Karaoke Forums

My audit was free to me except some gas expense when it was first offered. Yes I do not know all situations ( i have medical bills and prescriptions as well) but some are just stubborn hardheadedness and egos running their lives and not being business minded (yes i said that) For those doing the occasional show then maybe you don't see the real importance for those of us that rely on Karaoke for a major part of our income. Don't gripe about a process when in fact the process was so much easier in the beginning (free) and available to everyone. Good grief!

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No venue to big or too small. From your den to the local club or event, we have the music most requested. Great sounding system!

Rum, just quit!! I have 39 SC discs. It wasn't worth it for me to pay $150 to audit those 39 discs. What makes you think it would be worth it for me to pay $200 a month, in perpetuity, for those same 39 discs??

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

You cost them money because of the certification. According to HarringtonLaw, the certs cost them more than they charged for them. So you cost them more money than the people who didn't get certified.

I'm mostly being facetious, but truly, the people who conformed with the 1:1 rule but didn't certify didn't steal any more from SC than you did. Your certification was obviously a big deal to you and I won't rain on your parade, but the legit jocks who didn't get it done owe no great apology to Sound Choice.

Just wanted to emphasize that point. Buy into this plan, pay through SC/Phoenix, and in my opinion it's the same as supporting piracy by helping pirates stay in business with your money- in effect making piracy support one of your business expenses.

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

Problem is with that theory is (at least in my past experience with other kj's) is they may have bought one set of discs legally, but then copied and multirigged that same set within a few or more systems. I knew one brick & mortar store that actually bought discs, opened them, copied them to computer - then copied to all their systems that they used to run shows with - then re-shrank wrapped them & sold the discs as 'new'. Granted this was quite a few years ago & I don't think they even run shows anymore, but this went on for YEARS!

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

Doesn't matter, you say you play those on disdc anyway & aren't even on your computer, so you have no worries.

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

They always said the cost of the audit was to recoup the cost of the certification process.

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

there is a store out here who has been multirigging that way for years. glad the crack investigators cought them some of the big venues too.

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

With the new business model investigations should go quicker than previous. I could be wrong, if in fact they brought suits on all who were using shifted media even if they were 1:1 forcing KJs to submit to an audit. Is that the main reason they are able to show less than 100 KJs that passed an audit ? So hardly anyone submitted to an audit in a 6 year period out of 45,000 Hosts in the USofA ? Mine was voluntary from an area not hit with suits so I do not know.

OR did KJs in an area being investigated snap that off and submit to an audit before being named in a law suit ?

Regardless, it makes it much easier now for investigators ( training will be quicker and less intense [cheaper, too] ) to know when violations of SC material is used and the suits will move much quicker throughout the country. Now, everyone with shifted material will be considered in violation and investigators do not have to differentiate 1:1 as opposed to truly illegal gotten material, which I believe they did in the past, causing their investigative time in an area to last several months. Now, everyone is forewarned of the change to SCs take of their intellectual rights of Trademark. I have read that and I believe there is really no valid argument against their right to change their mind/viewpoint about their own Trademark and its' protection.

I presume any individual in the same shoes as SC/Kurt would do the same.

Audits now will be forced on those who media shifted when they were cheap (my cost waived) prior. Audits will still have to occur. This way it makes it easier to catch the pirates, because I do not believe the pirated material will stand up to SCs 192 kbps requirements and their material has to be discarded. Who is to say that SC will not on an individual basis exempt some of you, 1:1 legally obtained, just do not piss the bear off. I'm just saying. It might incite a bad outcome that doesn't have to be taken. I seem to think I read something on the PEP site about individual basis, but I have slept a few times since. Maybe someone could coraborate. Where is the check spelling on here?

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You can never argue with a crazy mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mind ----B. Joel
I have great faith in fools; My friends call it self-confidence ---- E.A. Poe
I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity ----E.A. Poe
I don't know, I don't care, and it doesn't make any difference! ----A. Einstein
Double bubble, toil and trouble ----W. Shakespeare & Walt Disney
I hate it when I get on FaceBook ----Me
Karaoke might be Groundhog Day ----?
Of All the Martial Arts, Karaoke Inflicts the Most Pain ----?

Would you have done the audit when it was free?? My guess would be no. Then leave the subject alone if you never had any intention to get an audit. Get out of the SC game and stop using their product but you choose to keep using their product and sit on this forum and b***h about SC. Pick a side. If their stuff is such garbage then why do you keep the discs around. Sure, you might be able to replace some of the song with other brands but really what is happening are some of your singers like the SC tracks because they are the only ones that actually were able to get rights to produce some of those songs on the brand you despise. Kinda like eating ding dongs and then complaining it's the ding dong's fault you are getting fat, simple answer stop eating the ding dongs. It's SC's discs and SC rules as long as you make money off playing them.

