A tiny page. From David Goodwin, April 2000:
I got a slew of new Russian CDs. I've been convinced they're
pirates, but ... well, for example, Does
Humor Belong in Music has a typo on the disc, which shows
that they didn't merely rip the artwork off of the other
editions (although it looks like they almost did.
Those CDs are completely pirate. I have pu***ased lots of them in Russia
while working in there, and they cost about $2 US apiece. The booklet included
is usually 1 or 2 pages and in poor quality. The music of course has been
copied digitally and it comes out OK. There is a Russian text in
almost every disc's backside saying something like: "All rights
reserved. Licensed Agreement between RAO and DORA" (for example) + date
and number of contract. RAO is the local organisation supposed to
protect the copyrights of the artists (sort of BMI or ASCAP). DORA is one
of the pirate manufacturers. So, this means that those assholes have agreed
how to make money on local markets without paying a cent to the western
artists. This is of course only one example of corruption on every level in
Russia.
As a result western artists are of course losing some money, but not so
much as one might suppose. You see, the youth in Russia really don't have much
money to spend on CDs. If a disc costs $20 US like here in Finland, very few
people will buy discs at all. So, we could be glad that Russian people also
have a chance to hear Frank's wonderful music at a reasonable (for them)
price. But on the other hand, some assholes are making a hell of a big money
this way. I'm sure Frank would have been mad about this.