Karaoke Forums

Not the average Host, but some of your the AVERAGE PIRATES are making copies of their HDs and selling them off to other (new) average pirates. And then there's just your HD sellers who are selling the HD with SC product on it, and unsuspecting newbies are buying them, all the while thinking they just got a great deal on a whole new complete Karaoke Library.

You can couch it in terms of selling a service, and yes, karaoke hosting is a service. But it is also about access to a catalog, and you cannot seriously argue that for most hosts, especially pirate hosts, the extensive nature of the available catalog isn't a selling point.

And it has to be that way to some extent. Take away your entire catalog--no accompaniment tracks available at all--and you have nothing to sell. It doesn't matter how charismatic you are, or how good you are at working a mixer, or how powerful and responsive your speakers are. If you don't have music, you don't have karaoke. (The exception being live band karaoke, which is a choice, of course.)

And you're kidding yourself if you say the brand doesn't matter to some extent. If the brand doesn't matter, why steal from SC? There are lots of defunct or foreign manus out there, whose product you can just as easily steal and get away with it much more easily because you know they aren't coming back from the dead or crossing an ocean to sue you. Why fight so hard--as you do--against SC's efforts to keep people from stealing from it, when you can just drop the brand and avoid the issue?

It's because the brand matters. It definitely matters to people who know karaoke. It matters even to the casual karaoke singer, in ways they don't fully appreciate, because when it's an SC track, more often than not, it's going to sound pretty much exactly like what they hear on the radio. I don't know about you, but when I get up on the stage to perform, I'm there to perform. I want to impress and entertain the crowd with a song well sung and well accompanied. I can't get that with something that sounds like it was put together with a dime-store midi encoder in somebody's back office.

I know that nobody goes to a karaoke show to stare at logos. That's not what this is about. It's about the very thing that the trademark laws were enacted to protect: Brand image. Quality control. Reliability. The association of a mark with a company's goodwill, built over decades. When a patron sees the SC logo on the screen, it means something important.

Some people prefer the taste of Coke and won't accept a substitute. Some people don't care. If you go to a restaurant and order a Coke, maybe you care that what you're getting is genuine Coca-Cola, and maybe you don't. But if you order a Coke and they bring you something that tastes a lot like Coke, and they serve it in a Coke glass, and they call it a Coke, and they charge "Coke" rates for it, but it isn't actually something made by the Coca-Cola Company, isn't that a problem? Even if the restaurant once bought a bottle of Coke to analyze for its recipe?

Don't be obtuse.

It's not "after the fact." It's "during the copying."

When the disc is inserted into the computer and read, the computer's ripping software interprets the code on the disc, converts it to another format, and writes it all--music, lyrics, logos, and everything else--to the hard drive. The host is putting SC's trademarks on the copy he made. (My emboldens-J.C.)

Thank you. You just stated that in YOUR OPINION, the media shifted product was a COPY ( in other words, a DUPLICATE of the original, and NOT a CREATION of the KJ. This means SC put the logo on, not the KJ.
Saved, printed , and filed. Now, go ahead and call ME obtuse again, if it makes you feel better...

different people have different experiences here. i know the only singers i get who must sing from a specific manu are not the great singers. the ones who are good don't care about manu and can sing on anything to get the crowd reaction. but others do have different experiences.

Of all the bizarre things that have been said on this board, this has to be one of the most bizarre.

The average host--and let's face it, the average host is at least mostly a pirate--is most certainly making a product and trying to sell it as original, legitimate product.

You can couch it in terms of selling a service, and yes, karaoke hosting is a service. But it is also about access to a catalog, and you cannot seriously argue that for most hosts, especially pirate hosts, the extensive nature of the available catalog isn't a selling point.

And it has to be that way to some extent. Take away your entire catalog--no accompaniment tracks available at all--and you have nothing to sell. It doesn't matter how charismatic you are, or how good you are at working a mixer, or how powerful and responsive your speakers are. If you don't have music, you don't have karaoke. (The exception being live band karaoke, which is a choice, of course.)

And you're kidding yourself if you say the brand doesn't matter to some extent. If the brand doesn't matter, why steal from SC? There are lots of defunct or foreign manus out there, whose product you can just as easily steal and get away with it much more easily because you know they aren't coming back from the dead or crossing an ocean to sue you. Why fight so hard--as you do--against SC's efforts to keep people from stealing from it, when you can just drop the brand and avoid the issue?

It's because the brand matters. It definitely matters to people who know karaoke. It matters even to the casual karaoke singer, in ways they don't fully appreciate, because when it's an SC track, more often than not, it's going to sound pretty much exactly like what they hear on the radio. I don't know about you, but when I get up on the stage to perform, I'm there to perform. I want to impress and entertain the crowd with a song well sung and well accompanied. I can't get that with something that sounds like it was put together with a dime-store midi encoder in somebody's back office.

I know that nobody goes to a karaoke show to stare at logos. That's not what this is about. It's about the very thing that the trademark laws were enacted to protect: Brand image. Quality control. Reliability. The association of a mark with a company's goodwill, built over decades. When a patron sees the SC logo on the screen, it means something important.

