Karaoke Forums

I'm pretty new to this site, and have read numerous random posts on here about "audits" being done on KJ's. And I was Just curious...what is an audit, and what exactly happens during an audit on a KJs music library and system? And how does one initiate an audit on a KJ that they suspect has violated the law? Is there a certain agency that one would need to contact, or paperwork that would need to be filled out, ect...

I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. . Hi. I'm not certified. I'm just being silly.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

The answer does depend on what type of audit is being performed. A voluntary audit is a simple process. The auditor will check your discs against your hard drive to insure you are 1-1 and mark each disc with a stamp.

Post lawsuit audits may be a totally different story.

You can report suspected piracy either at the KIAA website or SC's website.

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

There is now only a single manufacturer doing aduits - Sound Choice.

I went through the process back in Febraruy. Relatively painless. I have follow-up process to be relatively painless as well. However, I am now at a point where I have more than doubled the size of my Sound Choice library and will require a refreshed audit. This will a bit more cumbersome as I have integrated many of the discs I have purchased since the intial audit into my collection. This means checking ALL of my discs for a stamp from my previous audit. When I realized this I started sequestering the newly purchased Sound Choice discs which is complicating my home storage and making it more difficult for me to inventory things.

I am a unique case though due to the large number of discs I purchase so I am not expecting Sound Choice to make big changes on my account.

-Chris

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-Chris

Am I the only one that sees this continued evasiveness as a very negative ongoing activity that has no basis in legality? Who wants to be (or should be) constantly monitored in their independent business???

Your mistake is in thinking that a business that uses the intellectual property of another company in its business, with or without permission, is an "independent business."

SC in particular is constantly accountable to the upstream owners of the intellectual property it uses.

If you make an outright purchase of SC discs and use only those original discs to put on karaoke shows, SC has no interest in monitoring you at all. But when you step out of that, such as by making copies onto a hard drive, that comes with consequences, one of which is some monitoring. I don't think anyone would characterize it as "constant" monitoring.

To answer the OP's question more directly: Auditing is part of the process SC has established in order for a KJ to obtain the permissions necessary to conduct media shifting from original media to non-original media such as a hard drive. It is 100% voluntary between the KJ and SC, except that if you conduct a media shift without permission then you are subject to a lawsuit for trademark infringement. You can't initiate an audit for someone else--it has to be something they do. The process involves, among other things, comparing the tracks stored on a KJ's hard drives to the original media (CDGs) that the KJ owns and possesses, to verify 1:1 correspondence.

If you suspect someone of piracy, there are various mechanisms for reporting it. I suggest visiting soundchoice.com or scsafeharbor.com for more information.

[quote="HarringtonLaw"]If you make an outright purchase of SC discs and use only those original discs to put on karaoke shows, SC has no interest in monitoring you at all. But when you step out of that, such as by making copies onto a hard drive, that comes with consequences, one of which is some monitoring. I don't think anyone would characterize it as "constant" monitoring.quote]

It should be noted though that only a single karaoke company now - Sound Choice - is pursuing this type of monitoring. It should also be noted that of ALL of the media companies that distribute content on CD/DVD format (including all music and movie and software), Sound Choice alone is the only company that I am aware of that asks for audits of materials under any circumstances.

In my opinion, Sound Choice needs to re-visit their policies on this.

-Chris

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-Chris

Dang Chris, that's the whole business plan, how would they make money other than forcing people into buying their product with the threat of a lawsuit? Selling their discs like everyone else doesn't seem to be enough to have kept them in business.

WOH!!! Chris, turning on your Lord and Master? MY God, I never thought I would see the day!!! (this is a jest, of course, before anyone gets upset, and starts sending me PMs about the rules. Wink wink, Nudge nudge. ).

Hence why there are those who refuse to use SC material, now. When we see that there is only one media company, as Chris stated, in ALL of the media world, that is auditing people and monitoring them and the use of their product, there is a problem with that company. I can fully understand why people would shy away from using SC material, and why people who had been loyal to them might feel the need to back away from them. It's truly a sad situation. I got a kick out of Harrington letting us know that at some point in the future new music would be made, but only offered to certified hosts, and GEM users. Ok, so they will be fine with only selling their new stuff to a few hundred people. What kind of business model is THAT? If you ask me, Kurt needs his head examined.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

It SHOULD BE mentioned that SC charges you (the KJ) a fee for this "VOLUNTARY" Audit. The fee is $150. If it becomes an INVOLUNTARY audit (meaning you have media shifted your original discs to a HD, AND you NEVER set up a "VOLUNTARY" audit, AND you have now been named in a Lawsuit by SC), that INVOLUNTARY audit will now cost you $500.

This is all correct except that the "involuntary" audit is actually still voluntary (but it does cost $500). You have the option of defending the suit instead.

Geesh, anyone can very easily create a "HD" full of all the songs they have on a disc and use that for an audit.

Seems like a moot process to me.

"Geesh, anyone can very easily create a "HD" full of all the songs they have on a disc and use that for an audit.

Seems like a moot process to me."

A bit more background work does happen on the manufacturers part that was not mentioned to help prevent this type of "cheating". The audit agreement also does allow for re-auditing upon request and after a certain number of additions,,,,,,so I sure wouldn't want to get caught "cheating"

_________________
"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

How many KJs have been re-audited by Sound Choice? What is the documented schedule for doing ongoing audits?

We just passed our 2% addition rate and once they are ripped and added to our book we will be requesting our re-audit. Not sure how many other re-audits have been done. Has anyone else added more than 2% and been re-audited yet?

If Digitrax follows the audit rules put in place by CB ...re-audits are each year(not dependent on additions). We were audited 2 times by CB.

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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'm sure, but can you really imagine someone sitting there for hours, taking one song at a time, searching through scores of disks to locate that song.
Still seems really moot.

That's not how it works. We have automated tools that are used to gather the necessary data from the hard drive. Most of the audit analysis occurs later on.

Has anything changed with the voluntary audit process? Just a moment ago I submitted my 2% variance update to Kurt. I probably have 3x - 4x the number of SC discs now over when I did my original audit. That audit took a couple hours all told so I imagine we are looking at burning up a lot more time as I continue to grow.

-Chris

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-Chris

I'm not sure when you were audited, so I can't say whether there have been changes.

The variance updates tend not to be as time-consuming, but Kurt would be in a better position to answer you on that question.

Chris, you threw me for a loop! Agree with your post of course, but am surprised as well. Someone gets it!

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