Record label claims Amazon is selling counterfeit vinyl

[Hardbopjazz]

Good read. 

https://www.whathifi.com/news/record-label-claims-amazon-is-selling-counterfeit-vinyl

By What Hi-Fi? a day ago News 

With vinyl's resurgence, counterfeiting is an issue...

•  

(Image credit: Anton Hooijdonk from Pexels)

A cautionary tale when scouring the internet for Black Friday vinyl deals or seeking out the perfect Christmas gift online, perhaps: Tommy Boy Records has claimed that Amazon is selling counterfeit vinyl – titles that the record label has never even had pressed to vinyl.

Tommy Boy Records is best known for launching the careers of De La Soul, Queen Latifah, Afrika Bambaataa and more. As reported by DJ Mag, the company president, Rosie Lopez, made the claim at last week's Making Vinyl Conference in Los Angeles: "Counterfeit is another issue altogether. Somehow records that Tommy Boy hasn’t pressed in – ever – are on sale on Amazon, that’s a little concerning."...

[jcam_44]

Interesting but I have a hard time determining how lucrative this is for someone to do. Especially with releases from Tommy Boy that were unissued on vinyl at initial release. This make it sound like vinyl is selling a lot when comparatively to previous years of physical media sales its not. 

Edited November 2, 2019 by jcam_44

[Brad]

They also have problems with counterfeit books, as this article from the New York Times -- which received a lot of attention -- notes:

Paging Big Brother: In Amazon’s Bookstore, Orwell Gets a Rewrite

"In George Orwell’s '1984,' the classics of literature are rewritten into Newspeak, a revision and reduction of the language meant to make bad thoughts literally unthinkable. 'It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words,' one true believer exults. 

Now some of the writer’s own words are getting reworked in Amazon’s vast virtual bookstore, a place where copyright laws hold remarkably little sway. Orwell’s reputation may be secure, but his sentences are not."

Edited November 3, 2019 by Brad

[jazzcorner]

At Discogs you can find a lot of russia based new labels reissueing classic jazz material without any Info on copyright or license. Discogs earns a provision on this  hgrey market.  It was discussed to classify all of those as "unofficial"  [ as Discogs has done with some sidelabels of Fresh Sound as Gambit] but obviously noone sees through that net of new labels and companies. And a provision for the use of the platform is always welcome. Questionable IMHO.

 

Edited April 11, 2020 by jazzcorner

[clifford_thornton]

Bootlegs are everywhere. This isn't anything new... 

[Dmitry]

3 hours ago, clifford_thornton said:

Bootlegs are everywhere. This isn't anything new... 

You call a counterfeit record dub of an officially-released album, even in a different format, a bootleg? I've been applying this to only unauthorized concert recordings.  

[clifford_thornton]

yeah, I do. Pretty common parlance in record collector circles.

[corto maltese]

Yes, it is nowadays. 

But that's unfortunate, because I agree with Dmitry. "Old style" bootlegs (unauthorized releases of live performanes or studio outtakes) are hardly comparable to  the counterfeits of officially released recording that are now flooding the market.

[Chuck Nessa]

Nomatter which, rights holders are robbed.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Historically, "bootleg" meant an unauthorized live recording. We used to call unauthorized releases like this "grey market". Legitimate recordings released in unauthorized ways.

[corto maltese]

9 hours ago, Chuck Nessa said:

Nomatter which, rights holders are robbed.

That's correct, but still...  those "old style" bootlegs were mainly marketed to hardcore fans who also bought all the official releases of the artist, while counterfeits are just cheap, sub-standard duplicates of these official releases. 

 

[jazzcorner]

2 hours ago, corto maltese said:

That's correct, but still...  those "old style" bootlegs were mainly marketed to hardcore fans who also bought all the official releases of the artist, while counterfeits are just cheap, sub-standard duplicates of these official releases. 

 

Not every "unofficial" recording is  illegal. Taping radio broadcasts is widely common and allowed in Germany by the radiostations. They provide even a special free software for your PC (a radiorecorder)  to record the broadcasts means for private use and private trading.  Burning up to 5 CD-R is allowed. This is also  free and costless promotion for the artists to trade  such Items.

The artists playing at a radiostations here are payed from the station. We listeners pay a monthly fee to the government. So no "robbing the artist" is happening here und my county.

Think about that.