Karaoke Forums

I use CGRip. Would that work?

_________________
I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Not sure. It is not the same as ripping a CDG - much different because the SCDG is actually a DVD.

_________________
I'm not a cheerleader, but I paid for my pom poms with my own money!

Well, do the files end up as MP3+G?

_________________
I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

i use cdgfix ver 3 for ripping the super cdg's.....

works good.....

_________________
It's all good!

I'm sorry, but you seem to be misinformed on several points. SC and CB ARE the artists. The music you are playing is NOT Van Halen, it is SC or CB studio musicians playing in a studio. They OWN the recording. Sure they have to pay licensing fees to the person who wrote the music and lyrics, but you are playing their recording of the song not to mention the video track (lyrics, logo, scrolling method etc) they created. BMI/ASCAP collects the royalties for public performance of the original music and lyrics for the composers, not your right to possess the recording SC or CB made. http://www.bmi.com/about/


and your argument that you didn't know it was stolen when you bought it so it's OK to use it because you probably won't get busted is just silly.

This is getting too far OT and should really be split to the legalities forum so I'll leave it there.

_________________
Ken Wilson
San Diego DJ & Karaoke

I can assure you that you are wrong. There is NOTHING from a karaoke track that is owned by the karaoke manu other than the trademark. If so, could you please point to some case law that involves CB or SC successfully suing for anything other than trademark infringement.

Thanks

_________________
I'm not a cheerleader, but I paid for my pom poms with my own money!

I didn't know CB stole music when they reproduced certain tracks without having it properly licensed. Should I take those out of my library?

I didn't know SC stole music when they, too, reproduced certain tracks. Should I take those out of my library, too?

Hell no. I bought them in good faith.

I didn't know that Top Hits Monthly/Panorama did the same thing. I bought those in good faith, too. And I don't know if the DK music is or isn't pirated. For all I know, DK (which still exists in Japan) DID authorize it. There is nothing other than speculation saying that it is pirated.

Good faith goes a long ways in the eyes of the law.

_________________
I'm not a cheerleader, but I paid for my pom poms with my own money!

For that matter, can anyone show a KJ losing a Trademark Infringement case IN COURT?

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

" Disc based and loving it..."

Why not just remove those annoying logos and just type out the words Sound Choice or Chartbuster in a different font and add that picture to the beginning of the track? The singing customer would still know who made the track but the original logo would not be displayed. After all, isn't that what Sound Choice seems to find so offensive?

Isn't that exactly what Digi-trax is planning on doing with the Chartbuster library? If Chartbuster is out of business due to a default judgement against them.....shouldn't CAVS be the new owner of Chartbuster's assets? How can Chartbuster be allowed to sell their only REAL asset to themselves, under a new corporate name and dodge CAVS claims against them? Seems to me that it is just another shady deal(shell game) made by an unscrupulous karaoke manufacturer.

I guess it had to come, Chartbuster closing their doors. If SC did it, the next big Manu in line would eventually do it too.

I have not been in Karaoke for long, maybe 10 years. I started as a KJ in a club, then I opened a store front and started selling karaoke disk and equipment about 3 or 4 years ago. But what has me concerned is this digital wave is going to destroy what I have worked so hard for. But that is my cross to bear, I ain't going to cry about it (whine maybe, but not cry). Worst case, I got a hell of a collection to put in my bookcase.

With that being said, I am NOT against digital music. What I am against is these hard drives being locked to ONE SPECIFIC PROGRAM. I don't care how you wrap it up and present it, it stinks. I use Show Hoster, and I will continue to do so, I don't care what comes down the pike. I like it, it works for me, and I have yet to find another program that is as easy to use. This locking a hard drive to a specific program is, IMO, taking away a KJ's right to use whatever product THEY like. I don't care if it is in the name of "piracy prevention". That's like producing gasoline and saying it will only run in a Ford. If you own a Chevy, well, sorry for your luck, buy a Ford. Do I own a digital library? No, but it seems to be what everything is going to now, so I will eventually. I am going to miss out on the ones CB has at the present time, but I am sure another will come along somewhere.

If I am wrong about any of this, please enlighten me.

The jury is still out on whether digitrax will be able to create/distribute under the old chartbuster license if chartbuster is out of business.... It would be like someone going through a dumpster and claiming the licenses for the defunct company now belong to them and are valid. It'll be interesting to find out how the different publishers treat this....

I believe the future of buying Karaoke music is simple, it will be computer downloading (just like I-Tunes) you can buy one song, twenty songs or two hundred. The days of buying discs are numbered, it's that simple!

What if FORD developed technology for the enjoyment of THEIR owners? Would you have a problem with that? If not (and you shouldn't), you shouldn't have a problem here. The fact is, the developers of my program of choice, Compuhost, developed the technology you are referring to for the enjoyment of THEIR users! Simple as that. You should simply be hoping the developers of you program of choice are equally as responsive to thier users.

tbreen

[quote="tbreen"][quote="Kandar01"]What I am against is these hard drives being locked to ONE SPECIFIC PROGRAM. I don't care how you wrap it up and present it, it stinks. I use Show Hoster, and I will continue to do so, I don't care what comes down the pike. I like it, it works for me, and I have yet to find another program that is as easy to use. This locking a hard drive to a specific program is, IMO, taking away a KJ's right to use whatever product THEY like.

