Getting Past The Front Door Wanding

[g8rken]

hey all

don't know if i will ruffle any feathers with this question/discussion, but i have been contemplating how to get past the goons at the front door of a local venue (with national acts) that wand the hell out of you with one of those hand held metal detectors.

i've even gone out and bought a pair of oversized shoes to see if i could cut out the sole to put my MD in their. it didn't work very well. i was scared i was crushing it with every step.

i was reading about the NH1 and that it had a case, but i didn't know how sturdy it was or anything about it.

i'm thinking i've got to get some sort of leg traction brace complete with crutches to stealth my gear into this place. wheelchair???? i would have a place to sit all nite.

does anyone have any suggestions???

of course the stealth 9v rig is sweet

i bought mics with a LONG chord, so a revamp of that would cut it down

thanks

[A440]

How about taking it out of your pocket, showing it to the goons, and just saying, "That's my mp3 player?" People are walking into shows with cell phones, PDAs, iPods, digicams and all kinds of other gadgets the same size as an MD. Are they taking those away from people? Goons are not usually trained in spotting recording devices unless you're bringing in pro gear.

The trick is getting the mics in. That's another reason I like the SoundPros BMC-2s: very thin cord, very small mics that, in a pinch, you could present as headphones. Down behind the shirt buttons, looped over the top button with the little mics tucked in the shirt. Or stick them in a sock. They usually wand your sides, not your chest. Or just coil them up a pocket and say they're your headphones. It's a little more difficult with one of those big Sony one-point mics.

Really, the goons are worried about knives and guns. Take the MD to a show without the mics, etc., and proudly show it to them at the door and see what kind of reaction you get. Then the next time you can sneak in the mics.

Here are some other thoughts:

http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=9641

Edited November 17, 2005 by A440

[g8rken]

thanks for the link.

great ideas!

one venue in particular here is completely out of control. they separate the men and the women into different screening lines, pull everything out, confiscate stupid stuff like markers, ect.

and now that i've been recording shows for awhile it's hard for me to buy a ticket when i know i may not be able to record it. that's terrible isn't it.

[MZ-1]

Some the portable recorders are so thin and small, bury it in thick wallet and hand them the wallet. Make sure there's a little change in there to provide some diversionary metal.

;-)

Paul

[dex Otaku]

. . . and now that i've been recording shows for awhile it's hard for me to buy a ticket when i know i may not be able to record it. that's terrible isn't it.

Might I point out that unless the band and their publisher advertise a gig as taper-friendly, you're violating copyright/intellectual property laws by recording their shows. It may be disappointing not to be able to take your gear in and stealth-record a show, but it's technically not legal for you to do it most of the time anyway.

The publishers, not the bands, basically make this decision. Independants and bands who have stipulated in their contracts that they be taper-friendly aren't a problem, but the vast majority of major-label acts are decidedly taper-UNfriendly by the simple fact that their publishers control the rights to their IP, not them.

Under current law in most countries, it is not a spectator's right to record a show. Lots of people do it anyway, and unless they distribute the recording no one is the wiser, but technically they are breaking the law the vast majority of the time.

[A440]

I'm not a lawyer, but I have paid attention to this copyright madness for a while.

This is from Cathy Newsome's: "A Teacher's Guide to Fair Use and Copyright"

"A copyright is a property right attached to an original work of art or literature. It grants the author or creator exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, adapt, perform, or display the protected work. Other than someone to whom the author/creator has extended all or part of these rights, no one else may use, copy, or alter the work. Wrongful use of the material gives the copyright owner the right to seek and recover compensation in a court of law. A copyright gives the author or owner the right of control over all forms of reproduction, including photocopies, slides, recordings on cassettes and videotapes, compact disks, and other digital formats."

That should say "limited" exclusive rights--copyright eventually runs out, there are fair-use exemptions, etc. I'm sure it made a lot of sense when the tangible form of music was sheet music sold by publishers, and bad people sold illegitimate copies of that sheet music.

But welcome to the digital era.

We all copy intellectual property all the time. Ripping a CD via Simple Burner to MD makes a copy and is probably a technical violation of copyright law.

If publishers had their way you would be paying every time you heard a song, transferred a song or played a song for friends in your living room.

The publishers are the greedbags who bullied the Girl Scouts for singing "Happy Birthday" around a campfire. Really.

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/f...ions/ASCAP.html

Yes, the publishers (who most often split their proceeds with songwriters) do own the rights to the words and music of the song. When you record a concert, you are copying those words and music, sure. Even taper-friendly bands who sing other people's copyrighted songs--Dave Matthews singing Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower"--can't technically extend to you the right to copy that song.

But come on: is that "wrongful use"? On the legal front, what has gotten people in trouble is not copying but another part of the copyright: distribution. That is, when people get sued by the RIAA (which represents recordings, though its members also have publishing interests) for using P2P, it's not for downloading. The grounds is that they are distributing the recordings by making them available for others to download.

Strictly speaking, you probably don't have a right to record/copy the concert. Strictly speaking, you don't have a right to sing a copyrighted song in the shower. But unless you're selling those recordings, though, it's not that big a deal. And please, don't record yourself singing in the shower.

Edited November 26, 2005 by A440