This
is one of those posts that has resulted when one has held their tongue long
enough…So off we go and stuff the consequences.
As
the Barenaked Ladies’ Silverball Tour with Alan Doyle travels across Canada,
the chief pirater and bootlegger @Lyndahere from the Great Big Sea fandom
continues to record and load up bootlegs of every interaction of Alan Doyle and
The Beautiful Gypsies with the Barenaked Ladies on stage. Firstly, @lyndahere
rushed to the opening night in Prince George where she bootlegged Ed Robertson
performing the song 1, 2, 3, 4 with Alan Doyle and then later on in the night when
Alan Doyle returned to the stage to perform Lovers in a Dangerous Time. And then there
were a range of other bootlegs catching every syllable uttered, every note
played and every interaction between the two groups.
Firstly,
I love the official video Alan Doyle did of 1,2,3,4 and the insight it gives into
life as a band member on the road. I don’t think the fandom needs anymore
interpretations in particular after the performance for CMT and the excellent
video in which Ed Robertson also appears. Secondly her endless bootlegging
doesn’t leave much surprise for those people planning to see the concert and
thirdly it just floods the already numerous, mostly poor quality versions that
@lyndahere and others have recorded before. There is a long way to go on the
tour. Finally, it also doesn’t say much about the respect for the Barenaked Ladies who address the issues of piracy over the years.
I
am reposting a post I wrote a while ago about the Barenaked Ladies association
with the moves to stamp out piracy. Their interest in piracy came from Steve
Page who has since left the band. However, their name and brand have become
associated with leading the way on music piracy although they have said nothing
in recent years that I can find. Bands and musician’s opinions about piracy and
bootlegging regularly change to incorporate new technologies and attitudes to
the way we listen to music. This tour @lyndahere bootlegs have been supported
by one of the Barenaked Ladies major fan sites on social media via Twitter.
Although given a different cover it doesn’t make the story inside any more
tolerable or respectable.
What
does stay the same is that fans like @lyndahere continue to have no
respect for the musicians and artists rights to have control of their own music
and how it is distributed and watched. Although many of the points made in the
post have been made in previous posts since then I think their worth repeating.
For example, if the justification for bootlegging is used to sell the music and
concert experience the Barenaked Ladies may well think about lowering the price
of their very expensive concert tickets to make them more accessible to the
average Canadian music enthusiast to get up and close with one of their
music traditions. Tickets in the front rows of most venues cost hundreds of
dollars.
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 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 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 like so many
started out with good intentions and to trade only but then get into selling.
This bootlegger writes about the conflicts between his real job and his
bootlegging business, developing tricks of the trade, running a website and
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
unauthorised 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 Starknakedtruth 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 taping
authorised performances tapers can tape from any ticketed seating located in
the venue. Also for many of these performances tapers are able are to purchase
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 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 equality 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.
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 tickets holders or those
of the musicians and artists.
Bootleggers
seemed more concerned about the fans their bootlegged videos on Youtube they
may attract than the people who have already purchased tickets and are there at
the concert. In the official and bootlegged videos of the Russell Crowe’s
Indoor Garden Party in New York bootleggers have their cameras on in the front
row and 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”.
Bootleggers like
@lyndahere believe live recordings help bring in new fans who will in turn go
to concerts and buy CDs. While illegal live recordings are used as modes of
word-of-mouth advertising to increase enthusiasm amongst fans the way social
media can and create a community. Bootlegged recordings are also often the
first material many fans see and as a consequence may be turned off because of
the poor quality. Bootlegging can also work in reverse and piss people off who
don’t agree with piracy, support the coalition of musicians and artists who
don’t support piracy.
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. Where
once there was a kind of code amongst bootleggers Youtube has changed that as
money is now involved. In a country like America on the brink of an economic
crisis, money for entertainment of any kind is limited. If a show 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 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.
References
“Artists speak
out against piracy” www.musicunited.org viewed 10 January 2013
“Artists Against
Piracy” Launches Nation Media Campaign 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
2012 “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