If I am wrong about any of this, please enlighten me.[/quote]

What if FORD developed technology for the enjoyment of THEIR owners? Would you have a problem with that? If not (and you shouldn't), you shouldn't have a problem here. The fact is, the developers of my program of choice, Compuhost, developed the technology you are referring to for the enjoyment of THEIR users! Simple as that. You should simply be hoping the developers of you program of choice are equally as responsive to thier users.

tbreen[/quote]

Ok. I'll go along with that. So, what you are saying is if I don't want to use Compuhost, but I still want CB tracks, I have to media shift them from the disk I purchased to MP3+G Format?

Kandar01,

I do not want to use Compuhost either(they will not play my LD files without a bunch of steps and Compuhost feels that a patch would not be profitable). For my needs MTU Hoster is a much better fit so unless Compuhost comes up with a cheap or free version just to unlock songs I will not be using the Media-Pro type product. Maybe if those licencing the libraries realize that more than a few hosts feel this way they will put on the pressure to develop a "unlocking" program.

Blessings
Athena

_________________
"Integrity is choosing your thoughts, words and actions based on your principles and values rather than for your personal gain."
Unknown
"if a man has integrity, nothing else matters, If a man has no integrity, nothing else matters."
Lee McGuffey

I am not against digital music, either. I am against they way the CB and SC exploited KJs desire and willingness to root out piracy only to see them turn the pirates into legal competition - complete with financing and a complete library - ripped at the highest quality settings available.

They didn't have to do that. They could have simply fined them and that was that. Instead, they offered very reasonable settlement terms - terms that I could only wish for when I was trying to get started. I had to enlist in the Army during the height of the Iraq war - lured by a $20K bonus, most of which was spent on music - then equipment. I know of KJs that I suspected of piracy got started with only several hundred dollars worth of equipment and a bootlegged hard drive. My point is that honest KJs sacrificed SOMETHING to get started. Start up costs were the biggest hurdle - and if you WERE honest, the music expense made up the lion's share of your start up costs. I object to the way that CB and SC flooded the market with their products when they KNEW they were going down.

I was one of the staunchest anti-piracy supporters on earth. It was me that initiated discussions with SC and CB about my willingness, and the willingness of honest KJs throughout the U.S. to combat piracy. When I asked for gas money to get to the shows, I was turned down. When I asked to me named a plaintiff in those lawsuits on the grounds of unfair competition, I was also turned down. Today, I admit that I was duped into believing that the fight against piracy in the karaoke industry was truly just that and I was wrong.

Mark my words. As sure as I am that the sky is blue on a sunny day, I have something for CB and SC coming soon. Why? SC and CB have become my enemies. I am way better off without them in the supposed fight against piracy than I am with them. Think about that...

_________________
I'm not a cheerleader, but I paid for my pom poms with my own money!

Good Post, but Harrington will dispute every single point because that is what he does. It's his job. Hey Troy, check your PMs, please.

_________________
I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

This is a bit dramatic. You didn't HAVE to do anything, you chose to.

If the only reason you joined the army during a war was to finance your karoake, I'm going to go ahead and call your priorities and decision making into question.

I'm on your side of this debate, but your points are much better made by sticking to the facts and leaving the drama out of it.

Sorry to jump in without contributing much, just a major pet peeve.

_________________
C Mc
KJ, FL

------------------------------------------------------------------
I hear you on start-up cost. I have aprox. $15 to $20,000 tied up in music alone...Not counting the Audio part of it. I know that is just a drop in the bucket to some posting on this board, I only metioned it because you touched on it in your post.

This whole thing with these Media Pro HD's reminds me alot of the Microsoft/Internet Explore issue a few years back. Until that case was settled, I had never heard of Mozilla, Safari, etc... for Internet Surfing. Maybe I was hiding under a rock and just didn't pay attention, but the issue there was, and please correct me if I am wrong, that if you wanted to use Microsoft as the Op Sys on your PC, Then you had to use Internet explorer, or something along those lines. As it pertains to this issue, If you want to use Media Pro HD's for CB tracks, then you have to use Compuhost.

More to your post, I agree, it seems like the Manu's were converting pirates to competition. But on the other hand, most of the suits would have wound up with settlements in amounts more than mere mortals make in 3 lifetimes. So they had to devise a way to still get paid out of the deal, in a manner that both parties could live with. I can see the logic in that, some is better than none. After looking at this for a moment, I am wondering why CB closed their doors, the real reason. I have read that there was a judgement filed, and the amount was around 400,000 or there abouts ( I can't verify these figures, it is just what I seen posted other places). Come on...Something else HAD to be going on. After 24 years in business, surely they had that laying around. Yeah they may have had to cut a few things out ( like not making new music every month, etc...), but to close all together, nah...theres something else, and we may never know what that is/was/might be. Of course, that is pure speculation, but something else to think about.

I agree that a cheaper (or free) unlock utility is needed. I only use CompuHost to unlock the songs, then put them in my main library to play with my karaoke software of choice. It's as easy as associating the locked file extension with CompuHost so when I search and find the song I want to unlock, I just double click it which opens compuhost, do the unlock then close compuhost and go back to Virtual DJ.

I imagine any unlock program would have to be run pretty much the same way, but it shouldn't cost so much if that is all you use it for.

It would be nice if the unlock program was integrated into the shell so all you had to do was right click the song and choose 'unlock'.

_________________
Ken Wilson
San Diego DJ & Karaoke