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Clear Channel Buys Patent For Instant Live CDs
An anonymous reader writes "According to this Rolling Stone article, and this article at P2P, everyone's favorite monopolist, Clear Channel, is bullying DiscLive and other companies in the available-after-the-concert live CD business by forbidding them from operating in their venues.
Looking at the actual Clear Channel patent itself, it's obvious that, unlike what is said by their Instant Live program head Steve Simon, their patent is very specific, and doesn't cover all media types and all onsite production, so isn't CC just standing behind a bogus patent to continue to act like a monopolist? Anyone have prior art to invalidate their patent?"
I remember a UIL band contest where the band director received a cd of there performance just after they played. This was somewhere back in 98...
Why must it be "novel" just because you can't do it in EZ Cd Creator? Cdrecord has had the ability to record from stdin since its creation. Sound has been in a block device (/dev/dsp) since OSS's creation. Piping a block device to stdout has been available since... cat. I have been piping sound from /dev/dsp to oggenc to disk (live) and from disk to oggdec to cdrecord (later) for 3 years in a live environment.
Having read the patent, it is for editing the content while it is still being captured. It was filed in 2001.
IANAL, but it seems as though if you capture each song, and then edit them after the song is captured, then you have invalidated this patent.
And, even though I realize that most of these bands that allow live recordings or even actively encourage them aren't exactly your garden variety pop band many of them seem to have quite a following. Maybe the grassroots, word-of-mouth approach isn't that bad afterall...
Metallica had the same thing going for the first decade of their careers. You'd get a special "Recording Section" pass and get to sit/stand right by the speaker stack for the best sound. Then they did an about face with the whole Napster thing, and we all know how that went over.
No, CC are claiming they own the patent to the process of a venue taping the concert, and selling CD's at the merch stand after the gig. Thus "Instant Live CDs"
I think bands like Phish have done similar things but i'm not sure if that site would be prior art (they're not selling the discs AT the concert - but a day later online)
It's not so much the recording of the concert that's pending patent, it's the immediate duplication of the resultant recording to many audio CDs -- or "a plurality of media recorders" as CC puts it -- for reselling as soon as the concert has ended.
A great idea if you ask me, I've certainly never seen anything like it here in Scotland.
They're the ones that banned a bunch of songs from their huge army of radio stations after 9/11.
Like:Except the patent covers recording it onto a "event capture module" edited live, and then put onto media. Unless someone was recording concerts to some media, editing them, and then distributing them just after the concert the Grateful Dead prior art wouldn't apply.
I'm certain there's other prior art though as this patent was only filed in 2001. This is also an obvious invention, so it all adds up to a very shaky patent.
AccountKiller
Patents have nothing to do with the real world. They are a legal tool for businesses, so prior art has nothing to do with it.
:).
Anyway, the dead's policy can be found here. And yes, I remember this, its been going on since 1965 (the year the dead started). And yes, the grateful dead are the most successful touring band in the history of rock. Yes, I have hundreds of CDs worth of their shows. For those of you that are into bands that are into playing music vs. making a buck off of a hit or two there are thousands of great sounding shows to be downloaded. Its legal, its fun. (Thanks for not spelling grateful "greatful"
How about the hyperlink one?
BT Loses Case Over Hyperlink Patent
Clear Channel Communications is a huge corp that owns hundreds of radio stations all over the country.
Ever since the FCC relaxed the regulations on how many stations a corp can own in a given market, CC has bought out most of their old competitors. IIRC, they own like 90% of the stations in some markets.
These are some of the people to blame when you complain about the "Top 40" and "Boy Bands" that make so much money. They're the ones that put them on the air, for whatever reason.
Are you just incredibly stupid, and/or do you work for the company?
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(Cut from various sources)
The once small company has quickly grown to over 1200 stations, collecting approximately 20% of all radio advertising dollars and programming over 60% of all rock radio stations.
Clear Channel's largest competitor, Infinity/CBS, owns roughly 180 stations.
Within individual markets, such as Denver, Clear Channel controls every station broadcasting certain popular formats and their attendant desirable target audiences. In 2000, Clear Channel purchased SFX, Inc. (now renamed Clear Channel Entertainment), the largest concert promoter in the country.
By threatening vulnerable artists and labels with reduced or off-hours air play on the only stations likely to air their songs, Clear Channel pressures artists, labels and concert venues into sweetheart deals with its promotions arm.
Channel has directly retaliated against artists who spurn their services. In other cases Clear Channel is able to simply outbid local competitors and increase ticket prices for the consumers. In other instances in which local promoters are able to successfully outbid Clear Channel Entertainment for concerts, Clear Channel has refused to run advertisements for the shows or has aired them during undesirable time slots. This argument that Clear Channel is illegally tying its concert promotion business to its monopoly position in popular music radio underlies the Sherman Act proceeding currently underway in the District of Colorado, Nobody in Particular Presents v. Clear Channel Communications.
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In economics, a monopoly (from the Greek monos, one + polein, to sell) is defined as a market situation where there is only one provider of a product or service
Monopolies are characterized by a lack of economic competition for the good or service that they provide (and a lack of viable substitute goods), as well as high barriers to entry for potential competitors in the market.
This is incorrect according to Snopes.com. This page states that it was more of a "list of songs you may not want to play at the moment" than a "list of songs you will not play."
I recall seeing a show on Discovery about a year or two ago about how the Grateful Dead have been recording their own live shows and selling the CDs right after said show for several years as a way to side-step the commercial distribution channels. In the show, they reported that their net income increased many-fold over what they were paid from their RIAA member distributor (Imagine that, directly selling their CDs and taking all the profit vs getting $0.01 out of every $!)
Also, as others have mentioned, this most definitely is both obvious and a natural evolution of recording equipment capabilities. This "patent" should have been denied, since they're attempting to generically patent an existing process by merely putting a few time sensitive words in.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
Read the friendly patent:
1. An event recording system, comprising:
(i) an event-capture module to capture an event signal and transform it into a primary event file that is accessible as it is being formed;
(ii) an editing module communicatively connected to the event capture module, wherein the editing module accesses and parses the primary event file into one or more digital track files that can be recorded onto a recording media; and
(iii) a media recording module communicatively linked to the editing module for receiving the one or more digital track files, the media recording module having a plurality of media recorders for simultaneously recording the one or more digital track files onto a plurality of recording media.
A lot of weirdness happened in the days immediately following 9-11. The list was one of them, but it NEVER amounted to a company ban. Generally speaking, CC doesn't operate this way.
Another urban legend: that CC banned the Dixie Chicks after they mouthed off overseas. Some CC stations did exactly that, but it was a local decision, not through Corporate. We were told to make the call based on our own markets. The only company I know which actually banned the Chicks was Cumulus.
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Cdrecord has had the ability to record from stdin since its creation.
The patent covers adding track start/end cues during the performance and then using the equivalent of 421 burners (or any other plurality of digital media recording devices). Can a user of cdrecord pipe in a .cue file created in real time?