Queen joins anti-p2p war
p2pnet.net News:- Britain’s Queen says it’s joining the “record giants now battling the internet song-swappers”.
“Today we read about on-line piracy and internet ‘bootleggers’,” says the band on its web site.
“But before the internet bootlegging was already commonplace, albeit that it existed in the somewhat outdated formats of LP’s, tapes and videos.
“One of the most pirated bands in the world was Queen. Prior to the death of Freddie Mercury in November 1991 there was a steady flow of pirate recordings – numbering perhaps a few dozen. In the decade that followed that number increased at least tenfold. And it is estimated that over the years there might have been as many as six or seven hundred in different forms.”
However, like the members of the Big Four record cartel whom they’re emulating, Queen seems to be confused about the difference between file sharing and counterfeiting.
“Even today, in the modern age of the internet, there is still a huge mass of illegal Queen material to choose from,” they say, continuing:
“Only a tiny fraction of these are worth being sought out by fans and collectors, as most are poor-quality, shoddily packaged, and designed only to part the ardent Queen fan from some hard earned cash.”
Of course, there’s no money involved in sharing music through the online p2p networks. But thanks to Big Music’s efforts, mom-and-pop music lovers who share their pleasures online are lumped in with the true criminals.
Against that, billions of pounds, dollars, yen, francs, kroner, dinars – you name it – are being made by the organized, hard-core gangs who dance rings around the music industry as they sell fake CDs and DVDs on underground markets around the world.
Anyway, with “expert advice from three acknowledged experts on Queen bootlegs,” like the “record giants now battling the internet song-swappers,” Queen will take on the bootleggers at their own game, they say.
“From this week, Queen’s official website (www.queeonline.com) is offering fans the chance to legally download as many as 100 bootlegs currently in circulation, those recordings which the band themselves consider to be the best of the bunch.
The downloads are being sold for £5 (about $9.20) per recording, regardless of running time or number of tracks. at the rate of three each month.
“Queen Productions will be donating all earnings it receives to the Mercury Phoenix Trust, fighting AIDS worldwide,” says the band.
The Top 100 Queen Bootlegs kick off with:
- Queen – Jazz Final
Recorded: May 6th, 1979 – Makomani Ice Arena, Sapporo, Japan - Queen – Last Stand
Recorded: May 15th, 1985 – Jo Hall, Osaka, Japan - Queen – Life Is Real
Recorded: August 9th, 1982 – Brendan Byrne Arena, Meadowlands, USA
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See:-
illegal Queen – BOOTLEG PRESS RELEASE, November 3, 2004
November 4th, 2004 at 4:47 pm
mention that sometime
November 4th, 2004 at 6:51 pm
It’s a shame that the remaining Queen band members don’t know the difference between counterfeiting and sharing.
Drake
November 4th, 2004 at 8:39 pm
Back in the day, Grateful Dead seemed to be supportive of fans passing around their concert recordings..I would just have to agree that selling the cds for 15-30.00 a piece is wrong either way. Ive seen many silver pressed dead bootlegs that went for quite a lot of money, im sure that everyone felt ripped off.. High cd prices even in the mainstream market have made a lot of us shun the music cd market, its no different with bootlegs.
-MP
November 4th, 2004 at 8:42 pm
Theres gonna be some group out there thats gonna put these top 100 bootlegs on the net.
And the question rises again: Why pay 10.00$ for a download of a bootleg cd, when you can pay nothing?
They just dont seem to get it, none of them do.
November 5th, 2004 at 8:39 am
Aww diddums wot a shame , i guess having only a few hundred million in the bank would encourage anyone to go against the pirates who make the sooo poor!
November 7th, 2004 at 8:56 pm
wot a bunch of wankers. and i mean that literally.