“Hoping the Sweet Man, the one I believe in & think the world of, gets his equal time w. the others. That’s not too much to hope for, is it?” @lyndahere 16 March 2014…
If only it were as simple as @lyndahere wanting others to share
time with the man and whose music she loves. A couple of days ago a
Newfoundland music group Shanneyganock released a wonderful video called Home
Boys Home about the fight of Newfoundlanders to preserve their independent and
unique culture from the encroaching Canadian mainland. The video showed the glorious
Newfoundland physical environment and her people in a very moving account and calling all it’s
people to the struggle. The video by Shanneyganock has had over 20
000 hits in just over a week. Alan Doyle and Bob Hallett from Great Big Sea also
appeared on the video. At the same time @lyndahere provided links to a video
she had bootlegged four years ago of the same song performed live in a pub by
former Great Big Sea member Darrell Power. @lyndahere’s video has reached only
approximately 800 hits in the four years since it was loaded up onto YouTube. There
is nothing to indicate people watching YouTube prefer bootlegged videos of live
performances to professionally made videos or of live
performances.
Unfortunately for @lyndahere fans like me don’t have short
memories. This is not the first time @lyndahere has released her bootlegged
videos in competition with other professionally made videos and not without
controversy. For example @lyndahere has also bootlegged Alan Doyle’s Live At
Revival music special, the Great Big Sea CBC music special for Great Big Sea
XX, the making of It’s Friday with Great Big Sea and Dean Brody and the Blue
Rodeo CBC music special with Blue Rodeo and Great Big Sea. In fact any public
performance of Alan Doyle or Great Big Sea filmed with a live audience
including those of the indoor garden parties.
So yes we do get to spend time no matter where we are in the
world with Great Big Sea and their friends with professionally made videos and it isn't just @lyndahere wanting people to spend time with the musicians and the music she loves. @lyndahere’s
bootlegs are biased and exclusive of others in her presentation of what is
happening on stage. She bootlegs and uploads without much thought about the
content, the quality of the sound, the morals and ethics of bootlegging a
live performance or the consequences for the musicians on the sales of CD’s and
tickets to concerts.
It is really unfortunate over the past couple of years Alan Doyle, Great Big Sea and their
friends including Russell Crowe and Scott Grimes have not had a bootlegging policy. Piracy
and bootlegging have been used to promote their work however, there is research
that states piracy erodes content value and damages brand reputations. I have always
believed this. A little bootlegging as a concert experience is alright and a
good promotion but the endless bootlegging by the same person without any
thought to the content already available and from the same position in a concert venue is uncreative, undermining
and detrimental to the music.
A piracy and bootlegging policy would have made it clear
where the musicians and artists stood and where the fans stood who chose to
bootleg and watch bootlegged live performances. The humming and haring over bootlegging and piracy by Alan Doyle,
Great Big Sea, Russell Crowe and their friends has made it difficult for fans who have a moral
and ethical conscience and want to do the right thing. There are always fans like
@lyndahere who bootleg live performances, who can’t distinguish when it is appropriate and when it is
not and what and how much to bootleg and load up on to YouTube and other sources. It has created discussion and
dissention among the fandoms.
Just over a year ago I wrote the following post about the
thoughts of bootlegging and piracy by some musicians and artists. The Great Big
Sea official site with links to concert tickets advertised the fact there was
no photographing and bootlegging at most venues. However @lyndahere chose to ignore it. At the time there was no
indication that Alan Doyle or Great Big Sea supported music piracy or the
activities of @lyndahere other than her continued presence in their top tweets
with bootlegged videos and pictures. Things have changed with the departure
of Sean McCann.
A model for a bootlegging policy is available at the Dave
Matthew’s Band official webpage. Other musicians and artists who support
bootlegging also have them. Whether the fans respect them is another issue but
they are there.
@lyndahere
and musicians and artists opinions of bootlegging published on 13 January 2013
It’s a new year and @lyndahere is off stalking and
bootlegging Alan Doyle of Great Big Sea on some of his solo gigs in America and
Canada in New Hampshire, LA, New York and Vancouver
and British Columbia Canada. She did quite well in bootlegging the Russell
Crowe New York Indoor Garden Party concerts at Joe’s Pub on 8 December 2012 on
all accounts after receiving approximately 200000 hits for all the live
recorded videos put up Youtube. Approximately $1000 tax free if she is
collecting revenue from Youtube. Not bad for four hours work when the average
American wage per hour is low.
