Perhaps this question stirs up trouble, and I'm not asking it to point fingers at all but to decide whether or not I personally am going to go through the process of downloading these concerts - so here goes:

Are these concerts considered "legal"? Or would it be violating some copyright or something to own them? Anybody know the rules involved here?

Hi Travis,
I am not a lawyer, but here is my take on this situation : It is a grey area. In these days when an advanced mobile phone can make a decent sound recording it is perhaps not practical anymore to try and prevent people doing audience recordings of concerts they go to. In years past such recordings were sold for a profit - under the title "bootlegs". Nowadays - both on and off-line sharing of such recordings has become a tradition in the fan circles of just about any major artist. As long as they are not being sold for a profit there is no known tradition of artists trying to prevent this kind of activity. They know that it would mean lashing out at their dedicated fan base - the same guys that purchase all there official releases - and artists know that there is no advantage in this. Some artists - like eg Mark Knopfler and U2 -have stated officially that they approve of audience recordings, most just tolerate it silently, some state that they don't aprove of it, but I don't know of any law suits. I hope this was not more confusing then helpful. I suggest you do about it what you feel is right for you.

The thing is I own every lightfoot album on cd and many on vinyl. I have attended many of his concerts too including Hamilton 2004 and Massey 2005. If they released a live album, I'd be one of the first in line to purchase it. So I don't really see the harm in me having a live "bootleg" recording. I see there being much more of a problem with people downloading and copying studio recordings. This definately could harm the artist and cd company because some people may not then buy the original cd. Just a thought.

The official statement from MK & his manager:

The official policy of Mark and PCM is that they have no objection to fans taking photographs and making recordings of gigs on video, DAT, MD, and Walkmans providing that in doing so you do not interfere with the enjoyment of other fans. It is expressly understood that resulting photographs and/or sound recordings are purely for your personal use only, if we find anybody seeking to exploit these in any commercial sense then the privilege will be withdrawn.

Feeds to soundboards will not be provided so please don't ask.

Professional photographic and recording equipment (inc tripods) should not be taken to gigs.

However, there are a number of venues which, irrespective of the policy of the artist or artist's management, do not allow photography or recording. Such venues will not permit cameras or recording equipment to be taken into the concert hall. In these cases, Mark and PCM will respect the policy of the venues.

We recommend that you check the policy of the venue before taking cameras and recording equipment to gigs.

Paul Crockford
PCM (11/10/04)

Also from an interview with Mark from 2000

"Mark Knopfler has his own distinct opinion regarding the lawsuit intended by the music industry against Napster and the shops selling bootlegs: "I am against this lawsuit. It was said TV would be the end of cinema, it was said cassettes would kill records and CD burners would kill CDs, but that is not true. Technology will always progress. The only real danger comes from countries which practise industrial piracy. I have always encouraged recordings of my concerts. From the stage I had fun seeing all those little red lights of recorders and these microphones held by fans. That is no danger and even quite cool. Fans who buy bootlegs already own all the official albums anyway. They do us no harm and I find these raids against bootlegs shops ridiculous."

Hi there, I have mastered the art of creating torrents and I'll let you in on something. There is a converting program called DbPoweramp... www.dbpoweramp.com. Download that and you also want to download the Flac codec as well as the SHN codec.

Dbpoweramp is freeware. It integrates itself into Windows do when you right click on a track, it will say "convert to" then you make your choice. And then it does it.

I use a program called MakeTorrent2 which is also freeware. Basically you go to the folder where your SHN or FLAC files are located and you hold down the CTRL button down and select ALL of the files you have in that folder. When it asks you where you want to save the torrent file, you save it where the SHN files are.

Now when you go to Dimeadozen, upload the torrent you have just created. When that is done, you have to DOWNLOAD it back into the folder where you originally created the torrent file, it will be overwritten and then quickly checked and it will say success and then before ya know it people will be grabbing it.

Hope this helps :D

Hey guys, thanks so much for the response! I'll be heading over to my brother's house (he has high speed internet) and start the downloading process!

Check out the dimeadozen dot org site --

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-b...t=0&incldead=1

-- now there are a total of 9 concerts up there. Several are from the 70s.

I converted 4/29 to mp3s and amplified the low audio where's he's talking. If you want them, let me know. Do you have broadband?

Oh, hi everyone. I know I've not been around much, but I'm still alive and kicking. Just busy enjoying the 10 days of summer we get in somewhere in Northern Maine.

Cathy
http://www.cathycowette.com

No, they aren't legal. You should plan on wearing a stick on moustache, dark sun glasses and a trench coat for at least the next five years, especially if you show up at a concert.
I have some attire I'll sell to you, real cheap.
:D
Cathy
http://www.cathycowette.com

I'm working on converting 4-21 to mp3s.
I'm already in the witness protection program, so I'm safe. Think about it. Why else would I live where I do?

Cathy
http://www.cathycowette.com

Why indeed?

Does anyone still need any of the recent Gord shows seeded?

D.

Mr. Joveski,

Thanks a bunch. I do love to get packages from Australia. Whenever my family sees strange stamps or postmarks they say "LIGHTFOOT STUFF ???". What can you say to that ?

Bill :)

Just received mine Mende. Thanks! The recording is surprisingly good! Next best thing to being there.

During my high school days of the 70s, I spent a lot of my hard earned pocket money on the goodies found in Goldmine magazine. Usually it was Gordon Lightfoot or Al Stewart disks coming in from collectors from all over the world (I am a bit of a completeist). And my mom would say, "GORD OR AL?" And I'd say, "Yes, I believe so." :)

djb - do you have the massey/may 21?
char