Karaoke Forums

Filed April 24th... in Federal Court:



This is such an ironic twist:
it appears from all the paperwork from the court, that the Tennessee production center was sued for breach of contract --certifying that the songs they sold to CAVS were licensed when they weren't-- which caused CAVS to be sued by music publishers for what amounted to

wait for it...

wait for it...

"piracy".... or "infringement"... or "unauthorized use" or "and fraud claims"

What a surprise that the new corporation is titled "piracy recovery LLC" looks like they might just be recovering from their own piracy. And worse is that they will be suing pirates for pirating their pirated tracks that contain their trademark...

They were "murdered" by pirates alright.... it's the origin that remains in question.

The other ironic part of this is that it was a DEFAULT JUDGMENT...... Chartbuster didn't even bother to defend themselves. So the court does what it does in all default judgments: the allegations are considered "admitted" including charge of fraud.

And now, what's left has partnered up with who??? I can't understand how HarringtonLaw can sleep at night having clients with such sterling character.

Cheerleaders:
Feel free to start defending them anyway you can and I'll even give you a start from the Blues Bros. film:

just wow.
apparently they screwed us all.
i am very much with you here Chip....if i was a lawyer, i could not in good conscience stand behind and work for someone with those ethics.....or lack thereof, this isn't criminal court after all.

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

For the record, the company I work for now is not the same company that CAVS sued, nor even the same people. I sleep just fine.

Funny how when we get a default judgment, that's meaningless, but when somebody else gets one, it's conclusive as to the bad character of people who had nothing to do with it. Double standards abound.

I was wondering about that double standard thing too HarringtonLaw.......But then again there are some really "angry" people here

Blessings
Athena

_________________
"Integrity is choosing your thoughts, words and actions based on your principles and values rather than for your personal gain."
Unknown
"if a man has integrity, nothing else matters, If a man has no integrity, nothing else matters."
Lee McGuffey

I would still like to know how Sound Choice suffers any kind of loss by someone giving them free advertising by displaying their logo? It would seem to me that every Sound Choice logo is the same so if you own even one Sound choice disc; you should have the right to display that logo as often as you like. What is the harm if I hook up a second karaoke player to a TV in a bar and freeze frame the Sound Choice logo on that TV for the entire evening? What is the harm in that? ZERO! Same thing if I hook up a second computer and do the same thing.

I have another question about multi riggers using one set of original discs to do multiple shows on the same night. I would think that as long as the same song is not being played at the EXACT same moment at two different locations; there really is no foul. It would be as if the headquarters of the karaoke DJ Company had all of their songs on a server and their satellite gigs had access to the songs on that server. The odds of the same song being started at the exact same moment at multiple locations are higher than winning the Mega-Millions lottery. Mega Millions has 56 numbers to choose from and the odds of picking them are in the hundreds of millions for just 6 choices. The odds of picking the same song out of 100,000 songs at two differnt shows would be in the billions.

Once the song gets played at one show it is free to be played at a different show. As far as the logo is concerned; refer to paragraph one. Showing the Sound Choice logo during a song is no different than hanging up a sign on the wall with a Sound Choice logo on it with a caption saying..."WE LOVE SOUND CHOICE" . No Harm No Foul.

I guess that's why these cases never make it into a court room. Too many land mines for SC to avoid. There are enough chickens out there who cave into the SC pressure to keep it profitable for SC and their gestapo tactics to keep the ball rolling. They've even convinced CB that it is a good idea.

I quite understand – It's not the same "company." It is strictly a trademark trolling operation, there is no "former supplier" who will be clawing their way back from the depths of piracy in order to make music again.

It's just a job.



The real double standard was chartbuster threatening and suing people for piracy – now that's a double standard.

There is no double standard here at all:

When you get a default judgment, it's usually against some little person who makes one hundred dollars a night in a bar playing music. Even your settlements are under ten thousand dollars.

Is it conclusive to the bad character of the defendant? Certainly it is. The difference here is that you are constantly trying to twist a relatively tiny default judgment against the KJ as though it was some kind of precedent-setting ruling by the Supreme Court of the planet to further your ongoing litigation. So please don't act as though you or your clients are some type of victims here – you're not.

However, now were talking about a default judgment that is close to four hundred thousand dollars and that doesn't include the previous almost $3,000,000 dollars in settlements they got pinned on them in the last few years. And once again, a "default judgment." one where the defendant didn't even bother to offer any affirmative defenses on their behalf. And as you are so quick to remind us here, a default judgment is considered an admission of truth. So that would include the breach of contract as well as the charges of fraud.

You might sleep well at night, but I certainly wouldn't have the conscience to work for even the trolling company for a trademark that had that kind of history attached to it. And again I understand it has nothing to do with integrity – it's about the money. Don't forget to wear your "gone fishing" hat.

So as much as you would care to minimize it, it is nowhere close to being a double standard. But nice try.

That is actually very easy to do. So easy that you'll see there is a stipulation against it in the gems series agreement. If you're a single op, you can do that today literally for free. All the tools are out there and they're free too.



Angry? No one angry here... I'm doing the "green-candle-happy-dance" After being the recipient of their accusatory spew for almost 2 years, it appears as though karma has worked her magic and your precious certification can now be used to soak up spills.