On her Twitter page @lyndahere wrote
these tweets along with all the rest
@lyndahere @alanthomasdoyle Yes, you were
awesome, that is. As always. Tonight White River Jct. will be Awesome Trifecta
12 January 2013
@lyndahere I love it when people get excited
about your solo music. That’s almost as sweet as is gets. NYC show will be
awesome, Alan @alanthomasdoyle 11 January 2013
@lyndahere 5.30 am airport shuttle = time to
get a bit of sleep tonight. Great night tonight with the Alan Doyle Band. More
shows alandoyle.ca/tour 11 January 2013
@lyndahere A gorgeous Dream of Home Alan Doyle
Tupelo Music Hall, Londonderry NH on Youtube @alanthomasdoyle 11 January 2013
@lyndahere Gotta love a man who knows right
where he belongs: Alan Doyle, Tupelo Music Hall, Londonderry on Youtube
@alanthomasdoyle 11 January 2013
@lyndahere I love St. John’s but from what I
am hearing and reading about current weather conditions, I don’t think I mind
not loving her until Tuesday 11 January 2013
So what do some musicians and artists
think about the bootlegging of their live shows? After a brief search of the
Internet the opinions of musicians and artists recording their concerts are
pretty diverse. Some don’t like it and make their opinions very clear. Others
issue statements and develop policies. Others approve for a variety of reasons
with some conditions on recording like for personal use only and no trading.
Some bootleg their own concerts and release them to fans. But regardless of
what the musicians or artists want most people like @lyndahere who buy tickets
to concerts will always do exactly what they want with little respect for what
the musicians and groups want and still call themselves fans.
In 2000, over 70 musicians and artists
formed a coalition in the fight against all kinds of piracy. They included
Canadians Bryan Adams, Barenaked Ladies and Alanis Morissette and Bon Jovi,
Christina Aguilera, Faith Hill, Garth Brooks and Metallica. “AAP’s goal is to create public awareness,
appreciation and understanding of the value of music and to advocate artists’
choice in determining how their music is presented, distributed and marketed
online”. The initiative was also supported by various companies. The
fight continues in 2012 as British musicians and artists lead by Sir Elton
John, Pete Townshend and Robert Plant wrote a letter to the British Prime
Minister David Cameron to influence the government to implement the antipiracy
focused Digital Economy Act 2010 that will assist in the fight against music
piracy.
Action seems to be taken at venues as
well as by artists and musicians at various concerts. They are described in a
bootlegger’s blog called “Starknakedtruth:
Confessions of a Rock Concert Bootlegger”. Most alleged self-confessed
bootleggers start out with good intentions and to trade only but then get into
selling attracted to the huge amounts of money involved. This bootlegger writes
about the conflicts between his real job and his bootlegging business,
developing tricks of the trade, running a website and dealing with customers,
numerous conflicts with security and police, fights with other fans who
reported him to the RIAA and band’s management, and problems of distribution
through sites like EBay blocking the sale of some bootlegs. He talks about fans willing to take
action or perhaps other bootleggers ratting out the opposition. “Janis’s lawyers sent me a letter to ‘cease
and desist’ in any distributions of copies of this show, after a fan on her
message board rats me out to her lawyers. I would receive about half dozen of
such legal letters to comply to from various bands like Cheap Trick, Journey
ect in their future”. Despite all the objections from the musicians and
artists themselves, their security, fans and actions by EBay this person
continued to bootleg and sell them.
In 2004 a Finnish man was prosecuted
for spreading unauthorised recordings of Alanis Morissette concerts on the
Internet. The man was found to have swapped over 1900 copies of auauthorised
concerts recordings between 1999 and 2003 with other bootleggers through his
website. He had not made illegal recordings himself. He was ordered to pay $21
756 in compensation to Morissette and others for copyright infringement. Alanis
Morissette was of course at the for front of the Artists Against Piracy
campaign established in 2000 as were many of the musicians and artists
bootlegged by the author of Starknaked Truth blog.
The Dave Matthews Band is one band
whose views on tapping live shows is well documented and is on their official
site as they allow it at almost all of their performances. Their taping policy
on their official webpage states “ We
feel that each show is unique and want to offer our fans the opportunity to
recreate the live experienced through the audio reproduction of our shows. At
all authorised performances tapers can tape from any ticketed seating
located in the venue. Also for many of these performances tapers are
to purchase seats in the specially designated taper section, normally located immediately
behind the soundboard…Taping is limited to audio-only, using microphones…We
sincerely appreciate all of our fans so we ask you that you please be
considerate of those around you by not obstructing anyone else’s view of the
performances…All recordings must be used for personal used or trading only…”.
