piracy on the high c s

Even before such words and phrases as internet, napster, downloading, e-commerce and MP3 had entered the daily vocabulary of everybody working in or around the music industry, there were mammoth problems of copyright infringement.
With the problem now reaching crisis levels internationally, and with new technologies creating new controversies, hotpress takes an A-Z look at an increasingly complex music industry battlefield in its many forms and guises.

ARTISTS: Music fans often justify their purchases of illegal recordings on the basis that their favourite megastar artist will hardly have time to miss the unpaid royalties. Given that numerous successful artists for various reasons ended up in penury, this is a dumb argument. Besides, it too easily overlooks all the others involved in the recordings (producers, arrangers, songwriters, etc.) who may be far less wealthy and whose work is also being used without permission or remuneration.
BOOTLEGGING: This refers to the illegal recording and/or manufacturing of an artist s live performance for which the bootlegger does not have the required legal rights. No payment is made to the legal copyright holders. The first modern bootleg is believed to have been The Great White Wonder album of Bob Dylan outakes.
COUNTERFEITING: Whereas bootlegging usually refers to illegal recordings not otherwise legally available, counterfeiting is more commonly used as a term to describe the illegal copying, distribution and selling of recordings already issued to the market by legitimate copyright holders. The most common targets of counterfeiting are major artists as one of the biggest-selling stars in pop, Madonna is among those whose mainstream albums are most often counterfeited.
COPYRIGHT: Literally, the right to copy . The law in most western states decrees that the creators/owners of copyright material (recordings, videos, songs, novels, plays, articles, etc.) are legally entitled to receive remuneration for the use of their works. In many instances, prior permission may also be required.
DOWNLOADING: The facility whereby material available on the internet may be copied over the Internet for use by the recipient of the material. This is becoming an increasing problem given the privacy in which such activities take place and the problems created by variations of copyright protection and interpretation in different countries .
E-COMMERCE: Trading by means of electronic (e) communications. The advent of e-Commerce has virtually torn up existing rules and regulations governing the sale, use and transfer of copyright material. Whereas in the days when breaches of copyright were generally restricted to physical reproductions of product which at least could be seen, the invisibility of most e-commerce transactions has brought serious headaches to the music industry.
FAKE products are commonplace on the streets of most modern cities, and they re not restricted to tapes, videos and CDs. In Britain it is estimated that a quarter of all goods purchased by young people on the streets are fakes.
GLOBAL PIRACY is now posing such a threat that the music industry and the Motion Picture Association in the USA have joined forces to combat the problem on an international level as it is reckoned that many of the pirates are common to both industries. Estonia is believed to one major source of piracy, using shipments through Finland as a back-door into the world market.
HOME-SHOPPING, including mail-order catalogue purchases, phone ordering and the internet is expected to become the norm for 20% of consumers within the next five years. As a result, tracing and proving a case against pirates will become increasingly difficult in such cases without the help of the public.
IRMA is a non-profit body consisting of Irish and international record companies and labels set up to protect and advance the interests of all members. The organisation is actively involved in the pursuit and prosecution of copyright thieves and have an increasingly successful track record in this area.
IMRO is the Irish Music Rights Organisation, set up as an independent body in Ireland in 1996 to collect royalties from the public use of copyright music in Ireland and to protect the rights of its members. They have sued countless illegal users of copyright material and have a national network of agents whose role includes the ferreting out of locations illegally using copyright material. Membership of IMRO is free and it s essential for any Irish songwriter or composer whose material may generate copyright earnings.
INTERNET purchases are certainly convenient when dealing with a respectable, legitimate trader. But it is now estimated that a third of all goods sold over the Internet are not what they claim to be and there s often nothing you can do to get your money back.
JOBS are often put at risk by the pirating of various goods. Statistics about to be published by the European Union show that counterfeiting is believed to cost EU countries up to #250 billion per annum in lost income, with about 100,000 jobs each year lost as a result of the illegal trade.
LIVE RECORDINGS are often the most common form of recordings found on bootleg records. Some artists (including Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead) are claimed to have facilitated bootleggers by setting aside separate areas of venues for the sole purpose of allowing bootlegging fans to record their performances. U2 printed a cassette design in hotpress which was specifically intended to be used as a cover for live recordings of their Lovetown gig at the Point broadcast by 2FM.
