William wrote:Well, Ladies & Gentlemen, so much for your passion for the artist and his work.
The attitude here is, as the Americans say, "Screw him."
So do you buy illegally made DVDs?
Do you believe Leonard and others are not entitled to their royalties?
Do you think the copyright of an artist's material is worthless?
That's what you're saying here.
Fans! Go rotate on a ceiling somewhere.
God bless,
William
I understand where you are coming from on this issue William,but let's look at it in the here and now.
In this age of the all-too-easy-download,official releases are hardly selling,let alone bootlegs.I've watched damn near every record store in my city close...there's one left...ONE!
Internet theft is rampant (regardless of whatever reasons the thieves want to apply to it,such as "sticking it back to the record companies" etc.).The sad,unfortunate reality is new releases debut at #1,sometimes with sales of 8,000 copies...
8,000!.
Alarming isn't it??!
Artists are now relying on the revenue generated from live shows,and more importantly,merchandise sales (I was shocked to hear Mr. Cohen's merch wasn't ready to roll for the first date of the tour...someone dropped the ball BIG time!).
The emphasis is now on the live show.Many bands are turning a blind eye when people hold up their cell phone at a show and record a song to later post on Youtube.
It attracts a LOT of attention and on some level,just might be swaying people to go ahead and buy tickets to shows.
I post on other boards,and I've lead people to youtube links of the clips available so far from this tour.As a result,I know people from Toronto to Scotland who now want to go see Leonard Cohen live on this tour (and have decided to do so)...thanks to the "bootleg" video.
That's fluid revenue...in Leonard's direction.
Bootleg's have turned me on to bands that I was only midly in-passing curious about (and in some cases,knew nothing about).This lead to concert ticket and official release purchases.And I've never once in my life paid for a bootleg.
Artists are aware of this...Youtube in many cases,is wisely viewed as free advertising (you'll notice Mr. Cohen's live videos from this tour haven't been removed from Youtube as of yet).
Bootlegs for profit are dead in the water.One copy sold hits the internet as a downloadable torrent....every time.Bootlegging has now shifted from unscrupulous moneymakers to the fans.It's about capturing live performances for the sake of the archives.
Fans who record shows now,pretty much head straight to the torrent sites and (proudly) upload their efforts to share with other fans.
I'm not saying that a few bucks aren't still being tossed about from shady characters trying to exploit these releases,but for the most part...bootleggers aren't paying the rent with their "collection" anymore.It's back in the hands of the fans,and the artist has nothing to lose and everything to gain.For every one person who might discover Leonard Cohen as a result of youtube or a downloaded torrent,and become a fan as a result..the benefits are two fold;they discover the brilliance of his art,and Leonard reaps the benefits of potential concert ticket/and related tour merchandise sales...and perhaps official cd/dvd sales.
That's nothing to sneeze at these days.
I wouldn't worry too much about bootleggers these days,it's mostly just the fans who bother to film/tape anymore...with the intent of sharing.