Letter to webmaster of Kinixtion

Hello,
We recently looked at your blog and found you’ve been distributing our record to your readers for free. How nice of you!

New Atlantic The Streets, The Sounds and The Love
http://kinixtion.blogspot.com/search…New%20Atlantic
Accessed: 632 Times

New London Fire
I Sing The Body Holographic
http://kinixtion.blogspot.com/search…0London%20Fire
Accessed: Unknown

The Number Twelve Looks Like You
Nuclear Sad Nuclear
An Inch of Gold for an Inch of Time
http://kinixtion.blogspot.com/search…0London%20Fire
Accessed: Unknown

Since we have access to the numbers for New Atlantic, I assume you’ll be sending us the wholesale amount for the copies you distributed?

632 Copies at $9.16 Wholesale = $5,789.12

The check can be made out to Eyeball Records and sent to the address below. The band will be so excited when they find out about the huge royalty check coming their way! They’re starving on the road right now so the extra money will really help!

Please also send a check for $9,160.00 for the New London Fire downloads. 1000 downloads sounds about right, They will be so excited! The singer has a wife and two kids. The money you’re sending will put food in those kids mouths! You’re a great customer.

Number Twelve is really popular. Go ahead and send us a check for $18,320.00 for that one. 2000 downloads sounds about right. The staff here can all use raises since we work damn near close to free to help these bands out. A raise will really bring morale up around here!

Just in case you choose not to send the checks, we’ll have the lawsuit ready and waiting. Look forward to your prompt response, and thanks for your business!

- Eyeball Records

Letter to labels explaining the letter and the resulting take down of Kinixtion

Greetings Fellow Indie Labels,

On Tuesday, April 17th, I wrote a letter to an online blog with the URL http://kinixtion.blogspot.com and reprimanded them (sarcastically) for posting links to my copyrighted albums.

The webmaster, a terrified 16 year old girl, promptly removed all the album links from the blog and sent a letter of apology. The blog had full album downloads posted from almost every label on copy for this email.

You can read the letter I wrote and some of the reactions here:
http://www.absolutpunk.net/showthread.php?t=230374

You’ll see that the response from the fans was, surprisingly, largely supportive of the label.

Shortly after Kinixtion went down, several other blogs and sendspace-type file hosting outlets promptly removed their links to all of our catalog items. In fact, we’ve had a hard time locating additional pirated Eyeball catalog since. So far, we’ve identified the following blogs that have shut themselves down in reaction to Tuesday’s news:
http://fascistcandy.blogspot.com
http://kinixtion.blogspot.com
http://thousandcleverlines.blogspot.com
http://paulenator.blogspot.com
http://tramalikerain.blogspot.com/
http://community.livejournal.com/rawrmusic

Needless to say, we’re shocked at how quickly we saw a response from the letter we sent. However, it saddens me to see the catalog of many of my peer labels (all of you) still available along side ours on countless outlets across the internet.

People have been stealing our copyrighted materials right in front of our faces for too long. We pay for these recordings, we pay to promote them, and our efforts become more and more futile each day as the consumer perception of the value of music quickly drops to $0. While we realize that it can be beneficial to provide album previews and free downloads to our fans in order to promote our artists, we must also reeducate fans to understand that content for preview purposes must be distributed on OUR terms, not theirs.

I’m sure many of you are fighting this problem every day, writing letters much like the one I did. I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of your catalog removed only to find it somewhere else the next day.

If you’re anything like us, there’s a sense of futility in this situation. “We can’t be everywhere at once”. “Every time we shut one down, another opens up”. It is with this in mind, that I ask you to join me, as a group of labels, presenting a united front to protect our livelihood. Most of us are not affiliated with the RIAA, and there is no indie label equivalent that I am currently aware of. We need to work together.
If you are interested in teaming up with us, I propose we start with an email letter signed by every label who wishes to participate. Each label can keep this letter on file and send it out every time they come across a website or any other online outlet distributing full album downloads without our consent. If all of us are doing this, we can be a lot of places at once and I truly believe we can make an impact. I wrote this first draft letter, and would appreciate any feedback and/or suggestions. The following was reviewed by an attorney to ensure it doesn’t state anything we aren’t within our rights to say.
—————
Dear Webmaster,
It has come to our attention that your website, http://www.etceteraforums.com (or other link, provide specific examples), has been distributing or providing links to our copyrighted materials without our consent.

Please remove any and all links to these files immediately, and delete the files from your server or any file sharing site they may reside on.
Not only is posting these tracks illegal, but it’s really uncool in that it’s directly effecting the label’s ability to release new records and support our artists.
Your URL has been forwarded to the record labels listed below in an effort to raise awareness in our community of your infringement. This letter has been signed and acknowledged by the labels below. Each label reserves their own right to investigate and pursue further action.

Regards,
Marc Debiak (or you)
Eyeball Records, Inc. (or your company)
Address

Label Owner 2
Company 2
Address 2

Label Owner 3
Company 3
Address 3
—————

And the list can go on and on.

If you are interested in joining us in this effort, please respond with your name, company, and address. Send a logo as well if you’d like. I will be generating the letter and handling all the administrative responsibilities for this. Anyone who chooses to participate will be given the opportunity to review a final draft before it’s distributed.
Thanks for your time, and I love all of your labels. Please send this to any labels you think might be interested, everyone’s welcome. Remember, there is strength in numbers. A fan who’s disgruntled by this approach may be able to boycott one or two labels… but not all of them.

- Marc