Attention: Chuck Nessa

[Chuck Nessa]

How nice of this fellow to be passing around other people's correspondence, too. And the lovely little snip about medication. ... It all fits, I guess.

I just told the guy to stop or I'd sue his ass.

[7/4]

How nice of this fellow to be passing around other people's correspondence, too. And the lovely little snip about medication. ... It all fits, I guess.

I just told the guy to stop or I'd sue his ass.

fair enough!

[Christiern]

I'd sue more than his ass—big though it may be.

[paul secor]

WOW.

This just in from my email:

Hi Peter,

I heard from Chuck, and thought I'd forward his email and my response.

I will be removing the item from inventory tonight.

Please make sure Chuck takes his blood-pressure medication, OK?

Best to you,

Scott

Amazing how someone will do something illegal, and when they're caught, will try and make it seem as if someone else has done something wrong. Whatever happened to accepting responsibility for one's actions?

[porcy62]

How nice of this fellow to be passing around other people's correspondence, too. And the lovely little snip about medication. ... It all fits, I guess.

I just told the guy to stop or I'd sue his ass.

Without any sarcastic suggestion about hemorrhoids ointment in the mail.

You're a gentleman.

[Hot Ptah]

WOW.

This just in from my email:

Hi Peter,

I heard from Chuck, and thought I'd forward his email and my response.

I will be removing the item from inventory tonight.

Please make sure Chuck takes his blood-pressure medication, OK?

Best to you,

Scott

Amazing how someone will do something illegal, and when they're caught, will try and make it seem as if someone else has done something wrong. Whatever happened to accepting responsibility for one's actions?

That became outmoded thinking under the Bush Administration. No accountability became the national moral standard, with robbing, stealing and cheating becoming the ideal.

Edited August 25, 2008 by Hot Ptah

[Rooster_Ties]

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Has the world gone mad? I cannot wait to mail this thing back tomorrow.

Are you getting your money back??

We certainly hope so, and I if you don't, we should turn Chuck on him again.

[Uncle Skid]

Amazing how someone will do something illegal, and when they're caught, will try and make it seem as if someone else has done something wrong. Whatever happened to accepting responsibility for one's actions?

Yes, and let's take it one step further: whatever happened to accepting responsibility for one's actions BEFORE doing something illegal or unethical?

I seriously doubt that "Scott" did not realize this material was never commercially released. A simple google search would have told him the answer.

[Aggie87]

For those that illegally download material and defend the practice (because it's OOP or simply because you're "entitled"), how does this particular situation strike you? Is it wrong or is it ok? Is it wrong because you know Chuck?

[Chuck Nessa]

I seriously doubt that "Scott" did not realize this material was never commercially released. A simple google search would have told him the answer.

Scott's email to me spoke of my "giving some distribution to their early musical art, even if in limited edition form" ignoring 3 lps available from the '60s thru the '80s and the fact the AE box was available for over 13 years. This also ignores the many thousand dollars I spent to make that happen.

[Neal Pomea]

For those that illegally download material and defend the practice (because it's OOP or simply because you're "entitled"), how does this particular situation strike you? Is it wrong or is it ok? Is it wrong because you know Chuck?

I say it's wrong because Chuck and the artists are still living and should benefit financially from their work. The work is not in the public domain.

No need for the parenthetical assumption that everyone who downloads does it from a false sense of entitlement.

Edited August 26, 2008 by It Should be You

[clifford_thornton]

Just because somebody owns an independent record store doesn't mean they know anything about music or the "industry," or aren't crooks...

[marcello]

Please supply Scott's email so we can all mercilessly harass him.

I bet he's a premature ejaculator.

[JSngry]

Yeah, that's bullshit. This guy is reproducing and selling analog material in an analog domain. He's creating hard, not virtual, copies, and he's selling what is not his to sell.

Cut and dried theft, by well-established rules and precedents. Is that so hard to figure out?

Duh.

[Chuck Nessa]

Please supply Scott's email so we can all mercilessly harass him.

I bet he's a premature ejaculator.

Niko provided a link above. Check out the other offerings.

[Aggie87]

Yeah, that's bullshit. This guy is reproducing and selling analog material in an analog domain. He's creating hard, not virtual, copies, and he's selling what is not his to sell.

Cut and dried theft, by well-established rules and precedents. Is that so hard to figure out?

Duh.

I don't see that as any different than some kid downloading a copy of the AEC box illegally. Except that somebody else happened to profit.

In either case, the rightful people received no compensation.

[Uncle Skid]

And to be a bit pedantic: the guy is reproducing and selling digital material, not analog. Although he's creating hard copies, those CD-R copies aren't very much different from their downloaded counterparts.

[JSngry]

Yeah, that's bullshit. This guy is reproducing and selling analog material in an analog domain. He's creating hard, not virtual, copies, and he's selling what is not his to sell.

Cut and dried theft, by well-established rules and precedents. Is that so hard to figure out?

