid you lose the thing - but that is actually a rather cool concept...

That has been done before, and someone figured out a way to duplicate the dongle with a couple of resistors.


Then after a while, someone figured out a way to crack the videos so that they don't need the dongle.

Bottom line, if something is in digital format it CAN be stolen. What people have realized however, is that your content doesn't NEED to be unpirateable, you just need to make it easier to buy than it is to steal.

Most people are too lazy/unmotivated to go to the bother of trying to figure out a way to steal something if they can just pay a reasonable fee and be done with it.

and as tons of people have pointed out here, it's a PROVEN model for doing business

Nope. You could record the audio output into any of the free audio editing programs and save it as a completely uninhibited file.

One track at a time in real time I'd have to say that maybe if you were unemployed and had no money.......... Naaah!

This is true of the video component as well.

If it can be decrypted and directed to the speaker and the monitor, then it can be captured.

That is precisely my point. If you make the cost very reasonable and the delivery method the easiest path, you can even sell material where stealing it is as simple as hitting a torrent site. But to say you can make a fool proof protected product? It's not possible.