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No venue to big or too small. From your den to the local club or event, we have the music most requested. Great sounding system!

Rumbolt, you're proud as punch of being certified, and you're probably right that some people erred in putting it off.

But I didn't do that. I bought the CDGs and used them in good faith, never pirating a damned thing. I didn't know about the certification, didn't need it, and couldn't have taken advantage of it if I had, because I didn't have my discs on hard drive and thus had nothing to audit.

Now I'm stuck with a bunch of SC discs at a significant investment which aren't compatible with most modern karaoke setups, and can't be made that way without paying a fee that's in excess of the value of the discs.

You don't seem to understand the difference between a policy or practice that's reasonable and equitable and one that just happened to work out okay for you personally. I got screwed, through absolutely no fault of my own.

No you didn't. Stay disc based as I have and laugh at those tools that have to continually pay for something they bought years ago. Your discs are as valuable as you wish them to be now. Falling into SC/Phoenix's "Piracy Support" program is the only way you will de-value them.

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

Like I said above, there is a reason for everything. Just because someone didn't get certified, doesn't make them a pirate.

I am asking SC to reinstate the audits. If even for a short time. I'm sure at this point, many of us would take advantage of them, including myself.

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

Since the certification option is off the table, you can stop mentioning it now. It sounds like a broken record.

Perhaps if you'd warned there was a 16,000% increase coming (for a KJ over the course of ten years) you might have sold a few more certifications. But people should expect that rate of inflation I suppose.

I'm curious. You're relatively new to this Forum (joined July 2014). How did you originally learn/hear about the Audits so that you were able to have one?

I got interested in researching Copyrights, ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, RIAA, All it's quirky laws and addendums, and situational examples. Then Cabaret Licenses for bars and venues. Somewhere along the way I read about Trademarks and researched that and got on many sites including this one as a guest. I then decided since I was a legal purchaser of all Karaoke manus and SC was stuck on the media-shift policy that was then current and that they were entering litigation with hosts, it would be in my best interest as a business owner to avail myself of an audit in order not to waste time being named in any litigation in the future.

My life at that time could have easily allowed me to procrastinate an audit, but prudency outweighed putting an audit off.

I now am glad that I did. I am sure it would have been easier for many on here to have done the same thing than it was for me at that time. Especially when so many knew about the audit for such a long time and had years to comply. Incessant arguing is a waste of time and only destroys relationships, even in business. I am one of the oldest on here and it did not take me years to reach that conclusion, because it is so sensical, but years to adhere to that conclusion.

I forgot to add that I was a bit pushy to get the audit done and out of the way. SC was compliant to me in that regard

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You can never argue with a crazy mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mind ----B. Joel
I have great faith in fools; My friends call it self-confidence ---- E.A. Poe
I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity ----E.A. Poe
I don't know, I don't care, and it doesn't make any difference! ----A. Einstein
Double bubble, toil and trouble ----W. Shakespeare & Walt Disney
I hate it when I get on FaceBook ----Me
Karaoke might be Groundhog Day ----?
Of All the Martial Arts, Karaoke Inflicts the Most Pain ----?

One other point that might be made regarding legal, 1:1 KJ's who did not opt to request Certification when it was still being offered:

My understanding was that the conclusion of the process included both parties signing a Covenant Not To Sue. Which is to say the certification came with a string attached: forfeiture of any right to sue Sound Choice in the future.

Signing away a right isn't something anyone should take lightly.

Had Sound Choice obtained all of the proper licensing for all of its tracks, this might not be an issue. Now the ugly possibility has reared it's head that music publishers might name Sound Choice customers, especially at this point GEM owners, as contributory infringement defendants in copyright lawsuits.

We of course bought our discs from Sound Choice in good faith, as it was represented to us that the artists and publishers were all getting their fair share out of what WE were paying for those discs. If that turns out to not be the case, then we the customers could lose something in these cases.

Under such circumstances, should they occur, the normal and appropriate recourse would be a class action lawsuit against the manufacturer who entrapped us into buying illegal content.

So as insurance against that, and as a reasonable business practice, it would make sense to avoid signing a Covenant Not To Sue, so as to be able to join in any such suits should they come to pass.

But that seems to have been the hidden price of a Certification -- signing away any right to do that. There are scenarios where that could turn out to be much more costly than $150.

the SC covenant not to sue was THEY would not sue US, you got it backwards.

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

It's true that the agreement specifically states they will not sue you for using the trademark, but (to some degree) it works the other way too with this broad-based disclaimer in the agreement that even includes "infringement":

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Birdofsong

the GEM series language was not there with the audit covenant.

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens