Karaoke Forums

Last night's show had a first for me. A person wanted to sing "Better as a memory" by Kenny Chesney and I didn't have it. Well he happened to bring in his original copy. I played it through Karafun, even though I don't really care for the program but did not have the cash and won't for the next month or so due to other obligations that I would need for siglos recorder/player. I want to replace one of my wireless mikes so that I can have two of them available. I also want to buy a new amp that matches my speakers better.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

I APPLAUD YOU!! For having the FLEXIBILTY to make a CUSTOMER's night a MEMORABLE occasion! Taking care of the customer and going the EXTRA MILE and probably making a return guest who will bring his friends and tell alot of other people about your place and how COOL THE DJ IS!!

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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

Hey Danny, are you out somewhere (heading towards Vermont) near some airport? And if so, how many years have you been there? I might have been to your show once (around 2000).

No I am in Waterbury, CT. You might be mistaking me for someone else. My present bar is listed on my website in my event calendar.
Back in 2000, I was still disc based.
I guess Bruce will be happy.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

I'm not that familiar with CT. What's your website?

the www below should take you straight to it.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Hey Danny, I will be in Rhode Island in May... if it's not too far, I may be able to drop into one of your shows in CT. Not too sure of the area, but I did manage to find my way to Salem last year!

I'm in the opposite end of CT, nearer to New York than Rhode Island. About teo hours away from the border of CT and RI.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Good for you Danny! Playing customer's discs is absolutely critical to providing good customer service.

With the Sound Choice lawsuit I'm involved in, I've taken a solid stance against playing customer's discs. It's very rare a customer comes in with a song I don't have.

I did have a new singer come in on Thursday night who was a little put off by that at first, but we talked and she had a blast and swore she'd be back. She was old enough to be the grandmother of most of the crowd, but I got her involved quickly and they loved her.

As soon as I was able to get a breather, I did go ask if I could see her discs that she brought. I usually do this with all singers who bring discs who don't leave right away bootysore because I don't play discs. (I'm not concerned, none of the other karaoke shows near me play discs either) Usually I have the disc they brought on my computer already and are relieved to not have to give me their disc.

The woman Thursday said she brings discs because she just doesn't like to look at karaoke books. When I told her she didn't have to if she knew what she wanted to sing and could just tell me, all was well.

I did feel a little bad making her sing my Supercore version of Sinatra's "My Way" when she had the Sound Choice on her, but she didn't complain and gave a stellar performance.

Here's a hypothetical situation to ponder: Had I loaded her SC Sinatra version and had I consented to SC's audit of my discs and system, when their invasive software found that that track had been on my harddrive and I didn't have the disc, by the terms of SC's audit consent form it would be considered evidence I'd pirated their music.

I feel better safe than sorry, and when someone sees me play a version of a song they know it's available for them to sing a my next show.

I am always open to downloading a song I don't have from SBI Karaoke or Select-A-Track if someone wants to sing a song I don't have and it's available.

I don't think these policies have hurt my show any, and hope the people with discs who don't like my policies find a place to sing where they're more comfortable & happy.

My hosting software is CompuHost, which can't play discs so I had to go to an outside program to play it.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

I kind of gathered that when you mentioned not liking Karafun.
I'm not familiar with that program, but assumed you wouldn't use a program you didn't like to run your whole show. I don't have any software to play directly from the CD+G so the only way (short of putting it in my changer and moving the video cable from my computer to it's CDG decoder - not happening!) would be to rip the track and play the ripped file.

Hell.... I don't even think I have the audio cable hooked up to my CD-ROM!

If I had the money I would buy PowerKaraoke Siglos Karaoke recorder/player. maybe in a month or two.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Perhaps I am getting paranoid, but I'm truly worried about a Sound Choice "investigator" taking a photograph of the splash screen of a song I don't own the disc to They claim to have such photographs, but I find that highly unlikely.

I would think that since I am not ripping it so I have it in the future, Something I would never do, that explaining that the song that is in question was one that my singers brought in.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

I run Compuhost too, but I still carry a carry player (actually 2 of them) and an A/B switch. I'm curious to hear more about how Sound Choice conducts their audits.

