Claude

Dan, it could well be that your $2 Taiwanese DVD is an illegal copy, which are so dominant on the asian market. A friend once lent me a bootleg DVD he bought during a trip to China. The disc was a perfect copy of the original DVD (in terms of content and quality), but it had no region code. The counterfeiters usually don't copy technical limitations.

Only half of the Criterion releases are Region 0 (i.e. "region-free"), the other half are limited to Region 1 because of contractual limitations http://www.criteriondvd.com/search.php?encoding=0 http://www.criteriondvd.com/search.php?encoding=1 The region code logo looks like this (region number with planet in the background): "4:3" is the picture aspect ratio, the classic TV aspect ratio as opposed to widescreen (16:9)

Is this about the turnover or the profits from each format? Because downloads have a much higher profit margin than CDs (no manufacturing costs, substantially lower distribution costs), I can imagine that they quickly generate more profits than CD sales, even if CDs are still by far the dominant format.

With most players this can indeed be done with certain remote control signals, but some brands require a programmable remote that can send a "magic key" that allows to enter the service mode. In this case it cannot be done with the player's remote control alone. Here's a good database with region hacks: http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks

It could be that Amazon has a licensing deal to make on-demand copies of certain OOP titles, just like Arkiv Music has for OOP Universal Classics titles http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/AlbumGroup?album_group=8 http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/ar...in_circulation/

I recommend "Charged" by Toshinori Kondo / Eraldo Bernocchi / Bill Laswell, from 1999. Bitches Brew goes Drum'n'bass. Wild stuff! http://www.discogs.com/release/71967 Here's a review of their later live album, already mentionned above: http://cdbaby.com/cd/ebtkbl On a completely different note, I also like Laswell's ambient projects with Pete Namlook, the "Outland" and "Psychonavigation" series. http://www.discogs.com/artist/Psychonavigation http://www.discogs.com/artist/Outland+(2)

Except that commemoration coins are mostly rip-offs http://coins.about.com/od/coinbuyingadvice/a/obama_coins.htm

And probably a poor pressing quality. The low price is surprising, since today labels usually charge more for LPs than for CDs, and the Disconforme releases are generally quite expensive compared to other public domain labels.

This is good news if the LPs are decently mastered. Unfortunately many current "normally priced" LP reissues (in the $10-20 price range) are made from poor copies of the masters and are interesting only for the vintage appeal. If the LPs are of very high quality in terms of mastering and pressing, then the labels charge $30 and more, not because the production costs so much more, but because audiophiles are willing to pay that much.

"For this completely revised ninth edition, Richard Cook and Brian Morton have reassessed each artist's entry, and updated the text to incorporate thousands of additional CDs." I wonder how much Richard Cook was involved in this revision, since he died in August 2007 and the previous edition came out in October 2006.

It looks like the "1000 jazz covers" Taschen book (see the cover in the opening post) was never released, but many shopping pages use the same product title and promo text for the 650 cover book that finally came out.

Dexter Gordon - Something different (Steeple Chase)

Same here. The picture data is from 2005. And only the center of the country is covered with detailed pictures.

The year is 2020. The World is entirely photographed by Google Street View. Well not entirely! One small village of indomitable Germans still holds out against the invaders ... http://www.spiegel.de/international/german...,581177,00.html

Well, to be fair to the Gorts, I wasn't banned for posting on the SH forum about a defect on one of Hoffman's 45rpm pressings, which is probably on all of the copies (as he admits), but nobody else noticed it: Adderley "Things are getting better" 45rpm - tape flutter? In my view, the Blue Note 45rpm are the best available reissues of these albums, but given the limitations of some of the recordings the 45rpms can't be as superior as they were for many of the Fantasy sessions. That doesn't say anything negative about the mastering, it does not affect Hoffman's reputation or the sales of these LPs (they will all sell out quickly).