As far as anger is concerned, you are probably one of the people that should be the angriest, along with all the other cheerleaders. You were led to believe that the music they were selling was in fact licensed when it is apparent from the court records they didn't have a problem passing off unlicensed material as licensed. Don't we refer to that as piracy? Do you feel as though you were hoodwinked by a pirate into helping them make more money?

Do you understand now why they continually refused to prove that they purchased any catalog from Sweet Georgia Brown?

However there is one major difference: ChartBuster operations will be shut down by May 10, 2012 and I'll still be in business.

Bet you didn't see that coming!

Bright blessings.

So Chip--you have the documents. I see a monetary judgement but I don't see an order to "close the doors" on a certain date. When there is a monetary award, isn't there some time given for the person/company to pay up before an instant order is given to close their doors? Wouldn't the order to close their doors require some sort of process like a lein to be put into effect first which would require more court time? It usually doesn't all happen on one day does it? And how does this award rank as far as amounts they have managed to pay in the past?

While it looks on the surface that 2 and 2 would equal 4, maybe one of your 2s is just a coincidence. I am wondering if this latest spin might only be another "nice try."

well said LL For someone who lives with a paralegal he sure seems to miss a bunch of basics doesn't he?

Blessings
Athena

_________________
"Integrity is choosing your thoughts, words and actions based on your principles and values rather than for your personal gain."
Unknown
"if a man has integrity, nothing else matters, If a man has no integrity, nothing else matters."
Lee McGuffey

Ever hear of an appeal?......anyway, you can be sure there were many reasons for CB's decision.....not just one

And the "All New Digitrax" will open in it's place. Planes, Trains & Automobiles.

Nice try is right.... It was chartbuster that announced they were "closing their doors" and Compuhost claiming they were "forced to close their doors."

You need to ask them directly and not blame their failing on me. I know you think I have a crystal ball, but I don't.

Good luck to you.



Woah!... "Horns In" there pard'ner! You're starting to sound like an angry little woman -- and after being hoodwinked for a few years I can't say as I blame you either.

Leopard Lizard's question should be directed to those that made the announcement of the closing if she's unclear about the procedures that need to be followed from this point forward.

Don't shoot the messenger.... no matter how distasteful you might find the message.


Johnny,
You're right, there is a thing called an appeal.... don't know if it qualifies here because the defendant - despite being served and noticed - chose a default judgment as an exit point.

You'll need to ask HarringtonLaw...

(you can trust him right?)

You are not saying that pricipals of Chartbuster are not involved with Digitrax- ARE you? I mean, not with Norbert ( meaning Debi has to be in there too) listed as a contact for Digitrax.... Are you?

You are also not saying there is absolutely no connection between these companies- ARE you?

_________________
"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

Of course it's not the same company... it's the new one formed in february "Piracy Recovery LLC"

Not the same people? Did Kurt buy the trademark or was it sold to professional trolls? And the reason I say that is because that's the only way it could happen. It will no longer be "chartbuster karaoke", "big mama", "Tennessee production" suing to "recover losses" will it? Exactly who is "recovering?"

Recovering means something is "coming back" so who is it coming back to?

Johnny,

You have to understand the procedure here:

1. They were noticed that they were "in default" -- they knew it,
2. A period of time passes (28 days?) in which IF they wanted to "appeal" anything -- which is actually not an appeal it is a "motion to set aside the default" and get back into the court battle. This would have been the time they could have stopped the proceedings to defend themselves -- but they CHOSE NOT TO.
3. Default judgment ordered. Basically it is etched in stone at this point -- there is no "appeal" process unless they could convince the court that they were abducted by aliens and held against their will during #2.

It's game over.

Actually it is the Chipped Crystal Ball that I am wondering about.

Titling a thread "Filed the same day of the out of business notice" and also commenting, "something happened" is the $389,000 judgment against them for breach of contract (with charges of fraud) that was handed down yesterday" from the Chartbuster Karaoke thread
seemed to imply you believe there is a direct connection between the suit and CB closing it's doors. I am thinking the timing is not quite right for that and that your "Crystal Ball Guesses" may be a bit off. Only time will tell.

You seriously think this is just a coincidence?

_________________
Birdofsong

It just doesn't seem that a judgment for an amount of money would close a company down the same day. There has to be more to it. They have had larger judgments before. There is nothing in the judgment demanding they close down immediately.

I represent Piracy Recovery, LLC. That company now owns the CHARTBUSTER KARAOKE trademarks and is owned and controlled by the same people who own and control Digitrax. I don't know how involved Norbert and Debi are in Digitrax's operations, but I do know that they do not own or control any part of it, and that whatever involvement they do have in it is merely transitional.



Tennessee Production/Big Mama/Chartbuster, or whatever other entities there were, that were owned and run by Norbert, are now out of business. I don't know all of the precise details of what assets went where, except that Piracy Recovery, LLC owns the trademarks and licenses them to whatever entity is distributing tracks.

I don't answer to Norbert; I've never met him or talked to him and I certainly wouldn't recognize him if I saw him on the street. My firm represents PR, in which Norbert is not involved in the slightest, and which is owned and run by the same people who own and run the new company--none of whom were involved in whatever led to the CAVS suit and default judgment.

It is actually just a coincidence that the two events occurred on the same day. The shutdown of CB has been in the works for months.