The Dave Matthews Band unlike others
recognises bootlegging is a major problem in the music industry. They
recognised the contribution fans can make in the fight against bootlegged
material “Those of you who have passed
along information about commercialised recordings have been very instrumental
in our fight against bootleggers. An equally important violation of the
integrity of the music is the unauthorised commercial exploitation of the band
now occurring on television and radio…And don’t forget the battle of the
bootleggers is an ongoing one”. But despite their best intention,
generosity and attempts to cooperate with their fans by allowing taping and
trading there will always be those out to exploit. A search of the Dave Matthews
Band on Youtube shows this in the number of hits of illegally copied pirated
videos and bootlegged material. Despite the policy being displayed on their
home webpage some fans remain ignorant and choose to ignore it. In one illegal
video I watched the sound recording and the visual were from two different
concerts.
To me the taping policy of Great Big
Sea has been made perfectly clear via Twitter. That is they don’t mind people
taping their shows for personal use but they don’t like their entire concerts
being taped and posted on Youtube. This is evident in the fact the three
primary members of Great Big Sea (Alan Doyle, Bob Hallett and Sean McCann) have
never officially acknowledged or retweeted any of @lyndahere’s hundreds of
videos she has sent them via Twitter in the last year or so. Alan Doyle has on
occasions tweeted @lyndahere welcoming her presence at concerts but never
acknowledged any of her videos. Links and retweets of her videos have on a very
few rare occasions been provided by Russell Crowe, Scott Grimes and other
friends of Alan Doyle such as Great Big Sea member Murray Foster and Alan Doyle
Band member Kendel Carson. Nearly all Great Big Sea fans respect their unspoken
taping policy and are more interested in creating memories for the moment
listening and enjoying the music than creating memories for someone else to
visit sometime in the future. But I could be wrong.
Bootleggers and those that view and
make live recordings at concerts continually justify their activities with a
range of arguments. Bootlegging is a hobby of music enthusiasts and they should
be allowed to do free from legal threat. There is a thought that a fan base
will increase if they are allowed to video and trade in bootlegged material
following certain guidelines or rules and create a community of fans. However,
it is clear in the case of Great Big Sea and Alan Doyle that the primary
bootlegger @lyndahere is not interested in following other guidelines laid down
for taping by the venues or ticket holders or those of the musicians.
Bootleggers seemed more concerned about
the fans their bootlegged videos on Youtube may attract than the people who
have already purchased tickets and are there at the concert. In one of the
official and bootlegged videos of Russell Crowe’s Indoor Garden Party in New
York bootleggers have their cameras on in the front row and in others by the
audience they are raising their cameras above the crowd obstructing someone’s
views and shining a light in their face. There is clear evidence they piss off
some performers such as Neil Young. “With
the Internet there is no more privacy and not even the chance to express
yourself in front of your audience in the intimacy of a concert that lets songs
evolve. You cann’t do this because they immediately get it circulated”.
Bootlegged recordings made by
relatively unknown bands can be used as a cheap form of publicity without
paying for the large overheads like labour to produce it, the license to record
or the distribution. Bootleggers like @lyndahere believe live recordings help
bring in new fans who will in turn go to concerts and buy CDs. Illegal live
recordings are used as modes of word-of-mouth advertising to increase
enthusiasm amongst fans and create a community. Bootlegged recordings are often
the first material many fans see and as a consequence may be turned off because
of the poor quality and discourage fans from attending concerts. Bootlegging
can also work in reverse and piss people off who don’t agree with piracy, and
who support the coalition of musicians and artists who don’t support piracy. In
a country like America on the brink of an economic crisis, money for
entertainment of any kind is limited. If a concert is bootlegged in the way
@lyndahere bootlegs more and more people are going to watch it on Youtube.
Rather than spend $30 on a ticket to a show they can pay for Internet usage for
a whole month. They are very unlikely to buy a CD if they can access it for
free.
Canadian Neil Young writes in his
biography Waging Heavy Peace about being on the road, performing to today’s
audience and the presence of technology at concerts “If you forget what you’re doing, it shows up on YouTube. If you do
something new that isn’t ready, or something old that you screw up, it is on
YouTube. If snot comes off your nose while you are playing the harmonica and
slithers down the harmonica rack onto your T-shirt, it is on YouTube. If you
say something stupid…”
References
“Artists
Against Piracy Launches Nation Media Campaign” at www.interentnews.com/ec-news/articles viewed on 10 January 2013
“Finn
ordered to pay Alanis Morissette for Internet bootleg spreading” www.murmurs.com viewed 10 January 2013
Rolling Stone, “Elton John, Pete Townshend and Robert Plant Sign Anti-Piracy Letter to
British Prime Minister”, 25 July 2012 www.rollingstone.com/music/news viewed 10 January 2013.
“Starknakedtruth;
Confessions of A Rock Concert Bootlegger 9 October 2012” www.startnakedtruth.blogspot.com viewed 10 January 2013
Young, N. 2012. Waging Heavy Peace. Penguin Group: London.
