Karaoke Forums

Thank you!

Isn't it amazing that people will justify stealing to cover their actions. Stealing is stealing period!

I am going to do a personal followup to see if that one bar quit doing karaoke all together. I'll let everyone know.

Thank to everyone for all the positive comments

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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!

Just as an fyi, the amounts of the settlements in phx have ranged from 6500 to approx, 15,000. this has all been against bar owned systems, these people settled with virtually no additional expense in attorney's fees, What you should know is that figure, DOES NOT include the entire SC Library it includes about 4500 songs that SC sends the disc's for , any music that does not have an original has to be removed from HD. Also a provision in settlement agreement that says SC can audit HD and if other SC songs are not removed, or anytime SC wishes to audit HD and there are ANY Sc songs that aren't backed up by an original, there is an automatic fine that has been agreed to of 50,000 dollars. You can be pretty sure SC doesn't have all its best music avalible on discs sitting in it's wherehouse to send to these people, And again SC only offers a not to sue for thier copyright and trademark, does not cover underlying pubishers copyrights

Thanks for posting that--good info.

Ditto, appreciated. It seems that Sound Choice is being reasonable and simply trying to clean it up market by market.

Seems to me this is a strategy that might work, I am impressed. Of course they have 1) a relatively small community of KJs to spread the word too, 2) offenders it is easy to catch red-handed, and 3) some offenders that have something to lose and might settle for a reasonable if ouch-worthy settlement.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Being that this is being handled as a civil action for whatever amount the kj and bars that settle will become compliant and hopefully stay that way with the threat of audit and further fines if found to non-compliant. And also will run off a pirate or 2 that cannot afford even the lesser fine. That's better than nothin'

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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!

Looks like well done news coverage, and your singers showed good composure while being on tv!

ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING PIECE!! Well Done!!

Hope Soundchoice heads out Portland, Seattle way soon.

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

Great story! The only trouble is people need to see it and see it and see it some more before it sinks in, but great job Kenny. Maybe the news station will do a follow up? Keep pounding the drum!

Indeed the TV station DID do a followup.

Follow Up: Karaoke pirates? Knox bar named in lawsuit says "no way"

Looks like SC might have been a little overenthusiastic in filing their lawsuits.

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[font=Lucida Console]DangerousKaraoke.com[/font]
[font=Lucida Console]"Sing for the day, sing for the moment, sing for the time of your life!"[/font]

It seems they've taken a SHOTGUN approach. Fire at all the bars in an area an hopefully you hit something and collect $5,000.

Sounds like they aren't using professional investigators or those who have no knowledge of the industry. I cannot impress upon enough that if you're going to do investigation, use a professional who knows what she or he is doing. I have seen many things bollucks because someone thought they knew what they were doing.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

What I don't get is how it got to this point. Supposedly Sound Choice was sending out several rounds of letters to the "suspects" before ever filing a suit. Either they sent to the wrong address or missed this one or someone felt that as an innocent person they didn't need to play that game and ignored the letters? I know previously that one of the suspected company owners said he was never contacted but the acutal suit says that numerous efforts were made which were ignored. Who knows for sure what is really going on?

If the initial letters were sent certified mail then the kj or bar owner was obliged to answer of face lawsuit. If the letter(s) were sent regular mail the it's a case of he said she said. I doubt it was a "shotgun" suit and their investigators documented their actions when they review the venues in questions. And the "shotgun"approach sure missed several venues that are well known to have pirated systems.

Here is the link to the follow up broadcast last night.

http://www.wbir.com/video/default.aspx? ... 1643048001

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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!

As rumbolt stated, certified letters from the attorney are sent to defendants who are named on the lawsuits thus the suit is filed first, then notification. This is not to be confused to be "service" of the suit. This is a notification to settle before being served. These letters are not some blanket form letter like the POOP's.

As far as SC tripping up on Macleod's, it is unfortunate & certainly shines some negativity on the pirate war. The WBIR text report states that the SC investigator saw a CAVS machine. I guess that investigator thought it was that CAVS player holding SC content. As timberlea pointed out, perhaps this investigator didn't have what it took to be a pro at spying.

However, mistakes are made in every war & this is just one mistake. Already there have been many victories as a lot of the defendants in all current suits are apparently settling thus admitting they are pirates.

Remember, these lawsuit settlements are only for the SC content illegally obtained. CB & PHM can do their own investigations & sue for their trademarks seperately if they choose to do so.

EDIT: Just to clarify. Intent to sue letters go out first before lawsuits are filed. I was commentinting on settlement procedings.

This would be my point--there was something more to this as I was under the impression letters were sent before any suits were filied. There had to be a mix up or miscommunication or lack of response somewhere along the way for it to get this far. I believe Rumbolt explained in another thread that the bar got the letter than said it wasn't their equipment and didn't notify the KJ so he could defend himself.
But somewhere along the way there was a chance for this to be cleared up before there was any negative publicity.

InsaneKJ said:


How "unfortunate" would it have been if your company's name had been broadcasted to the world has a "pirate?"

I would think that would be a little more than just "unfortunate" don't you? And it would be a LOT of "negativity" on the innocent KJ who's business has now been tarnished forever thanks to who? Oh... Let's think about this one.....
l
It's easy to simply try to wipe it away as "a mistake."
Unless the mistake happens to you...

But you go right ahead and do whatever you can to deflect what the real damages are here and the ramifications of more and more "mistakes" that will ultimately happen down the road. As more and more bar owners become aware of the undeserved bad publicity, they'll simply avoid karaoke altogether as the safest bet.

Well said!

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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!

So I have to ask you Rumbolt;

If it were YOU that were named in the lawsuit AND plastered all over the TV that you are a pirate - when in fact you are not - how would you feel about it all now?

Would you not care if your business had been virtually destroyed by being accused publicly of illegal activity by the very same manufacturer that you had spent THOUSANDS of dollars with?

Would you just say; "Whoops! well at least something's being done." and move on?

Yes leopard lizard, that makes sense.

Someone dropped the ball on either the KJ or Venues end it appears since that lawsuit was filed a couple of months ago....

The first letter i got would have been me t with a proper response to clear things up. It would have never come to the suit being filed. Kinda like getting a bill in the mail with an error on it, do you let it ride or do you call to get it corrected.

Years ago my former business was named in a wrongfull death suit (product liability civil suit) and I was named as well since i was a principal with the company. We were notified and hired lawyers, traveled to New Jersey and met with their lawyers and in the end were were dropped from the suit. It made the papers (Detroit Free Press in the early 90s) and we got negitive publicity for a short time. Did we survive, yes. Could we have counter sued, probably. But because we responded to the initial filings and did what the lawyers advised us to do, it got resolved never setting foot in a court room. Moral of the story, had the bar or kj or both contacted SC early on after the first letter it would have never come to what is going on now and the bar and or kjs names would have never been even mentioned on tv. That is what the whole discussion is really about. I'm tired now catch ya'll later. Gotta do a wedding tomorrow.

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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!