Karaoke Forums

During the last few years I was still in the business full time I noticed more and more customers had their own hard drives with over 200 k tracks. They told me they paid 400 to 700 dollars for the drives, that they made copies and gave them as Christmas gifts, and on Birthdays to their friends. They offered to make one for me free, of course I told them I wasn't computer based, that my legal library loaded on my hard drive player with it's over 18,000 original tracks were enough for my type of show. It occurred to me that while these people were involved in illegal activities, they were coming out and supporting my shows. They were making it possible to stay in business. They were the home user abusers. Here is the morale question, should a host discourage singers from coming to his shows if the patrons are pirates themselves? Most hosts are concerned with gathering a crowd not dispersing it. If you know as a host your singers are engaged in illegal activities and you do nothing about it, are you in some way responsible?

Are we negligent in not reporting copyright infringement? Perhaps technically. Would we be indicted for it? Not likely.

I believe you'd be fighting a losing battle discouraging singers who engage in copyright infringement from coming to your shows. Since many singers have pirated music, turning them away would be shooting yourself and the venue in the foot. They'd just go somewhere else.

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DJ Don

I would venture to say 90% of the bar's patrons, not just on karoake nights, are digital music pirates in the MP3 realm, or have otherwise broken some sort of petty law, so unless you want an empty bar, you can't only allow law abiding citizens

What you CAN do is educate them on the law and make it very well known that you follow the laws and the illegal drives have no place at your show. You have to understand that the VAST majority of people who break these copyright laws have no idea they are doing anything wrong. Once explained, any reasonable person will understand that they need to keep that to themselves in the privacy of their own home, and there is more risk/consequences for a commercial host, so they need to keep their private dealings away from public shows!

Good luck!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

While I had a good library of legal music I didn't have every song. I wondered if it was ok to play discs given to me by patrons if they are bootlegged? Should I set myself up as the law in this case, and make a big deal out of it?

Up to you if you don't want to play discs or files from flash drives. And you can give whatever reason you feel is justified. You have to decide if it's worth potentially losing a patron, though.

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DJ Don

I was able to play discs, I never had a flash drive capability when I was working full time. Too easy I have been told to get something in your machine you may not want.

Play what you have. Buy what you don't. Play what customers bring you if you can't get it and you have no conclusive evidence of the law being broken.

I haven't played a singer disc or thumb drive in about 6 years. Patrons used to bring them in all the time. I layed down the law that I wouldn't play them anymore and politely explained the legal reason. They biaaatched and moaned for about a month, then that was that. Never a peep since.

It's the same at most other shows I attend. No one that knows the legalities plays singer discs/MP3Gs anymore.

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C Mc
KJ, FL

It's not just hard drives..

I've seen thousands of SC CD+G disks for sale in one brick and mortar store.

All skin wrapped in the CD trays of 100 pcs, looking fresh..

They probably sell them on the ebay too.. Who knows..

I thought they were all sold years ago..

When a customer goes out to take a shot from the bottle in their car, should they be refused service when they come back inside to buy a pitcher of beer?

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KNOW THYSELF

If our bar finds out - yep they absolutely will be refused.

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

Somebody's checking your parking lot?

When security is on shift, yep!

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

When i was hosting, I tried to educated everyone on the legalities of copying karaoke music, and they accepted it as far as why I wouldn't play anything except original media, however in terms of getting the person to change their practices as a whole, it was a complete waste of time. However, i did what i could so my concience in this matter is pretty clean.

-James

Unfortunately we now live in an easy access and impossible to control content ocean. Most people don't care about the legalities one bit. If they can get to it online, then to them they assume its legal. It is the self preservation of a VERY FEW of us KJ's who have something to lose (not Much) who keep it legal so as not to cause loss to both ourselves and the businesses who employ us. The Home user or consumer has nothing to lose and does not care one bit. They just go somewhere else to another KJ who has the content.
It's starting to SUCK discovering that I am one of the only 1:1 guys in town, but I can sleep at night!
Bring me YOUR legal SC original disk, I'll play it. Bring me your custom homemade, I'll play it. Anything else...NO!
I add background tracks and additional instruments to karaoke files myself for my performance so the Homemades or enhanced (especially from known musicians in the area) I'll allow but not Downloaded major brands on a thumb drive. FYI you can get all kinds of nasty viruses off a cd as well as a thumb drive. I only carry songs I know even Illegal KJ's wont have, or that have been significantly enhanced by adding background vox or instrumentation on my personal carry thumb drive. Food for thought.

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

I quit playing patrons’ copied burned cds long time ago. Same goes to thumb drives. I will play original cds; I’ll play it even if I have the same version in my library.

They’ve found out the easy way, tho'. I'll politely recommend check my book or type-in to my kiosk laptop; always get the same response “I did not know you have that song”!

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To be fortunate enough to derive an income from a source as fulfilling as karaoke music has got to be as close to heaven as we can get here on earth!