Bill, I'm not going to dissect yr entire e-mail as you
have mine, as I have no interest in "discussing" a
matter with you in which you "never took one side or
the other" since riding the fence is not one of my
pastimes. Anyone can play the devil's advocate in an
argument, but where is the glory in the spoils?
Re: singles comp mp3's
I would like to publicly acknowledge that I was
INCORRECT in my assumption that you were accusing Ruxx
of distributing mp3's of the songs from the singles
comp. However, as I've already stated previously, I
was a bit confused by yr very first post in which the
tour EP and singles comp were referred to
incongrously. That has since been cleared up
somewhat.
Re: tour EP resale
Bill - "I think the sale of the japanese tour ep is OK
personally," -
I'm not sure that anyone was ever contending that
selling the EP was wrong. What would be wrong about
selling a CD that you own? I'm not sure where this
belongs in our "discussion."
Re: tour EP mp3's
Bill - "because I believe it may not be the right of
someone to distribute these at will" -
Well Bill, you're absolutely right, it is NOT the
right of someone to distribute copyrighted material
such as the tour EP.
Bill - "but at the same time these are songs which may
very well be coming out in the US sometime soon, on
the new album, or in another format."
Now Bill, here's where you're wrong, I'm afraid. My
understanding is that these songs are not scheduled to
be released in the US by the band at any time or in
any other format. If you have a more reliable source
than me, perhaps they can duke it out for indie cred
bonus points. In fact, the reason that Epic prevented
the remaining copies of the EP from being distributed
by K in the USA was because the songs were being
re-recorded for the Epic album. Why Epic did that, I
do not know. Did the band ask Epic to do that, I do
not know. What I do know is that the EP is never
going to see official release in the USA in the manner
in which it currently exists, i.e. a Japanese tour EP.
Therefore, if the EP is released in a limited
circulation and that initial pressing becomes
unavailable for whatever reason, whether it's sold out
or out of print or no longer available for import, and
if the songs on said EP are exclusive to that release,
how exactly is the band losing money when those rare
and hard-to-find songs are distributed for free on the
internet as mp3's when people who want the EP cannot
buy it through the appropriate channels?
Re: free will
Bill - "THE BAND HAS FREE WILL AND THEY ARE THE ONES
WHO DECIDE TO PUT THE INK TO THE PAPER. THEY DON'T
HAVE TO HAVE A CONTRACT WITH EPIC"
There's no need for screaming, Bill, I'm right here.
No one ever said that the boys were part of a shotgun
wedding or anything of the sort. Why you keep harping
on this, I do not know. Yes, the band signed a
contract, but that doesn't mean that they are
individually responsible and accountable for every
single decision that is made in regard to their
career. That is a painfully idealistic and
unrealistic vision of a record contract and the
recording industry in general. I would like to
believe that Modest Mouse signed a contract with Epic
granting them complete and total unlimited artistic
integrity and creative freedom in every way, shape or
form, but that would be setting quite a precedent for
a band signing to an established major label record
company. I was told by a friend that interviewed the
band in the fall that Isaac expressed regret about the
availablility of the EP, but any further personal
reflections from the band have not been documented,
and I'm certainly not going to assume that Epic is
suddenly going to be the patron saint for the band.
Ask Spoon about Elektra's goodwill, for example.
Bill - "in so many words, you are saying that the
reason for the licensing issues is Epic. Again, I
reiterate, that the band has control over this and
they are the ones who signed the contract."
Again, please refer to my above comments. Yes, the
band signed a contract, but whether or not they
personally decided to press just 700 copies of a tour
EP to be exclusively available in Japan only on Rebel
Beat Factory records with no distribution slated for
the United States after the conclusion of the tour
remains to be seen. Isaac didn't seem to see it that
way when asked about it. The EP was released BEFORE
they even completed the negotiations with Epic, so
perhaps it was an afterthought to some degree.
Anything else is speculation at this point.
Re: statistics
Bill - "notice I did not say "there are many people"
or "I know everyone on this list didn't buy it" or
"everyone in idaho didn't buy the singles comp because
they had mp3s"
I think it's great that you have anonymous examples to
support yr point about people not buying the comp
because they have the mp3's. I also have examples to
support my point, whereby people buy the comp despite
already owning the mp3's. So this one's moot, unless
you want to claim that yr anonymous percentile is
bigger than mine, and we wouldn't want people to start
whipping out their anonymous percentiles in some
ritualistic attempt at proving anonymous supremacy.
Re: undermining sales
Bill - "It's the difference between a demo of a game
and a full copy of a game."
But Bill, what about when you copy a new CD to tape
for a friend of yrs? And what if they decide to keep
the tape and never purchase the CD? Isn't that the
same as burning a cd-r of mp3's and not buying an
album? On an individual scale, I think the comparison
stands. And it's a flagrant exaggeration to claim
that anyone with access to an mp3 player has access to
a cd-r burner. That's like saying that if you have a
TV, you must have a DVD player. Yes, more people have
cd burners than ever before, but they are certainly
not a given at this point in time.
Bill - "In the future I will only discuss how cute
Isaac is. --Teen Beat Fanclub Member #2884"
Yr sarcasm is duly noted. Thanks for sharing.
*phiL*
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