Karaoke Forums

Well you might not be violating any laws, but you certainly might get sued as a result of misidentification or a mistake by the investigator. We all know that that's happened before, and even HarringtonLaw or SC will not give you a guarantee that you won't.

You are, if you're performing the contents in a venue that has not paid its ASCAP, BMI, and/or SESAC fees (which are for "authorization" for public performance).

Thanks! I'll make sure to play my karaoke files in a legal place where they have paid their fees And of course, I'll make sure to bring my disk to prove the 1:1 ratio

I disagree with what you think about professional use as opposed to comercial use. I believe that to use the copied discs as commerce would mean that you are in some way selling or renting the actual copies to another person or persons. I don't think the term Commercial use rules out using the copies in a professional use.

If the local karaoke host is selling hundreds of copies of his karaoke discs at the local flea market; I believe that he is breaking the law as far as using the copies in a commercial setting. If the same karaoke host is hosting a karaoke show at the same flea market and running that show from a laptop; I don't think that he is breaking any laws.

I remember going to a birthday party that was being held on a party boat and they had hired a KJ to provide the entertainment. The KJ was told to set up her equipment on the upper deck of the boat which meant she had to get all of her equipmwnt up a flight of stairs. She ran her show using only discs. Every time the boat would get jossled by a wave the discs would skip a beat. Having those same discs ripped to a hard drive would have made her job a whole lot easier for her. It would have also made her show a lot more "professional" looking.

Those discs are nothing more than her tools of the trade. Sound Choice has a right to sell them to you but I don't think they have a right to tell you how you can use those tools. If I buy a car from GM; they don't have a right to tell me how I drive it or what kind of gasoline I can put in it or what kind of replacemnt parts I can use when repairing it.

Can you imagine General Motors telling a consumer that they can't remove the stock radio that came with the car and replace with a high stereo system?

That's all a karaoke host is doing. It's damn near impossible to find a really good karaoke player that will stand up to the abuse that it needs to take based on constantly being transported in a car or truck. The best and most reliable way to perform your job is to play these tracks from a computer where the tracks will not get scratched or stolen. That is a professional use but not a commercial use, in my opinion. Now if that Karaoke Host was making hundreds of copies of that hard drive and was selling them to hundreds of other people; that would be a commercial use and they should be sued for doing so.

I went into a karaoke bar last night and asked to speak to the manager. I asked him if he had paid all of his ASCAP, BMI, and/or SESAC fees because I didn't want to sing my favorite songs at this bar and take a risk of being sued by anyone. He told me that he had, indeed paid everyone that he was supposed to pay. Then I asked him if he could show me proof. The only thing that he showed me was the door. Basically I wanted him to submit to an audit to protect myself from being sued.

Why doesn't Sound Choice have to prove that they have legally paid for all of the rights necessary to produce karaoke tracks by inserting copies of the legal paper work inside of every jewel case for every song on the disc? OH! That would be too inconvenient? Where was that documentation when SC produced THE EAGLES disc? How dare they attach their logo to tracks that were sold illegally in the first place. Now that seems like counterfeiting to me. Putting their logo on a product to convince consumers that it was made by a reputable company so it must be legal to sell. BUZZZ!!! Wrong answer. There are those dirty hands again.

It's like a Bootlegger trying to sue someone for stealing some of their hootch or using the name White Lightning on their moonshine too.

You can still be named in legal action by Sound Choice, it's happened several times.

I know, but I'll defend myself, I also have my rights, Sound Choice is NOT the law

And to break it down and state what others have already stated...

UNAUTHORIZED DUPLICATION - This is where SC is saying you need their permission to make AND use a copy of the disc you bought and paid for.
UNAUTHORIZED PUBLIC PERFORMANCE - This is where ASCAP, BMI, SESAC all come into play. If the Venue you are hosting at does not pay their fees to these agencies, then you are NOT AUTHORIZED to play your music there (Karaoke or other).
UNAUTHORIZED BROADCAST - Meaning you can't just broadcast on your own Public Service TV station or over the air-waves where millions of people can listen at the same time without the proper permissions that you meet the approval of the FCC (and their regulations). It's kind of like telling you that you can't play Cee-Lo Green's unedited song "F**k You" on ABC, CBS, NBC, WB, FOX, etc... because the FCC has regulated you are not allowed to broadcast certain words over these networks. The same thing like with Janet Jackson's "Wardrobe Malfunction" during the half-time show at Superbowl... There were repercussions.

In other words, SC ONLY has a say in the first part of that warning printed on their discs. If I am wrong in the above assessment, I'm sure someone here will correct me.