Karaoke Forums

A Change of Direction for the KIAA

Until further notice we will no longer be accepting memberships in the Karaoke Industry Alliance of America (KIAA). For the immediate future the main focus of the KIAA is, by necessity, going to be geared towards anti-piracy efforts.

When the KIAA was first formed in 2008, the primary goal was to create an organization to bring together all businesses that benefit from karaoke. Our expectations were that manufacturers, distributors, resellers, venues, KJs and even karaoke enthusiasts would have a trade association that would promote the interests of all members. We wanted to build an organization working together to improve the industry, reduce piracy and increase opportunities at every level.

Unfortunately, the impact of piracy on this industry has been far reaching and the rampant theft has been extremely difficult to restrain. Unless we get a handle on these problems there might not be a legal industry in a few more years. Education alone has not worked, so the KIAA must evolve from its original ideals.

The KIAA will still do its best to keep education as a goal but to be able to ensure the survival of a legitimate industry, various karaoke manufacturers have begun suing karaoke operators and venues who profit from stolen music. The manufacturers are assisted by a core group of KJs who are helping with education and vigilance in their local markets.

Once the industry begins ntually we hope the KIAA will move to move beyond the current level of piracy, where manufacturers and legitimate resellers and hosts are struggling for survival, we hope that the original ideals of the organization can be realized. Eveback toward improving the overall quality of karaoke professionals through educational seminars, training materials, shared tips and memberships. Until that time, however, the KIAA will be doing everything it can to reduce the piracy,intellectual property theft and unfair competition that is threatening to completely destroy the legitimate industry.

Who is the KIAA? Officers, etc.? Can't seem to locate that anywhere.

basically:
sound choice, chartbusters, and pop hits monthly have grouped together
and have started sueing hosts and venues running pirated music.

read the website. they are going in to city's and taking down 20-40 host's and venues at a time.

they unfortunately have not actually taken down any hosts or venues yet. lots named in suits, but 0 taken down. each of them have either been shown to have been legit the whole time, or sold a GEM series.

they name you in a lawsuite then you have to prove your legit and they will drop you from the law suit.

true, agreed.

they also have compliance programs for each manufacturer, if you follow thier safe harbor program, they will issue a you a "covenant no to sue" to you the venue and the host.

but now it is for a fee, don't pay the fee to show you are innocent, and you will get sued.

it's legit!

somewhat, but expensive

goto "thekiaa.org" and read some of the lawsuits.

i have, we all have, they are either legit, or now running shows with a shiny new GEM series.

their slogan is: "get legit or quit!"

and those are my feelings as well

i personally like this because i have about 1200 original disc's all bought and paid for. and can't make squat because of all the illegal hosts aroud here.

i agree with all of this, until you add in the part that it will cost YOU $325.00 every year, and a yearly audit to avoid being named in a lawsuit.....every year, to continue to use those songs, and that only covers SC & CB. Stellar has not put out their price yet. the illegals need to go away, but my buying the discs is enough donation from me, demanding $199.00, and $125.00 from CB & SC respectively is not right in my mind. I do things right, SC & CB are getting screwed by the pirates and therefore i must pay, to save the manus from those that refuse to pay? no. i did the audit voluntarily which helped them narrow their focus in AZ a bit more and not waste time investigating someone who is playing by the rules, and would have no problem doing another one, it was actually a quite enjoyable short amount of time. but i will not pay for the privilege.

Totally agree. Paying them to examine thier product that I have already paid them for is ridiculous. Hey, I feel for their plight, but that is part of their cost of doing business. If they want to look, fine. I'll accomodate them and not bill them for my time (my contribution to the "cause"). And to be clear...by "look", I mean look at my discs...not my financials etc.

The thing I'm wondering is will they do an audit every year or just expect you to pay the fee's and they will send you a certificate saying you are OK to use the stuff they have on file.

:thinkin: You can bet that these fees will only go up with time. The only viable segment of the market now is the hosts either legal or illegal. The legal one's will pay these fees on a yearly basis, the illegal will be made legal by the purchase of product from the manus. So everyone in the industry will be paying one way or another, to run their business, whether legal or illegal. This is the final solution?

But you are suggesting that a fee of $500 a year with no audit no policing whatsoever, regardless of pirate or legal being a better solution! And who is to say your yearly $500 amount will "remain the same"?

What it all boils down to is that the Manu's want you to pay for their permission to shift their logo from the discs that they manufacture to a hard drive and use it.

The audit is to make sure that you actually have the disc to shift it from.

And as Joe, (not picking on ya Joe because I agree with you), would say "If they are not going to pay me for my time the forget it."

I suggest a fee of $10,000.00 a year to those who do not have discs & $0.99 for those that do!

Final solution?

I see nothing wrong with that. They sold a product which is perfectly useable in the format it was sold. If a KJ wants to copy that product to enhance their business, then they need the permission of the manu to do so. Why would a manu grant permission to use a copy if they have no way of knowing how that copy was obtained?


And that is fine. Just don't use copies of their product in your business. Why should the manu have to foot the bill for enhancing your business?

If you want to better your business by using copied product, it is your responsibility to gain permission to use those copies. And if you require an audit in order to gain that permission, then it is your business expense, not that of the permission granter.

Under your logic, I should be heading to the DMV to put my claim in for compensation for the time I spent getting my drivers license and car registration!

I don't have to go to the DMV for my drivers license (fixed that 4 u) or registration. Takes about 5 minutes on the computer. I don't have to drive or have a car but I want to so there for I pay the fees.

I don't have to use SC or CB but I want to there for I buy the discs (pay the fees). Why should I have to pay them twice. I don't have to pay to use my drivers license to drive any car I want to.

The manu doesn't pay to enhance my business, I did, they didn't pay for the computer, hard drive, monitor, speakers, amp. etc. so why should I have to pay them twice to use their product

The problem here is the KIAA itself. So far, it seems to be pretty much a scam, as we have shown here earlier.

We have KIAA members here, yet none can provide a contact name. Not their fault. The phone is rarely if ever answered.

REQUESTED audits seem to fall by the wayside.

There seems to be no physical location other than a mail drop in a building that doesn't show any resident office.

NO ONE will admit responsibility for the disbursement or handling of collected funds.

No single person or entity admits leadership.

There have been numerous changes in the "Advisory Board", due to discontent with the KIAA ( Eric from Starz and Toqer from this forum are ex-advisors).

So far, it has been " Send money.....OK, got it, catcha later..."

If you live in Nevada, you have to go into the DMV for a drivers license or ID card regardless since they are the first Federally mandated state that the Office Of Homeland Security has directed to do this in order to fend off people using false identities. I found this out last year when my license came up for renewal & was told I, or anyone else, can no longer re-register online. I don't know how many other states are now under the mandate but all 50 will eventually come under this regulation.

If you're driving your car on the New Jersey Turnpike, you must pay a fee. You can choose not to drive that road just like one can choose not to copy their CDG's to a computer. Drive down the "Mediashift Turnpike" or not! Of course not taking the "Turnpike" may be more inconvenient.

Many scams exist in the music "Business"..
Partially because the Mafia has been hip deep in it for decades..
Send money, got it..