It sure is.

We’re compelled to respond to the postings in the comments of the previous posts and also the emails we’ve received from people offering payment for the albums that they have downloaded.

As all downloaders are aware, this stuff does not belong to us. We have virtually no right under current copyright law to redistribute the sources we use in the manner we do. It’s a debatable situation, and one we’d rather not be arguing in a law court, thanks. We’ve been very lucky so far that no-one has seen fit to make a determined effort to stop us. (Waxy’s C&D, we think, was an unfortunate shot across the bows. So it goes.)

However, the time that we have to do this is limited, as we have to convert a large chunk of that time into cash, so we can pay the rent, eat, and get the beers in from time to time, just like most other people. We’d like more time to do more stuff, but hey, wouldn’t everyone?

So, the conclusions we’ve come to are these:

If you want to donate some money in payment for any of the albums you’ve downloaded, we’re sorry, we can’t accept it. We don’t own the rights to the sounds we use, and therefore are risking infringing on people’s copyright in a far more personally damaging way if we accepted payment for it. We believe that people should have the right to make not-for-profit derivitive works, remixes, parodies, social commentaries, whatever, of music that they own, therefore accepting money in that way is virtually impossible, sorry. One day, things will improve (we’re optimistic), but till then…

However, what we are considering is, if you enjoy what we’ve done, and would like to financially assist us in the future to create more, bigger, better works of any description, both online and (soon) live on a stage, please email us and we’ll supply the details. We’re not asking for any set amount, but we want people to be aware of exactly what they’re donating towards, before they do.

We think this is reasonable, but we’d like to open it up to the floor. What do you think?

This article was posted on Thursday, 6 April 2006 at 8:37 pm in the Mouthing Off category. You can leave a comment, or Trackback to this article.