Ha ha.
Here's what I don't get. These so-called Andorran labels (and indeed others) issue material which is still in European copyright owned among others by EMI, Sony/BMG, Warner and Universal. This material is distributed throughout Europe and sold by respectable retailers. I'm not talking here about material out of European copyright, or about bootlegs or anything else. Is it really the case that these large companies can take no actions to defend their own copyrights? Can Universal do nothing about Lonehill's Illinois Jacquet and Johnny Hodges issues? Were Warner unable to act against Gambit's Paul Desmond issue? Do Sony/BMG have nothing to say about Lonehill's J.J. Johnson? Do none of these companies at least feel inclined to drop a line to amazon to ask them to quit stocking them? The boots and out-of-copyright issues are an unrelated matter. Here the question is in-copyright material where the owner is a large company which appears otherwise able to police its rights. The usual bluster aside, does anyone have any facts on this?
guess these firms are simply lacking the knowledge to find out whether it's their material or not
I don't think they are lacking the knowledge, I think they don't really give a shit and if they actually did go after them, the time and money it would take wouldn't justify the end result.
I know what David is saying though, there is more chance of finding the grey and black market stuff over here than there is the legitmate releases.
It's basically the sad truth to it, the interest for those recordings is too scarce for them to care, as bad as it is for the musicians who should receive royalties, the sinister truth is that these Andorran companies are probably most of the time the only medium that will release this kind of music.