I am not easy to anger, yet this has done so.
Caught wind of it through my mate Jon, and had the flames fervently fanned by a few mailing lists to which I belong (Ad Noiseam, Ant-Zen, Frozen Empire Media, et cetera).
This site popped up, seemingly overnight, offering — for a fee — mp3s of various electronic- and industrial- related items, both easy-finds and rarities. In theory it seems like a great idea, except that JetGroove never asked permission of any of the labels or musicians whose material they’re set to profit from. Not only is this apprehensible, it’s also in direct contradiction of their self-penned and on-site policy, which states that the “music is licensed and the artists are compensated.”
I’ve got no problem with mp3s — none whatsoever, particularly if what’s being shared is no longer available — but for the proprietors of JetGroove to be selling mp3s without the consent of the labels and artists involved, nor to offer them compensation for said action, is morally repugnant.
Speaking as a label-head who sees one of his releases available on this site, I can tell you flat-out that, prior to today, I’d never heard of JetGroove, never been contacted by JetGroove, and most certainly never gave permission to JetGroove. I can only imagine how the various musicians learning of this site must feel.
UPDATE as of 5:08PM:
This just in… particular items of note in bold.
“Dear Sirs and Madams,
“My name is Ulukman Mamytov and I am the attorney for jetgroove.com.
“I bring you apologies from JetGroove for making you worry about your copyrights infringements and your music repertoire being presented on our website. I want to assure you that jetgroove.com having started a new Online Music Download Service pursues the objective of making your music more wellknown [sic] and accessible and ONLY BY LEGAL MEANS.
“That means we DO NOT SELL any of your music without obtaining a proper permission (License) from you or other respective rightholders. You can easily check this by trying to purchase any of you [sic] music. Everything that you choose to put in your cart will have status: ‘Not Available For Purchase Yet’. It could only be put ‘ON HOLD’. And we do not change that status untill [sic] the contract is signed and your permission is granted. In this case all of your music will be given ‘Allowed for Selling’ status and people who have it in their shopping carts will be able to buy it.
“The experince [sic] of showing your music on our website without distributing aimed to draw your attention to us, with further goal to make contacts with you on friendly terms with a perspective of mutually beneficial partnership. [EDITOR'S NOTE: Behold, syntax as broken as my ass is cracked... and is this person even a lawyer? That aside, this is truly a winning strategy. Their attempt at endearing themselves to potential business partners will go over very well, I'm sure.] We’re glad to inform you that your music is getting popular indeed through our website and we can let you know at any time how many of your tracks were put on hold and which ones.
“However, we deeply understand your concerns and would like to assure you, if you find our relationships impossible, we will IMMEDIATELY delete all of your music from our music collection.
“Hope you’ll find our offer to make your music more popular through us rather reasonable and we can start that mutually beneficial partnership.”
So, does it work as advertised? Do they actually prevent sales of the music until such time as a contract is signed?
And if not, where are they located, and how much money can the rivet community gather up in order to legally assrape them from here to hiawatha?
(The above is not a statement of support for the method they chose for promotion, but it is an acknowedgement that the legality of it remains fuzzy — UNTIL they step over the line into selling them without permission)
By the way, you shouldn’t link to their site — driving traffic to it is how they make money.
Various reports on various newslists seem to indicate that, as of right now, nothing can be accessed. I’ve yet to verify this for myself. Regardless, I’m furious that they’re using unlicensed material, musicians and labels alike, to draw attention to themselves.
As a follow-up to my reply — which was cut short due to time constraints earlier — and to respond to a question posed above that I neglected, I’ve got the following…
My linking to JetGroove and my displeasure with them for drawing attention to themselves through questionable means seem to be in contradiction of one another. The way I see it, however, linking to them does more harm than good; while it alerts potential customers to their site, it also alerts labels and musicians in danger of being illegitimately profited from, as well as fans — such as myself — likely to inform them of the trespass.
Still, doesn’t stop me from being ticked, though the attention they’re getting serves them right.
You know, the funny thing about that is not only would that piss off the owners of the copyrights, but that would piss off me, if I were a buyer. I mean, going to the site, finding something I really want, trying to buy it only to find out that it is “not available for purchase yet”? What’s the point of buying it then?
I mean, this isn’t to say that a lot of the material might not be up and running, but don’t you think it’s a far more effective business model to actually go out and obtain that permission before listing it on your site?