The new trick of bootleggers.

[spacefreak]

UK based bootleg "companies" are starting to print the following quote on the album sleeves.

"DUE TO THE OBSCURITY OF SOME OF THE ALBUMS RELEASED ON THIS RECORD LABEL, WE ARE OCCASIONALLY UNABLE TO LOCATE THE OWNERS OF THE MASTER RECORDINGS. AS WE HAVE NO DESIRE TO DEPRIVE THE OWNERS OF THEIR ROYALTIES OR LICENSE FEES, WE HAVE CREATED AN ESCROW ACCOUNT IN THE HOPE THAT THE RIGHTFUL OWNERS WILL SEE THESE RELEASES AND CONTACT US. THIS APPROACH IS FAR FROM DESIRABLE BUT IT IS THE ONLY WAY WE CAN BRING THIS MUSIC TO A WIDER AUDIENCE. THANK YOU FOR UNDERSTANDING IN THIS MATTER." (followed by a nobody@nowhere e-mail address...)

Old trade, new tricks.

[Casey]

As the saying goes, there's a sucker/gullible person born every minute.

[ronmac]

Those aren't bootlegs. They would be considered pirates, or, more specifically counterfeits. There's a big difference and the industry prefers that the two get conflated, because the bootleg laws are less clear than pirate laws.

A pirate is an unauthorized copy of an officially released recording. Years ago, there was a greater distinction between pirates and counterfeits, since pirates typically made no attempt to look like the original (think of the guy selling 8-track tapes at the county fair), whereas the counterfeit was deliberately intended to mislead the buyer into thinking they had a legit copy. What used to be pirates really don't show up that much these days.

A bootleg is a release of an unauthorized RECORDING that has never been released officially, like a concert or studio session. The bootleg industry has changed so much that there's not much money in it anymore, in light of free download torrents and trading.

[Harbottle]

You can get these releases in bricks and mortar stores - I have a couple: Raw Material and Squeeze by the so called Velvet Underground. Squeeze sounds pretty good.

[Pr33t]

Spyrosm, what "Labels" are these? I'd love to avoid them...

[Harbottle]

Kismet is the label I have a few releases on.

[Mister Triscuits]

I encountered this notice on the Spring s/t CD, on the Prog Temple label.

[Joe F.]

It's also on the Flawed Gems label. Which has the some of the Omega & Public Foot The Roman albums.

[markwoll]

I noticed something similar on a DVD set Caravan, The Ultimate Collection.
It has a notice on the package that states:
Editorial Control: This project requires total independent editorial control.
These films are unauthorized and are not associated or approved in any way by past or present members of Caravan or their management.
Its on Ragnarock Films.
The US DVD recording came from NearFest.

I was clued into these recordings by Pandora which had several tracks in my regular rotations.
The set was sold by a regular prog vendor with no disclaimers.
I didn't know till I had them it my hands.

I guess stuff can come from all over the place.

mark

[spacefreak]

Spyrosm, what "Labels" are these? I'd love to avoid them...

I've seen it on the Prog Temple and Bamboo labels. They also look very similar to the Radioactive/Fall out CDs...

[TheH]

The most drastic thing I remember on a pirated CD (Second Harvest lable) was a reference: we are a member of an anti music piracy organisation.
This had a web link which was really existing.

[bigbassdrum]

"This music? It's not mine. I'm just holding it for a friend ...."

[rcarlberg]

I'll bet Steve F. could speak to the real difficulty in tracking down musicians and copyright holders for legitimate re-issues.

The prudent thing to do, if you're unsuccessful, is to not re-issue the music.

[Harbottle]

I'll bet Steve F. could speak to the real difficulty in tracking down musicians and copyright holders for legitimate re-issues.

The prudent thing to do, if you're unsuccessful, is to not re-issue the music.

Well Squeeze by the 'VU' was released on Polydor, so surely that means it's now owned by Universal?

Some of the small UK labels in the 70s were nothing more than vanity labels, I think - self released albums. I have some *excellent* ones by singer/songwriter called Mick Stevens. He released about four albums on one of these labels. His family appear to be involved with the re-releases. Maybe it is difficult to find the owners of releases like this.

