Comments on: Amoeba Records launches downloadable music store for digitized rarities

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 22:33:00 +0000

Moderator note: Don’t put a pdf behind a URL shortener. It’s evil.

By: Marc Tompkins

Marc Tompkins — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 17:38:00 +0000

This sounds remarkably similar to what Google tried to do with orphaned books, but that was EEEEEVIL. Not trying to stir the pot, but… can somebody enlighten me as to the moral difference here?

(Just to be clear: I’m actually in favor of both – I think all of this stuff should be available to anybody who wants it, and that some mechanism should exist to recompense its creators. Just wondering whether there’s some major difference between the two that I’ve missed.)

By: Stanley Chin

Stanley Chin — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 17:23:00 +0000

In the US, there are no sound recordings in the public domain — sheet music yes, recordings no. Pre-1972 sound recordings are under State/local common law control until 2067. It’s a mess. See http://www.pdinfo.com/Copyright-Law/Public-Domain-Sound-Recordings.php and http://www.copyright.gov/docs/sound/pre-72-report.pdf

By: Stephen Marts

Stephen Marts — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 16:56:00 +0000

The Hollywood Canteen!!

By: Jim Nelson

Jim Nelson — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 16:15:00 +0000

Nice thing is, Amoeba is one of the big boys in music retail, and is incredibly well connected. If a label goes after them, they can just make some phone calls and have the legal problems dealt with at a much, much higher level than some enterprising young lawyer.

They’re not just some website.

We’ve dealt with a few nastygrams from lawyers (we do music retail websites) and the owner of my company can do the same thing – call friends who know people to get the problem smoothed over.

It’s actually the small labels that are the biggest problem – they have that ‘terrier vs. mastiff’ thing going on sometimes, and come in with high-flying legal threats with no warning…

By: oasisob1

oasisob1 — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 16:08:00 +0000

I’m not afraid – I don’t have any money, so I can browse to my heart’s content, knowing that I won’t spend anything.

By: Gyrofrog

Gyrofrog — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 15:58:00 +0000

Yeah, I hope that works out for them.

(However, in the case of really old recordings, some could potentially be in the public domain.)

I am a little afraid to go browse the catalog… ($$$)

By: oasisob1

oasisob1 — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 15:51:00 +0000

It is a wonderful idea. I worry about the risk they are taking. Their escrow plan seems like a smart thing to do, which shows their honesty, but lawyers for the prosecution rarely care about such things.

By: Aaron Swain

Aaron Swain — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 15:28:00 +0000

Fantastic idea!

By: agonist

agonist — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 15:21:00 +0000

That’s a great idea. I think the key to the indie record store survival is innovation such as this as well as continuing to serve the niche, boutique market that lives outside the periphery of Wal-Mart and iTunes.

There’s a lot of great music that never even made it to CD let alone iTunes.