Good JOb

I did that for a while, but it was generally an annoyance to me so I stopped.

OK.... My apologies in advance for the overly long post, but I've been dying to share this BS with the rest of the karaoke community. This is Sound Choice's audit agreement which I refused to agree to. Not because I'm a pirate, but because, frankly, it's bullshit and I don't have to. Burden of proof is on the plaintiff in a lawsuit, and I think Sound Choice are bluffing and have nothing on me:
(Red indicates that which I had real issues with)


KARAOKE LIBRARY AUDIT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF TERMS
THIS DOCUMENT MAY AFFECT YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS. DO NOT SIGN IT WITHOUT READING IT.
THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT A SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT.
THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT BEING TENDERED AS PART OF SETTLEMENT NEGOTIATIONS.
You have requested that your karaoke library be audited in order to have this information considered as one of the factors in
resolving a dispute between you and Sound Choice Studios, Inc., and Slep-Tone Entertainment Corp. (together, “Sound Choice”).
Your signature below indicates your acknowledgement of the following terms for this audit:
1. YOUR REQUEST FOR AUDIT. Your signature below constitutes your request for an audit of your karaoke library. Sound
Choice has agreed to conduct this audit at its own expense (except for incidental expenses you may incur in assembling
your materials for the audit).
2. EXISTING EVIDENCE. A Sound Choice representative has already visited one or more of your shows and gathered evidence, including photographs, song lists, and other information, that based upon our experience reflects a high probability that
you have committed acts of infringement. You have been sued for trademark infringement involving counterfeiting. In summary, you have been accused of playing karaoke accompaniment tracks that include a display of Sound Choice
trademarks, without owning a legal CD+G disc containing that track for each system on which you store that track.
3. REJECTION OF SETTLEMENT OFFER. You acknowledge that Sound Choice has offered to settle this matter on certain conditions. Your request for an audit constitutes a rejection of that settlement offer. Sound Choice’s policy is to increase
its settlement demand at the conclusion of an audit, if you are determined to have infringed its intellectual property.
4. SCOPE OF AUDIT. Sound Choice will conduct an audit of your karaoke library to determine whether you have legitimately acquired a legal copy of every Sound Choice karaoke accompaniment track stored in your karaoke library. A Sound Choice track is deemed to have been legitimately acquired only if you own an original CD+G (compact disc plus graphics) disc containing that track. If you have transferred the track to another format (“media-shifted”), you must own an original
CD+G disc containing that track for each such system to which you have transferred that track, in order to be considered in compliance. Sound Choice has also been authorized by other manufacturers of karaoke accompaniment tracks, including Chartbuster, Stellar, Pocket Songs, Priddis Music, and others, to perform a simultaneous audit on their behalf; your audit may include those manufacturers. Sound Choice will provide the results to those manufacturers, who may begin their own lawsuits against you if you are not in compliance. These other manufacturers will be identified on the day of the audit.
5. RIGHT TO TERMINATE. You have the right to terminate the audit at any time; however, you should be aware that Sound Choice may use all available legal process, including obtaining a court order, to obtain the information it is collecting
through this audit. Destruction of evidence, whether performed before or after the audit, may constitute “spoliation” and may subject you to sanctions from the court.
6. AUDIT PROCEDURES. The following procedures will be used to conduct the audit:
A. A Sound Choice representative will contact you to arrange for a mutually acceptable time and place for the audit.
B. If at any time during the audit process you fail to cooperate fully with the representative’s requests, the audit may terminate and Sound Choice will consider you to have failed the audit.
C. You should assemble for inspection all of your karaoke discs, CAVS machines, computers (including laptops), and any other apparatus containing karaoke media, whether being used for active or backup purposes, in the designated location at the designated time. If any additional equipment is necessary to access the media
(including but not limited to keyboard/mouse, monitor, or the like), you should bring that equipment as well. Failure to present all materials for inspection will constitute failure of the audit.