I have box sets of 50 horror movies that I imported from Amazon.com. They're in the 'public domain' for a reason I've never been able to understand!

[GuitarGeek]

I have box sets of 50 horror movies that I imported from Amazon.com. They're in the 'public domain' for a reason I've never been able to understand!

I've heard vague explanations of how low budget home video companies have been about to get away with distributing old TV show and movies for ages, but I can't remember exactly how it works. I remember when we got our first DVD player, my mom bought this three or four DVD set of Dragnet (the original Dragnet, from the 50's) for like 8 bucks. Then she kvetched about the picture quality (which was most definitely not remastered). And I've bought a few movies on VHS where the releases seemed a bit dodgy (Dayton's Devils, a really bad late 60's flick with Leslie Nielsen and Laine Kazan, looked like it was taken from a badly decayed copy that had been sent out to a TV station for airing).

I recall reading that for decades, It's A Wonderful Life was in the public domain, which is why it was the one movie you saw on like every TV channel half a dozen times every December. Then about 15 years ago, someone (I've forgotten who) finally renewed the copyright on the film, which is why it's shown considerably less frequently these days.

And let's not all forget all those great B-movies and old TV shows you used to see on late night TV, back before infomercials and Law And Order and it's many clones hijacked the airwaves.

[GuitarGeek]

"This music? It's not mine. I'm just holding it for a friend ...."

Oh geez, you just reminded me of an experience I had when I was in the 8th grade, when some asshole stole something from...oh forget what it was and from whom it was stolen from, but I do remember left was involved. Anyway, so I get called down to the office, and questioned by the vice-principal, because this SOB claimed that I asked him to "hang onto the stolen goods" for him, or some bullshit like that.

How some of the kids I went to school with avoided being on America's Most Wanted, I'll never know.

[spacefreak]

I have some *excellent* ones by singer/songwriter called Mick Stevens. He released about four albums on one of these labels. His family appear to be involved with the re-releases. Maybe it is difficult to find the owners of releases like this.

Well, I happen to have five reissued album of his: See the morning, Lady sunrise, No savage word, The river, The englishman. The first three were on the very obscure Deroy label, a recording/pressing studio in Lancashire (whose label is ultra collectable by british underground maniacs). Some of the most expensive UK psych, proto-prog and folk albums are recorded there (Parameter, Forever Amber, Dark, Motiffe, Complex, Windy Corner, Wychfolk etc.). The other two have been on its own (I think) Spaceword label -and these are the more probable to be re-released under the initiative of his family...

[Harbottle]

Well, I happen to have five reissued album of his: See the morning, Lady sunrise, No savage word, The river, The englishman. The first three were on the very obscure Deroy label, a recording/pressing studio in Lancashire (whose label is ultra collectable by british underground maniacs). Some of the most expensive UK psych, proto-prog and folk albums are recorded there (Parameter, Forever Amber, Dark, Motiffe, Complex, Windy Corner, Wychfolk etc.). The other two have been on its own (I think) Spaceword label -and these are the more probable to be re-released under the initiative of his family...

Spaceward was a studio in Cambridge and operated a label as well - although I think they did similar sort of 'private pressings' to Deroy.

I was amused to read that the chap who set up Deroy used it to release albums of organ music he'd recorded off the radio, and he never paid any of the artists. So he was in effect a bootlegger.

What is Lady Sunrise like? It's apparently a set of unreleased recordings that were intended as a follow up to See the morning. I dropped the owner of the Mick Stevens website an e-mail and they told me that Mick recorded See the morning by himself on a tape recorder in his University hall of residence, and they had some more unreleased tracks coming out. That was a few years ago.

[arturs]

The most drastic thing I remember on a pirated CD (Second Harvest lable) was a reference: we are a member of an anti music piracy organisation.
This had a web link which was really existing.

They have conveniently omitted some punctuation...

Is it an

anti music-piracy organisation

or an

anti-music piracy organization?

[Yodelgoat]

I'm sure that those funds will be well spent on behalf of the artists. They always have been so good about making sure the artists are looked after...