Karaoke Forums

I was running my friend's show for him, tonight and this guy walks in and asks for Gimme Three Steps. He sees my friend's disks and sees SGB, and tells me that's the worst version out there. Fine. He asks for either the SC or the CB versions. My buddy doesn't have either one. Well he has the SC version, but it's messed up. So the guy says that he would be right back, and goes and gets his own disk. Wouldn't you know it, he brings me a CD-R. I refused him, politely. He went out to his car and produced a CB disc, and did his song. I joked with him that he seemed like an investigator. He just laughed. Later, when he left, I apologized to him for not letting him use his burned copy, and told him that with all the BS going on with lawsuits and piracy I don't want to get caught up in it. He said I was the only one who ever refused to play his burn, but he understood it. The whole thing felt a bit fishy, though. He had never been there before. My buddy (who's show it is) was there, too, and he had never seen the guy before, either. It made me wonder if we were getting scoped. Whatever, there was nothing for the guy to see, so it was ok.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Bobby,

You just ran into one of the reasons we don't play burns. BTW you handled it the same way we would have. See the singer did not have a problem with not using a burn and the show went on. Also try not to let yourself get paranoid....often a new singer is just that a new singer (or here in Florida) a tourist......

Blessings
Athena

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"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 wasn't feeling paranoid about it. I wasn't doing anything wrong, so I had no need to worry. It just felt..................wrong, somehow. I get feelings off people, and I am usually right.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

I understand and was not trying to say you were doing anything wrong Bobby, I just know what it is like and don't want to see you start to GET paranoid.....sometimes spending a lot of time on the boards can make things seem weird. Glad you got to run a show tonight...I know you enjoy it.

Blessings
Athena

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"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

Yeah, it was a good night, AFTER I restarted their router. We have been using Spotify for filler music, and you need a connection for that. A friend of ours was celebrating her 51st birthday tonight. It was quite busy.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

It can get that way--the tourists from Tennessee who only want Chartbuster, the people visiting form North Carolina who only want to sing Sound Choice--WHO are they really?

We had a new fellow 2 weeks ago suddenly decide he didn't know how to find a number in the book even though he had been writing slips all night. He wanted to know if I could find him the number for "Hotel California." We are a disc show but have a computer there for other functions. As I was looking up the song on our master list on the computer he stood behind me looking over my shoulder the entire time. I wrote him his slip and he got his song--ours is Zoom.

I really don't know that any of these people are investigators but one does get a flash of, "I wonder...." every now and then. But we carry on as normal and don't really worry about it because ours is such a small place that the singer is inches from the disc players and everyone can see everything we do.

It's very common around here for a singer to ask for specific manus, I wouldn't have thought twice about it.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

It's completely foreign for anyone to ask for brands around here. Completely out of place. And the fact that the next thing the guy did was give me a burned disc made it even more fishy. Then he produced the real disc, which made it even MORE fishy. I just found the whole thing funny.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

For what it's worth, I think you made a good catch, Bobby. I get a lot of brand specific singers,here as well, but your description of this guy's actions leds me to believe your instincts were right.

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

Yeah. We don't get strangers in too often, and this was just too weird. I was MR. Technology last night. I had the player and two computers going. One computer was used for Spotify for filler and for singing my songs, one for downloading from Tricerasoft, and then the player for the discs.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

First of all, SC man or not, he better have the original cdg. If he's the SC man, then without even keeping a log, you know who he is. Not to mention, it would be a form of intrapment.
No way, no how, was that "The Man". You're new here, "most" members on here have move passed that particular paranoia.

Not necessarily entrapment but more of a test. And he HAD the original, which he produced AFTER I denied his CD-R. I'm not saying the guy was THE MAN, I am saying the whole thing, especially knowing our crowd, was really fishy, and out of place.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

I've done karaoke in different states & if I don't see indication of which track is what in the songbook (or if a songbook exists at all) I will ask for specific versions or manus.
As far as burns, with people on the forums claiming they will not play burns but only originals (although I have yet to find a place that won't play burns, I usually bring in compilation discs) so someone out of town looking for karaoke may bring in their burn first because some kj's don't treat customer discs very nice - which is partly why they backup their discs. KJ don't play burns - then you get the original.
I would just chalk it up to a guy from out of town looking for karaoke and wanting to sing what he was used to. Just because it's foreign to you doesn't mean it doesn't happen. I know a guy from Missouri that brings in his binder of over 50 discs when he comes out to visit his family - with originals & backups. That is not common but does happen.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

Whatever. Whether it was "the man" or just a tourist, I found it to be weird. We just don't get that kind of people at our show. Whatever the case, he had nothing on me, even if he WAS "the man".

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

If I was busy, maybe I couldn't tell an original from a conterfeit.......guess I better stop playing originals too... ok, you got me......I don't think I could spot a conterfeit if I had all the time in the world. Either way, guess playing a counterfeit would be just as bad as playing a burn from someone not owning the original. Again, counterfeit original, or burn without owning the original.......how would I know...... or burn, owning what you thought was the original, but it's a counterfeit......

It is all so ridiculous, really. These companies are putting up all kinds of nonsense to stop piracy, but making harder and harder for KJs to do their business the right way. You are right, if it's a crazy night how are you going to have time to inspect every disc given to you to play?? Heaven forbid it IS the man that gives you a counterfeit as a test. Then you get screwed, and have to prove yourself legit. It's got to stop!!

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

What if there was a truck high jacking of SONY Flat Screen TVs. Does that give the employees of SONY the right to force evryone who owns a SONY TV to show their original receipt to prove legal ownership? I don't think so. They can't just walk into a Bar, let's say, and insist that the owner of the bar prove that they don't have stolen property. Owning a SONY TV, in and of itself, is not a crime. You can't force discovery without probable cause. You couldn't get a search warrant strictly based on the fact that someone had a SONY TV in his establishment.

In the same vein, you can't just assume that a karaoke host does NOT have his discs at home in a closet and force him to show them to you. That is why no one ever gets taken all the way to the court room.

Well, it seems you do now! Its a testament to your show. You will probably begin to see more as word gets around you do a good job.

I was on SC's hit list (I didn't know at the time), and I bought the entire Gem Series. They sold it to me at the $4000 price because they had not started a lawsuit process against me yet. After that, it would have been $15,000.
Anyway, I have had the local investigation company here in Salem, OR in my venue about a half dozen times in the last two months. They keep watching to see if I am adding any music to my hard drive that isn't SC certified. They have been fairly easy to pick out of the crowds.
The karaoke police are alive and well in the Salem area. And, Kurt Slep, the SC owner is going to be in Salem/Portland on May 10th, to meet with an attorney here.

You can pretty much guarantee that if you are withion a few miles of the I-5 Corridor from Canada to Mexico that you are on SC's radar.

-Chris

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-Chris