I don't understand what is so controversial about my statement. The Music Matters LPs sound best, and the CD versions that come closest are the TOCJs (1990s releases). I did not refer to original LPs, which I have never heard. The McMaster and especially the RVG CDs have a different tonality. Concerning the absolute sound quality, I agree that the MM LPs are not a revelation compared to the TOCJ CDs. They sound slightly better in all compartments, but it's not a huge improvement as some of the Fantasy 45rpms. Assuming that Hoffman had the best tape sources and the LPs are optimal transfers, it looks like Rudy van Gelder did better recordings for Prestige. Especially his post-1962 Blue Note recordings are have less than state of the art sound. So I will only buy the Music Matters LP sets for those albums which I don't already have as TOCJ CD. As for the Analogue Productions reissues, I will only get the SACDs as long as there are parallel LP/SACD reissues. I have a love-hate relationship to audiophile LPs, knowing that SACDs or any other state of the art digital format would sound equally good but would be much cheaper and more convenient.

I think Kevin means the early ones from the 90's, using the original blue Note album numbers (TOCJ-4219 etc). I have the same experience, comparing a few CD versions with the Music Matters LPs. The TOCJs sound closest to the LPs.

Blame it on the Bossa Nova

From the "Icelandic Mess" article: It's good to finally have laws against those extremist managers

Either that, or it's the most prolific label on earth http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/label/Pid/a/Pid

The surprisingly low position of France in the above list (only as many books as the Netherlands, less than Italy and Spain) made me search for other figures, and this page says the number of new books in France was 57.728 in 2007 http://blog-dominique.autie.intexte.net/bl...e_du_livre_2007

I'm not an expert, but AFAIK the Berne Convention only concerns copyright, i.e. the right of composers/authors. Neigbouring rights (rights of performers) are regulated by the Rome convention, which Andorra also is member of, but which provides for a much shorter minimum duration of protection (20 years): http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/rome/summary_rome.html I don't know what the term of performer protection in the andorran legislation is, if they only respect the minimum duration to comply with Rome rules or if they aligned it with the EU rules (which I doubt). Andorra is not member of the Geneva convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms Against Unauthorized Duplication of Their Phonograms http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/phonograms/ Andorra is also not yet member of the WTO, whose IP rules are stricter than the WIPO treaties. They are slowly catching up with introducing and modernizing their IP laws, but it could be that if those bootleg labels are important companies they will try not to harm them with EU- or US-style laws. But it's also clear that if the rightholders really cared about protecting their rights on 1960's and later jazz recordings, they could bust Gambit, Lonehill & Co and make those CDs disapper from stores in the EU, just as Hollywood film studios do with (non-counterfeited but illegally imported) Region 1 DVDs sold in Europe. The Andorran labels cannot survive by selling their stuff in Andorra only.

Maybe it was the implementation of Council Directive 93/98/EEC of 29 October 1993 harmonizing the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/copyri...otection_en.htm Before that directive, many reissues/releases of more recent material were legit in some EU countries. In Luxembourg, there were a couple of labels which released 1960's rock bootlegs ("Swingin' Pig" was the best known). As it took very long to transpose the directive into national law, those labels were active until the late 90's. Maybe it was the same situation in Italy, or it was a general crackdown on their huge bootleg industry.

Giants of Jazz seems to be an italian company. It was the very first label to release unofficial jazz reissues at budget price in Europe, in the early 90's. Those CDs were usually samplers of popular artists and did not include rare material. The source material was LP dubs or worn tapes, and the sound quality was terrible. From a collector's point of view, these CDs were totally uninteresting. Fortunately, they included detailed recording info, so it was possible to identify the sessions. I think Giants of Jazz have stopped releasing these CDs years ago.

There is not much of a grey area here. Some labels from the "doubtful" list only reissue 50 year old material, and therefore are legit in Europe (but not in the US). I think Definitive, Quadromania and Membran limit themselves to public domain material. Other labels like Gambit or Lonehill (probably the same company) mainly release recordings which are not yet 50 years old, and they do it in all likelyhoof without authorization. These CDs are illegal also in Europe. Edit: post written before king ubu sent his