Karaoke Forums

You have to bring all materials to a notary public. Notarize the whole mess and have it sent via registered and or certified mail requiring a signature. The whole point is to establish a point in time where said materials/intellectual works were in your possesion. In combination with the physical materials in your possession during the legal proceedings one can at least show a timeline. Without the notary all bets are off and anyone can fake documents.
I wrote a song and PMC'd it... While ascap was processing our paperwork another artist in Cali released a record with a song almost exactly like ours. Obviously they came up with it first given the time it took to produce an LP ,BUT...... had we been sued shortly thereafter, the PMC would have shown that we did come with it independently prior to the record release and simply dropped the song after the other bands release. A trip to court without any real problems.

On the CB registration. Look Guys, in my opinion...They OWN the trademark. Its not a copyright issue its a trademark issue. $50 for OFFICIAL permission to use the chartbuster logo in public, granted by the OWNER of the trademark (Technicality but legal) serves as protection BOTH ways. If they change the rules....you can sue for breach of contract if they come after you. It's pretty clear how much I HATE most lawyers but I'm not stupid enough to stand on a principal that WILL FAIL. Because I simply can't afford it. If PEP is reasonable about the situation, then I will do the same.
Just because you own a John Deere tractor, maybe sell them, does not allow you to put up a John Deere banner without their written permission. They can sue you too!!
Karaoke is an audio visual medium so it's a visual trademark issue. The fact you have no choice to display or not display the logo when you purchase the product is where the whole mess falls apart and stinks. At least with my tools I can usually peel the label off and
they don't charge for their trademark anyway......yet. Oh Lord...imagine subscription tools and autos with attached credit card swipers......scary

You would think that since the disks available were produced before PEP bought the trademark, that they would be grandfathered in and exempt from PEP action provided you have the 1:1 disk. Guess it doesn't work that way.

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Purple Frog Karaoke Cuz we all feel odd and love to "croak"

I have ONE CB disc. It's the Dave Matthews disc, (don't know the number, offhand). Am I going to get charged $30 to register a disc I paid $17 for??

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

It would seem rather silly to go after someone with only a couple of CB disks. In my case however, I am over 3000 songs at 1:1 compliance and any reasonable protection from both having to replace them all with another brand or unnecessary prosecution for using material I legally own in the first place is wise to consider. What about the digitrax folks? Do they get automatic registration (free) based on the Digitrax customer database or do they have to either pay or sue digitrax and pep?? Perhaps there should be an exemption for people with only a limited number of chartbuster "sets" or disks. A single disk counts as 1, a single "set" or pre packaged pack also counts as only 1 regardless of the amount of disks. Said registration shall be FREE until the user reached the pre-set limit. This will not help me... but it would help those with only a few disks have some peace of mind and possibly consider purchasing more CB if the product is in demand. Unless of course the object is to kill the brand in the first place or eventually roll it into SC?

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Purple Frog Karaoke Cuz we all feel odd and love to "croak"

It's actually $50, but you're right, even $30 seems excessive for one disc. Let us think on it a bit and we'll get back to you.

Jim, didn't you offer Smooth a free audit and he refused? What would make you think he would accept a free or low cost audit on one CB disc?

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You can be strange but not a stranger

there is no audit needed for CB, just registering. there is a difference.

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

Just let Smooth, or anyone that can fit all their discs in a picture, take a pic of the discs\drives with a dated magazine or paper and call it a day.

I'd be interested in the fine print in the "registration agreement" because it's nothing more than a pay-to-play-fee. I believe that all that's happening is KJ's are giving them information to sue later.

So tell me why PEP doesn't have the records of all the "CB Certified" KJ's and they need everyone tell them again? Why didn't Harrington know that drives were sold for use with non-expiring certifications or none at all in the last few days or that TPC collected half the money walking out the door and Digitrax collected the other half -- neither one wanting to even send a bill of sale or receipt?

It's a rip off and if they don't know who they've sold product to, there's no way they can notify them that any permission(s) have changed since the purchase from Tennessee Production Center.

That's why they only want to know how many "discs" you have because they know that they can't do squat about the SD cards and particularly the hard drives.

I'm going to take a wait and see attitude on this situation. I can't wait until the first case gets filed and gets tossed out of court immediately. I bet they won't be trying to file any law suits in the Las Vegas area. That didn't work out so well before.

Funny you should say that. It actually did work out for us pretty well, even though we didn't actually want that case filed. We'll be back there soon, in fact.