Duh.

I don't see that as any different than some kid downloading a copy of the AEC box illegally. Except that somebody else happened to profit.

In either case, the rightful people received no compensation.

Your tunnel vision is your prerogative, so as long as you're at it, why don't you ask proponents of euthanasia (or even better, pro-choice advocates) if they feel "ok" with a drive-by or a mass murder or if they think it's "wrong"? Put that lack of nuanced thinking on full display for us, ok?

And to be perfectly honest, if that kid had a choice between downloading a free copy of the box off of some blog, or paying beaucoup bodacious bucks for it from some "speculator" on eBay, I'd encourage him/her to download it from the blog - if all they wanted was to hear the music and not own an "object". But not before encouraging him/her to contacting Chuck first to see what the man himself could do.

Excuse me now. I just heard a song on the radio that i like, and it's the fourth time today I've heard it. 20th time over the last two weeks. I now have a moral obligation to buy it.

[JSngry]

And to be a bit pedantic: the guy is reproducing and selling digital material, not analog. Although he's creating hard copies, those CD-R copies aren't very much different from their downloaded counterparts.

"analog" refers to the final state, not the source material. And yes, those CD-R copies are very different than their downloaded counterparts.

[Uncle Skid]

And to be a bit pedantic: the guy is reproducing and selling digital material, not analog. Although he's creating hard copies, those CD-R copies aren't very much different from their downloaded counterparts.

"analog" refers to the final state, not the source material. And yes, those CD-R copies are very different than their downloaded counterparts.

Well, strictly speaking, analog was the initial state of these recordings, not the final state. The source material was originally recorded and released in an analog format. CD-Rs (and the CD box set) are just a bunch of 1's and 0's -- digital, by definition.

Here's an interesting thought experiment: what if "Scott" downloaded the AEC source material from a blog, converted it from MP3 to WAV, and burned a bunch of CD-Rs? I'm sure the liner notes are also available in a easy to download (digital) format somewhere as well.

Now he resells this to our new friend in Toronto... and he's the only crook?

[Chuck Nessa]

If he downloaded it, it was probably FLAC files not MP3s. Rapidshare has ultimately deleted 2 such groups of files at my request.

[Uncle Skid]

If he downloaded it, it was probably FLAC files not MP3s. Rapidshare has ultimately deleted 2 such groups of files at my request.

Sadly, I think that makes the distinction between CD-Rs and downloads simply a piece of cheap plastic: IIRC, FLAC files (loss-less encoding) can be re-encoded to WAV files, and burned.

Original source material (CD) --> FLAC --> posted to Rapidshare (for instance) --> downloaded --> converted to WAV --> CD-R

The resulting CD-R is BIT-FOR-BIT identical to the original source on CD.

(please correct me if I'm wrong)

[Dan Gould]

If he downloaded it, it was probably FLAC files not MP3s. Rapidshare has ultimately deleted 2 such groups of files at my request.

I'm curious Chuck, how quickly does Rapidshare respond to claims of copyright infringement, and what do they require to "prove" that a rights holder has a legitimate complaint?

[JSngry]

And to be a bit pedantic: the guy is reproducing and selling digital material, not analog. Although he's creating hard copies, those CD-R copies aren't very much different from their downloaded counterparts.

"analog" refers to the final state, not the source material. And yes, those CD-R copies are very different than their downloaded counterparts.

Well, strictly speaking, analog was the initial state of these recordings, not the final state. The source material was originally recorded and released in an analog format. CD-Rs (and the CD box set) are just a bunch of 1's and 0's -- digital, by definition.

Here's an interesting thought experiment: what if "Scott" downloaded the AEC source material from a blog, converted it from MP3 to WAV, and burned a bunch of CD-Rs? I'm sure the liner notes are also available in a easy to download (digital) format somewhere as well.

Now he resells this to our new friend in Toronto... and he's the only crook?

By "analog", I refer to the media "container". Our protagonist here can, and will, return his CD-Rs. How could he "return" a download? Oh, sure, he could return his hard drive, or his iPod, but what if those storage media contained both legitimately obtained items and others? How could he "return" just the illegitimate ones? Not all "objects" are objects.

Hey - I'm not here to advocate opening the gates and just letting everybody have whatever they want. Far from it. But there's some POVs expressed here that strike me as being entirely wishful thinking-based, and I'm going to play devil's advocate there simply because the reality is not black & white.

[Chuck Nessa]

If he downloaded it, it was probably FLAC files not MP3s. Rapidshare has ultimately deleted 2 such groups of files at my request.

I'm curious Chuck, how quickly does Rapidshare respond to claims of copyright infringement, and what do they require to "prove" that a rights holder has a legitimate complaint?

If you search their site, they have a series requirements to assert your claim of ownership. I follow the rules and files are usually removed within 2 or 3 days. Trouble is, you have to find the postings and it would be a full time job to police them all and then you would still miss some.