Blex's Page of Good Mp3 - The Infamous BLACK FEBRUARY "Take-Down" Email from Geffen Records Received 2/7/1998
While
digging through my archives today I found I had SAVED a copy of the
email I received from Jim Griffin. This email marked the beginning of
the end of the great page. On February 7th, 1998, (Damn! as I write
this, it's been over 15 years since this happened!!) the site-ops who
ran the FTP sites were being contacted with cease-and decist letters
threatning the action described below. Thus, I had to take all the
links to the Mp3 sites off the page making me a (self-proclaimed)
MARTYR for the ability of us all to leech Mp3s RATIO FREE on the
internet. A legacy that lasts to this day as nothing ever will break
the will of the people to have a society free of greed, intolerance,
and hate !!
This is word for word from Geffen about Mp3s...
The
MP3 world is an exciting opportunity to welcome the future of digital
audio, and we embrace its potential. We at Geffen were the first
to use digital audio to release a full-length song (Aerosmith's Head
First in 1994) and the first to install its own web server (also 1994),
so we look forward to the day that we can use digital distribution on
behalf of our artists.
However, because we oppose censorship in
all its forms, Geffen, together with the rest of the recording
industry, intends to stop those who take
the work of our artists and redistribute it without permission. If you
decide to substitute your judgment for that of our artists and
distribute their full-length songs without so much as asking, we will
take appropriate steps to stop you. Universities and Internet Service
Providers everywhere share our desire to ensure respect for
intellectual property rights, and we will work closely with them, along
with law
enforcement authorities where necessary, to achieve respect for our
artists' rights.
Taking an artist's work over their
objection and using it for your own purposes is as wrong or worse than
silencing an artist; both are
illegal, immoral and repugnant to any free society, and the recent
strengthening of copyright laws reflects these basic principles.
Please don't assume we can't or won't
take the time to identify you (traceroute and whois are wonderful
tools) and enforce the law -- it
insults us and only serves to ensure that if you are a student you will
face severe sanctions from your school, or that if you operate a site
it
will be shut down by an angry internet service provider, or worse (if
the problem persists, we will see the law enforced). Please don't
assume
we are ignorant to the possibilities of digital audio -- we have the
same profit motive we've always had, and we want and need exposure for
our artists and can imagine as well as you can the possibilities for
selling and marketing music on-line.
Clearly there will be a transition, but
it will happen only when artists' rights are respected and there is
some order to digital
commerce in intellectual property. Any other expectation is unrealistic
and prolongs the delay as we wait for a future that promises a
renaissance of creative expression fostered by an unlimited lifespan
for art, and a world where new art can come to life that might not
otherwise
have seen the light of day.
Jim
I'm not gonna put a link to go
back here, you all should be well aware by now as to how the "back"
button works in your web browser!