This post of yours, like most posts of yours, is full of "fail."

(1) If giving us the information gets you a covenant not to sue, how does this program "give us information to sue later"?
(2) You must have missed that we bought the trademarks from Piracy Recovery, not from TPC. I assume that either Norbert has those records or he threw them out.
(3) I did know that drives were sold with non-expiring certifications. That's why we're making provisions for them in the program. Not sure Digitrax collected any of that money, but if it did, more power to them. It's irrelevant to me.
(4) We do require information about all forms of original media, not just discs. Numerically, the discs comprise the wide majority of original media, so it's convenient shorthand. And we can "do squat" about the SD cards and the hard drives.
(5) Permissions haven't changed in the slightest, so there's no need to notify anybody that they have. We will, however, be putting out a significant campaign to inform people about the registration program.

We'll see....
Because your precious "covenant not to sue" (the carrot) always comes with a legally-binding agreement (the stick) that will invalidate the document altogether and open the door for a lawsuit. No doubt having the KJ agree that your lawsuit will be held in North Carolina, forcing them to travel just like all the other agreements you have. If it didn't, you wouldn't need one in the first place. I can also speculate with some certainty that your "agreement" will require that they continually "register" additional purchases they might make at a later date -- just like you do with your gem series. But we'll have to wait and see what you can creatively cook up... (make me liar and the KJ's win)
Right. I knew that you didn't have any sales records at all and that's why you're desperately trying to recreate them by getting KJ's to "register" their purchases... You want their signature on a contract with you... and you want them to pay for it. Sadly, some will. It's much easier to just have an online registration database that is free because it would be too convenient and you wouldn't have a reason to charge for it and more importantly, you wouldn't have the contract you need so badly.
It probably really hurt to admit that didn't it?
If "do squat" means sue and demand through discovery to see them and then drop the suit, then you've happily confirmed that your firm is a trademark trolling operation.
Of course you will.... You can simplify he process if you just say:
"Send us $50 and sign our contract and we won't sue you."

You haven't seen the program description document, so this is basically you sticking your fingers in your ears and screaming "LA LA LA LA LA" so you can't hear the true facts.

Notice how Chippy goes on about the word contract as an evil thing or a document just for litigation? I don't know of any company that doesn't have a contract with others (companies or individuals) and very few if any individuals that don't have a contract of some sort in their lives. Another of Chippy's "let's try to confuse people" rants.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

It's not a "program" at all.
It's a contract, but you refuse to call it what it really is.

Notice how your hero Harrington goes on about the word "program" like it's just a friendly Zumba class?

Here's how really ignorant of how the law works and how you refuse to acknowledge it:

A "contract" defines the boundaries of a relationship, it allows both sides to know what they should be able to expect from the other and what their responsibilities are to each other.
A marriage is "a contract" too. Guess how you get out of it? "SUE for divorce, in court."

It's not "a program."

In this case, PEP wants you to voluntarily sign a legally binding contract when you have no legal obligation to do so... and they want you to pay for it. And they fearmonger that they will sue you if you don't "adhere" to it or they might anyway if you don't sign it.

Now be a good boy and look up the definition of "program" and tell me they're the same.

Chippy, why don't you, since you have such strong feelings about you being right and Jim wrong, do what you counsel others to do, make copies and be sued so you can beat him in court. That is if you are so confident about your position. But then again you're all bluster and no action.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

How do you (or your hero) know I havent'?

That is the most desperate trolling I've seen you do in a while.

Nice try.

It's simple to know you haven't successfully beaten a lawsuit, if you have indeed been sued. You have been ranting and raving about this for years. Had you been sued and won, you would have been yelling it from the mountain tops and splash it all over the various karaoke forums, Facebook, etc. Of course if you had been sued and lost, there would only be the sounds of crickets chirping.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

Uh, let's see if I can understand your sterling logic so that no one else is confused.

If I had successfully beaten a lawsuit and "won" I would be:
(1) Ranting and raving about this for years
(2) Yelling it from the mountain tops
(3) Splash it all over the various karaoke forums, Facebook, etc.

But, if I had been sued and "lost" then
(1) There would only be the sound of crickets.

Well, since after all this time I haven't been bothered by being sued at all, I would think you have your answer. But if you're so hot to see me in court, why don't you pony up the American filing fee ($551.20 CDN) yourself and we'll go from there?

So, either put up, or shut up.... eh?