Important News 'Bout Sampling
[Primarily effects the USA]

Amazingly bad news has just come down the pike that I thought worth mentioning here. It would appear that the R.I.A.A. (the dreaded Recording Industry Association of America, they who wanted a blank tape tax, among other things) has rather recently begun their latest Major Crackdown on "piracy", this time on "uncleared" samples - and the target is pressing plants.

We were informed yesterday by our manufacturer for years of releases that they were refusing to manufacture the new Negativland OVER THE EDGE disc due to a Pink Floyd sample that they detected within which we had not cleared. Trying to explain that this was a radio show with lots of sources mixed in was obviously a failure and rather suddenly our production schedule ground to a halt...but that's only part of the story. Through this incident, we learned of an industry-wide R.I.A.A. clampdown.

Apparently, they've declared war on this heinous form of piracy by not only citing disc manufacturers $100,000 per supposed infraction, but by presenting new guidelines stating, among other things, that a pressing plant possessing an item in question (and I emphasize IN QUESTION) must turn over that item and all master parts to the R.I.A.A. for "investigation". In other words, it's no longer the case that a LABEL is solely responsible for its "content": the pressing plants are both the new cops _and_ the new victims. Pressing plants are actually LISTENING to the masters they get and looking for ringers! It had previously seemed very hard to imagine some staff person at a pressing plant sitting in front of a CD player, finger on the scan button, searching for unauthorized reproductions. It's happening. The R.I.A.A. has positioned itself as judge and jury. The ramifications for this are rather enormous.

We immediately learned of several other releases by various labels around the country who have suddenly had their pressings refused by different makers (this is by no means exclusive to our manufacturer...we learned of huge fines being levelled at other plants). In one case, a CD was refused that was to be a not-for-sale short-run for club DJ's only.

The R.I.A.A. is basically a corporate watchdog for the Big Six mega-companies (Time Warner, et al) in the US. They are being extremely vague about just what "guidelines" they have instituted, which they expect to be complied with, are. My friend Steve (who was on the committee which helped fund SONIC OUTLAWS) remarked something to the effect of, "what AUTHORITY does the RIAA really have? They're not the state, and a pressing plant might not necessarily be paying them dues or considering them in any way, so what right do they have to dictate manufacturing?" And if he's on-the-money here, WHY shouldn't plants be telling them to fuck off or butt out?? He also questioned how they could enforce payment of a fine.

Naturally, everyone is immediately thinking the same thing: taking it BACK into the home studio is such the logical choice. Big problems, though: CD-R's are delicate. Accelerated aging tests have shown that they don't retain their information indefinitely, and more to the point, they are very sensitive to heat and light. And also to touching the top layer (with a sticker or some sort of writing) is risky. AND there are compatibility issues with them: evidentally they have trouble being read by some CD players (www.fadden.com is a great resource for CD-R FAQ).

In any case, on the level of mass replication, this will very likely have a huge effect on the entire found/recycled music culture shouldthe R.I.A.A.'s Big Brother tactics not abate soon. At the very least, very close to home, the new Negativland release and the ENTIRE back catalog is now completely up in the air. We think we've found a plant to handle the current release but we have no idea if it will actually go through or not! Who would have touched DISPEPSI under circumstances like these??

P C on behalf of NEGATIVLAND