MCPS stands for the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society and, as their name might imply, they are at the forefront of the anti-piracy campaign in Ireland, representing thousands of composers and publishers of copyright music both Irish and international. Strictly speaking, nobody should copy or manufacture recordings in Ireland without getting prior clearance from MCPS unless the material to be duplicated is one s own and the copyright has not been assigned to another person or company. The MCPs publish a very useful book which every performer or songwriter should have. It s called On The Right Track and it covers a wide range of matters relevant to copyright in an easy to understand manner. Their e-mail address is .
MP3 is one of the most revolutionary innovations to hit the music industry since the invention of the gramophone record. It enables internet users to store substantial amounts of recorded material in individual accounts, much of which, industry insiders believe, may be being made available illegally. In April this year a US judge ruled that the service represented a breach of copyright. BMG and EMI have subsequently entered into a licencing partnership with MP3.com.
NAPSTER is one of several music provider systems which enable internet users to exchange music files without paying for them at all. It s posing major problems for the financial wizards in the music industry and there is a case pending against them in the US courts. US record companies are struggling to find a means of allowing for inevitable, and probably escalating, levels of piracy in their future financial projections. One top analyst believes that unless drastic action is taken to stem the free availability of copyright material, by 2002 16% of all US music sales, estimated at $985 million, will be lost to Internet piracy.
OUTAKES from studio recordings are regularly the subject of bootleg recordings. The infamous Bob Dylan Albert Hall concert (actually it took place at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester) was available in bootleg format for decades before Sony Music issued it legally.
PIRACY not only affects artists, record companies and the quality of the music product sold to the public, but it also can have an adverse effect on company share prices, which in turn can have a knock-on effect in terms of viability and employment.
QUALITY products purchased in well-known stores are not necessarily guaranteed to be legit. Because of the advanced technology now available to pirates, the shop itself may not even know the product (perhaps a video machine or a personal stereo) is actually a pirated copy under an established brand name. You and they may only learn this when they try to have it replaced for you after a defect arises.
RECORD RETAILERS are often among those who suffer from piracy, especially when open markets are selling counterfeit versions of legitimate products for a fraction of the normal retail price. Most self-respecting record retailers refuse to stock bootleg products of any kind.
SOLICITORS have a central role to play in combating bootlegging, but only those with a proper understanding of the copyright laws as they pertain to music can adequately fight the battle through the courts. If you are a musician or a songwriter and you have been subjected to a breach of your copyright, you need to talk to experienced legal practitioners such as Gleeson, Baldwin, McGrath a Dublin-based firm with a team of entertainment industry experts. TECHNOLOGY has now reached a level of sophistication whereby identifying cases of pirated recordings is increasingly difficult. The opening up of trade borders, and the growth of unmonitored markets in the Far East have exacerbated the problem, since the laws in many countries have yet to catch up with the technology available to exploit loopholes in the law.
UKRAINE is believed to be a major producer of bootleg recordings.
VALUE FOR MONEY is not quite the top priority with the vast majority of pirates. Indeed they will peddle anything for a quick buck, irrespective of quality or legality. A common trick is to repackage the same musical selection in different guises so as to delude the potential purchaser that he or she is getting something new when they may already have the material offered.
WALL STREET financial wizards are perplexed as to how to estimate the effect of Internet piracy on record sales and how the industry should position itself in relation to the issue. Stocks in EMI, Sony, Warners and Universal are all down in recent months, with Sony down 34%.
YOU have a role to play in combating the pirates if you so choose. You might save a pound or two here or there when you snap up that irresistible bargain at the local market stall. But when you find it s been duplicated on the lowest quality material imaginable then you may have no way of having it replaced or getting your money back.
The late Frank ZAPPA had a unique approach to bootleggers. He actually adopted a policy of bootlegging the bootleggers! Frank used to trawl the markets and the magazines for every available bootleg of his work and then repackage them himself, with accurate information and sell them at a price cheaper than the pirates!