When Almost Everyone Becomes A Bootlegger...

(Dream Collector #28, December 1998)

Illegal CD-Rs Make Collecting Senseless

Is it that simple to obtain TD music? "Warm up your CD-R-burners", some fans stated in a discussion a few days ago when they read about forthcoming releases on the (unofficial) Tadream Mailing List.

Especially with such pirate "releases", copies from official albums collectors have entered "a legal minefield", Klaus Beschorner, one of Germany's experts in TD bootlegs, warns. Regarding CD-R bootlegs especially of concert tapes, he refers to German copyright laws: "Don't fool yourself into thinking there won't be any problems because 'it doesn't hurt anybody's profits'."

The CD-R technology has offered the high-tech opportunity to preserve rare material like radio shows or concert outtakes which would otherwise lose quality on cassette tapes over the years. With technology becoming cheaper, a grey market becomes flooded with CD-Rs, many of them of poor quality. Fans compile and offer CD-Rs with snips from various concert tapes. Almost everyone is able to become a bootlegger, not considering that using the same material over and over makes records worthless and collecting senseless.

'Pirate' abuse can be found on record fairs: CD-Rs from TDI's pre-release CD The Keep and from the deleted Manikin CD Macula Transfer as well as music copied from other bootlegs. Thus, CD-Rs may replace "traditional" bootlegs more and more, but won't make such recordings legal.