MEGAUPLOAD

[IrisRose]

This changes things!     Ouch!     Keep to those honest uploads, brotha!     

Police in New Zealand on Friday raided several homes and businesses linked to the founder of Megaupload.com, a giant file-sharing site shut down by U.S. authorities, and seized guns, millions of dollars, and nearly $5 million in luxury cars, officials said.

Police arrested founder Kim Dotcom and three Megaupload employees Thursday on U.S. accusations that they facilitated millions of illegal downloads of films, music and other content, costing copyright holders at least $500 million in lost revenue. Extradition proceedings against them could last a year or more.

http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/20/10199528-megaupload-founders-homes-raided-5m-in-luxury-cars-seized

[arabia]

http://torrentfreak.com/cyberlocker-ecosystem-shocked-as-big-players-take-drastic-action-120123/

MegaUpload just the first, many others now voluntarily disabling file sharing and deleting members and files to avoid authorities. Not great loss with regard to the blatant copyright infringers, but a shame for the live music sharing that also used these sites.

[IrisRose]

I hope that Dime keeps going.   It is scrupulously honest, because it does want to avoid this kind of thing.   Also, I think Trader's Den has very high standards.   And then there is our own SCTracker.    It would be hard to do without them.   Back to trade by mail, I suppose.   That's tough, if one doesn't have something to offer in trade.   

[vgonis]

http://www.side-line.com/news_comments.php?id=46980_0_2_0_C
One of the reasons may be this. Since the official medium is going to be the internet, they have to protect it.

[tunnel85]

ACTA is the main reason :
http://www.openskill.lu/en/internet-2012-hadopi3-acta-c11/

[vgonis]

Tunnel 85, it is very interesting, have read similar articles, prior to the present crisis, and a whole book-Appetite for self-destruction by Steve Knopper. But actually we are talking about the same thing.

[Hophead]

I hope that Dime keeps going.   It is scrupulously honest, because it does want to avoid this kind of thing.   Also, I think Trader's Den has very high standards.   And then there is our own SCTracker.    It would be hard to do without them.   Back to trade by mail, I suppose.   That's tough, if one doesn't have something to offer in trade.   

I don't see why Dime or SC would get caught up in this..unless they try to ban ALL file sharing. Dime has done nothing wrong..the shows that they allow to be posted are from artists on their list that have given the okay to record and share shows. The sites they need to go after are the blatant offenders like Piratebay.

[twm]

As you say, the 50-year rule might be changed but, at present, it gives us the chance to hear some of that old stuff quite legally. The rule is 50 years from the end of the year in which the recording was made but there are still some uncertainties. For example, there is a particular Bob Dylan concert that took place in late 1961; it took place after Dylan was signed to Columbia Records but was not actually recorded by Columbia Records. They have, however, released one song from that concert on one of The Bootleg Series sets. Now that 50 years have passed, someone (I forget the label) has issued the concert on CD (to be precise, only the songs that have got into collectors' hands, so we know they haven't obtained the recording from the original source). BUT BUT BUT, they have omitted the one track that has been issued by Columbia Records in the intervening period, presumably to avoid the possibility of legal action by Sony.

The other thing worth mentioning is that some of these companies who issue old recordings under the 50-year rule do, in fact, pay some level of royalties - maybe not the same level of royalties that were paid when the recordings were in copyright and maybe not through the record companies but I have been assured by someone who has done wrok for them that it is not that no payment is made.

[vgonis]

twm, I guess that the legal minds of the big music companies, left these points in limbo,  deliberately, so that the actual ruling be made from the judges and courts of the world. A small company can't influence judges or/and politicians, let alone afford a big court case expenses. Dylan's recent CD you mention is perhaps "Stud's Terkel's wax museum"from Leftfield, and there was a reference about this loophole in Uncut magazine. (But not with the details you mention, about this one song left out).
I guess no company willingly gives the original masters after 50 or 70 years. So any quality reissues must come one way or another from this company, or by paying something extra to obtain the masters. I imagine that the composition (music and lyrics) fall under a different law, (the 70 year lawfor the composers and authors) so surely there are some royalties to be paid. I still don't know about the radio airplay time, where the big money is.

And something that just came to mind: is it coincidence that the Beatles released the remastered versions, on the brink of the 50 years? Have they actually reset the clock for their recordings, or is it just a matter of demand for the new better editions that will eventually lead the market away from the "free" but inferior originals?
I also read something that Nick Mason said, when asked why they released the ultra, (not so limited) deluxe boxes of the 3 albums, in 3 formats, plus new vinyl,  and the answer was that this is the last generation that will enjoy music from "solid" formats. The decision is taken, and with EMI gone 3 companies have the lion's share of the global market.

[twm]

Actually, I was thinking of a new CD of Dylan at Carnegie Chapter Hall on 4 November 1961.  The "Studs Terkel" CD comes from 1963 but is allowed by a different legal nicety, namely one in which the copyright in radio programmes and the like is not generally held by the individual who, in this case, is being interviewed.  Hence, there have been several similar radio shows and interviews involving Dylan that have been released under this provision. I'm not quite sure how it works. Somewhere, I have a 4-CD set of Beatles' press conferences and interviews that came out once.

A comapny that specialises in these releases is Chrome Dreams:

http://www.chromedreams.co.uk/

You'll see the CD I mentioned on their home page at the moment.

I notice that there is a Jack Kerouac release, from his three LPs , two released in 1959  by Hanover Records and one in 1960 on Verve, none issued in the UK.  In that sense,  they are covered by the 50-year rule but all three were issued by Rhino Records, on their Word Beat label, as part of a box-set, in 1990. I presume their rights were for a fixed period of time but that's just a guess on my part.

[Knut]

I can't see why DIME would go down, the content is always checked - of course sometimes a track or two are seeded by accident, but I can't imagine that's enough...

I bet Spanish City is perfectly safe, too - it's much easier to keep track of the released stuff in the DS/MK world - it's not like Bruce Springsteen, where a live track from some random show ended up on a B-side in Japan etc :p

[vgonis]

Thank you twm, I will check it out.