Some people prefer the taste of Coke and won't accept a substitute. Some people don't care. If you go to a restaurant and order a Coke, maybe you care that what you're getting is genuine Coca-Cola, and maybe you don't. But if you order a Coke and they bring you something that tastes a lot like Coke, and they serve it in a Coke glass, and they call it a Coke, and they charge "Coke" rates for it, but it isn't actually something made by the Coca-Cola Company, isn't that a problem? Even if the restaurant once bought a bottle of Coke to analyze for its recipe?

The difference is the crime ring is making the exact duplicates to sell as iPhone and IPads, creating confusion in the market place. The average host or hostess is not making product and then trying to sell it as original SC product.

Did anyone catch the first line in that long speech by Jim?
Does anyone here care that he just called almost everyone if not everyone here a pirate?

You are SOOOOO full of it, I am surprised you aren't choking, and spitting out pieces of poop!!! I am tired of hearing t]about all this piracy nonsense. Yes, I have shifted every brand but yours. I have paid for every single song I own. I do not have an unending list of music, but I BUY new music EVERY week. I have PROOF of that!! I AM the average KJ, now-a-days, in the Post SC era!!! I refuse to be labelled as a pirate by YOU or anyone else!!

Sound Choice is DONE!! They can't compete in the market anymore. They gave that up in 2009. I will tell you this, Zoom Karaoke is putting out music that is better than Sound Choice ever was, with closer representations of the songs they record. As a matter of fact, I am buying Zoom on a regular basis to REPLACE many of my old favorite SC songs, so I won't need to use ANY discs, not to mention that the versions I am buying, are better.

00101011111010100010111010100101010001110101000010101110101010111001010100101100100101011010101001
on a cd+g is the same as
00101011111010100010111010100101010001110101000010101110101010111001010100101100100101011010101001
on a HDD

we are not talking about replacing Coca-Cola with R.C.

Crime rings usually make exact LOOKING duplicates. They actually use cheaper, lower quality parts that increases the likelihood of damage or decreases lifespan. They want their cost to be as close to zero as possible to maximize profits and they aren't playing by any rules so they cut corners any way they can.

-Chris

If it is such a bizarre little statement Jimbo why go into such a long response to it? What you are saying is the average host is a crook and has the morale fiber of a whore that sells a service for a price. I find that not only bizarre, but offensive to me as a host and all hosts in general.

I'm not making a product, I'm providing a service to the public, sometimes in public sometimes in private, depending on who is requesting that service.

In the case of SC I have no access to their catalog since I don't use their product. The only contact I have is if one of my patrons brings in their disc and asks me to play it, and that disc happens to be SC.

The SC brand doesn't matter to me Jim, I don't use it and never have had it requested,.....

I know that your fantasy and Kurt's is to take away all tracks even the orphans, that is why you have been trying to get the publishers involved.

I really don't like Coke or any Cola's I have always been an A&W root beer fan myself, especially floats with real ice-cream.

I have dropped your product Jimbo and I will be leaving the business in 29 more days, so really there is nothing to fight about.

I oppose it because it is wrong, it is not working, and the only goal is to line yours and Kurt's pockets.

So Chris the average host is a pirate and it is quite apparent to you at least and Jimbo that they are out here operating as usual. In your 12 years of traveling then it should also be apparent the problem is not getting better it is getting worse. Despite the efforts of SC and now PR there are more pirates out here than when this legal process of theirs started. It is a net loser. If it is so obvious that the pirates are operating their show from PC's, it should be equally obvious that they are running their shows without original SC product, since the original product was on a disc not a computer. There is no way the presented product could be confused as original SC product, no confusion in the market place. Like Mr. Boo said where are the facts proving the accuracy of Jimbo's statement?

You may very well become the first person I have ever used an IGNORE feature on in my life online.

...Prostitutes provide a public service....sometimes in public, sometimes in private. Just depends on the requests of the customer (or so I have head anyway)... -Chris

8) See for myself Chris? I have been in the business for over 19 years how much more do I need to see? I know all of the local hosts in my area and hosts outside my area. You are right the majority don't know the first thing about what is discussed on these forums and could care less. They are too busy running their business's and don't understand why, in their opinion I'm wasting my time here? With just 29 more days in the business I can say that I have worked steady with no problems either from the manus or the pirates. I hope that doesn't shake your little world that much. Aren't the pirates dealing in confusion? Isn't that what Jimbo and Kurt are saying in their suits, the pirates are confusing the poor consumer into believing they are actually using real SC product. Isn't that the thin line they are basing their suits on Infringement which requires confusion as one of it's elements?

I am pretty sure that would be legal in Nevada.

As has been evidenced on these very forums, you can work in an industry for decades and still not have a clue.

If you think you have not been impacted by pirates, then see the line above.

Yes, the pirates are leading people to believe they have bought and paid for their music when in fact they have not. That is the confusion.

-Chris