D. You should also assemble for inspection all of your song lists and receipts from disc purchases made within the last five years. Receipts for disc purchases may be verified against seller records to prevent falsification. Discs acquired after Sound Choice’s initial investigation will be matched against load dates on your system to determine whether infringement occurred prior to acquisition of the disc. An indication of a track loaded before purchase will be considered an indication of infringement and will constitute failure of the audit.
E. During the audit, each disc will be marked using an indelible method. This marking will not interfere with your ability to play the disc but will prevent that disc from being re-used in an audit of another company.
F. Sound Choice may employ software designed to examine any hard drives in your possession to determine whether songs have been deleted from the system after Sound Choice’s investigation began. A deleted track file may
indicate an attempt at spoliation and constitute evidence of willful infringement, as well as an audit failure.
G. You should be prepared to demonstrate that you, or one of your employees, loaded every song stored other than on a CD+G onto the machine where it is stored. If you purchased a pre-loaded hard drive or CAVS machine, you
should be aware that Sound Choice has never authorized a transfer of that type. Possession of a pre-loaded system will be considered failure of the audit.
7. SUCCESSFUL AUDIT. You will be deemed to have successfully completed the audit if you comply fully with these terms in all respects and if the audit shows that for every audited track, you own one legitimately acquired original disc containing that track for every individual machine (CAVS machine, laptop, or other device you use for media storage for a karaoke show)
that contains that track. This is known as “1:1 correspondence.”
8. DISMISSAL OF SUIT. If you successfully complete the audit, Sound Choice will be willing to dismiss the suit against you provided that you agree to adhere to all applicable copyright and trademark laws with regard to the use of Sound Choice
accompaniment tracks and to submit to future audits at Sound Choice’s reasonable request.
9. USE OF AUDIT RESULTS. You acknowledge that Sound Choice may use the results of the audit it conducts in any way it deems appropriate, including as evidence against you in the pending suit.
10. FAILED AUDIT. At the conclusion of a failed audit, Sound Choice will tender you a new settlement offer that is at least $2,000 per system higher than the most recent settlement offer made. If that settlement offer is not accepted within 14 days of being tendered, it will be withdrawn, and Sound Choice will be committed to seeing the lawsuit to its conclusion. In that event, you should be aware that statutory damages for trademark counterfeiting can be as high as $2,000,000 per
mark (there are two federally registered trademarks at issue here, for a total of $4,000,000). You should also be aware that in a recent case involving non-commercial file-sharing, Capitol Records v. Thomas, a jury awarded almost $2 million to the record labels who sued an individual. Because your use is commercial, Sound Choice believes it can obtain a significant verdict against you.
11. ADVICE OF COUNSEL. You acknowledge that you have had the opportunity to review this document and to obtain an opinion of counsel regarding it prior to signing it. Your signature below constitutes a rejection of any and all outstanding settlement offers from Sound Choice and an acknowledgement of the terms of audit.
IF YOU ARE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH ANY OF THE TERMS ABOVE, DO NOT SIGN THIS DOCUMENT.
SIGNATURE PRINTED NAME
COMPANY NAME TITLE
DATE E-MAIL ADDRESS TELEPHONE NUMBER
THIS DOCUMENT MAY AFFECT YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS. DO NOT SIGN IT WITHOUT READING IT.
THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT A SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT.
THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT BEING TENDERED AS PART OF SETTLEMENT NEGOTIATIONS.


It should be noted that Capitol Records v. Thomas is not a Trademark Infringement case, and the statutory damages awarded were for distribution of copyrighted material, something Sound Choice is not suing for. Do they really think I'm too stupid to look that up? It's on freaking Wikipedia! And really, how much of my time are they NOT wanting to pay me for? Let's get real....

Well Dan, good luck in your fight...

It looks like you have your work cut out for you....

And doing it all without a lawyer & representing yourself, that is truly Insane!

I'm glad I'm not in the position you are in....

I look forward to the audits the company I work for will undertake regarding our 1:1 media shift compliance....

Again, good luck & have fun....

One question, when did this topic become a piracy thread?
I said nothing about importing a disc in my original post. I said I played a customer's disc for the first time in over 16 years of running shows. I played straight off the disc- nothing illegal about that. If the anti piracy posts in this topic continues then I ask that this thread be closed. Get your own topic.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.