I've ALWAYS wondered

[ol'skinflint]

for all the people (individual AND businesses) who are advertising that they will transfer your audio recordings (albums, cassettes, VHS, etc) to digital media (CDs, DVDs, etc)...do you supposed they're keeping copies for themselves? It occurs to me it would be a terribly clever way to get a lot of copies of rare recordings you may not otherwise have access to. I'm starting to see more and more of these advertisements, including on this web site. But my 25 and 30 year old, out of print recordings leave my sight only over my lifeless body......and no sermon about how many people have used the mail without problems will change my mind.....

[qdearl]

Hey, I'll be the first to admit, that if anyone asks me to transfer things onto CD's or make mp3's for them, that I'll be keeping a copy for myself. I can't imagine those outfits that solicit this service, not keeping copies of their own, not only would it help build there own collection, but it would cut down on transfer times, as they wouldn't need to say transfer the Don Ray album for client 2, when they already did it for client 1 two months ago. they'd just take 5 min. burn a copy of the CD and be done.

[ol'skinflint]

Originally Posted by qdearl

Hey, I'll be the first to admit, that if anyone asks me to transfer things onto CD's or make mp3's for them, that I'll be keeping a copy for myself. I can't imagine those outfits that solicit this service, not keeping copies of their own, not only would it help build there own collection, but it would cut down on transfer times, as they wouldn't need to say transfer the Don Ray album for client 2, when they already did it for client 1 two months ago. they'd just take 5 min. burn a copy of the CD and be done.

well, it seems to me (and this is only my opinion) that if these people are making and keeping personal copies of my valuable recordings then 1. They technically should mention that in advance since my collectible recordings immediately become less collectible if some other person can duplicate them in large amounts without my knowledge or consent and 2. Since they are benefitting, they either should charge much less for the service or nothing at all. In either case, now that I'm aware of this, I either won't allow anyone else access to my recordings at all or they only duplicate them in my presence. This reminds me of the internet situation where people put downloaded pictures on their hard drives and then re-use them, whether the owner approves or not.

[Noman]

I think even a professional service could keep a archive copy of a job but I don't think they should in distribute it. Maybe they could re-use it for a client with the exact same original. That is similar to what every software developer or management or whatever consultant do all the time.

[Graham_Start]

I do keep copies for myself, but then again, I make this clear from the onset, and I don't charge for my restoration work.

Most unsolicited requests I get are for material that I have no desire to ever hear anyway.