RTP-area local music and culture

["DJ Sad" <djsad AT sapoverde.net>]

Is it bizarre just to me that merely recording a show can somehow be 
patentable. Or is the process of doing so truly new somehow?  

I am waiting for them to patent the "rock show"....

MOD

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: alex verhoeven <alex AT webslingerZ.com>
Reply-To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Date:  Fri, 28 May 2004 13:44:11 -0400

>http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story?id=6066617&pageid=rs.Home&pageregion=single1&rnd=1085518316199&has-player=true
>
>In the past few years, fans leaving some concerts have discovered a souvenir
>far better than a T-shirt: a live recording of the show they just attended.
>Bands including the Allman Brothers, moe. and Billy Idol have sold instant
>concert discs, and the Pixies and the Doors plan to launch similar programs
>this summer. The recording-and-burning company DiscLive estimated on April
>12th that it would gross $500,000 selling live discs this spring alone.
>
>But in a move expected to severely limit the industry, Clear Channel
>Entertainment has bought the patent from the technology's inventors and now
>claims to own the exclusive right to sell concert CDs after shows. The
>company, which is the biggest concert promoter in the world, says the patent
>covers its 130 venues along with every other venue in the country.
>
>"We want to be artist-friendly," says Steve Simon, a Clear Channel executive
>vice president and the director of Instant Live. "But it is a business, and
>it's not going to be 'we have the patent, now everybody can use it for
>free.'"
>
>Artists net about ten dollars for every twenty- to twenty-five-dollar
>concert CD that's sold, no matter which company they use. But with Clear
>Channel pushing to eliminate competition, many fear there will be less money
>and fewer opportunities to sell live discs. "It's one more step toward
>massive control and consolidation of Clear Channel's corporate agenda," says
>String Cheese Incident manager Mike Luba, who feuded with Clear Channel last
>year after promoters blocked the band from using CD-burning equipment.
>
>The Pixies, who are booking a fall reunion tour with several probable Clear
>Channel venues, say Clear Channel has already told them DiscLive can't burn
>and sell CDs on-site. "Presuming Clear Channel's service and product are of
>equal quality, it may be best to feed the dragon rather than draw swords,"
>says Pixies manager Ken Goes. "Still, I'm not fond of doing business with my
>arm twisted behind my back."
>
>Clear Channel doesn't plan to stop Phish, Pearl Jam, the Who or other bands
>that make live recordings available days after the show. It has also granted
>one-dollar licenses to a few up-and-coming bands to record and sell instant
>CDs of their own shows. But Clear Channel executives maintain that they have
>the right to stop anyone who tries to infringe on the patent. Many say this
>strategy prevents inventors from jumping into a marketplace and creating
>further innovation. "We'd like to see this industry opened up to everybody,"
>says Erik Stubblebine, founder and vice president of Hyburn, a Phoenix
>company that has sold instant CDs for dozens of concerts in the past three
>years. "They're trying to squeeze us."
>
>the patent in question:
>
>http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=ptxt&s1=6,614,729,&OS=6,614,729,&RS=6,614,729,
>
>
>-- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill --
>http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene
>


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