Last update of this: 7/11/05 IMPORTANT: In 2005, 2 fresh communications were received by etree.org. Grateful Dead Productions intends that SBD material for a date matching a commercially released date must not be traded. -Diana Received by the bt.etree.org team, 7/8/05: "Referring to your offering of Grateful Dead's 07-04-89 Rich Stadium/Buffalo show, although your download is not the commercial version recently released by Grateful Dead Productions ("Truckin' Up To Buffalo - offered as both DVD and soundtrack CDs), the standard etiquette when a show is commercially released is for traders to stop offering the show in soundboard... form. Therefore, we respectfully request that you remove this show from your offerings. "We appreciate the service etree.org provides to the public, and hope and trust that you can understand our position." On 7/11, GDP clarified that the 7/8 message's "soundboard or audience" mention was mistaken: "Dear etree, "Thank you for promptly removing the show discussed below. I'm afraid I made an error when I said that traders should stop offering _audience_ recordings after a show has been commercially released. We only ask that _soundboard_ recordings stop being circulated after a show has been commercially released." ***Previous comments, besides the STATEMENT TO MP3 SITE OPERATORS http://www.dead.net/hotline_info/NEW_DOCUMENTS/mp3.html *** following was at http://www.dead.net/hotline_info/NEW_DOCUMENTS/trading/ circa 2001-2002 RE: OUR LONG STANDING POLICY REGARDING TAPE TRADING Dear Dead Heads, We have a simple taping policy. It's okay with us to tape live Grateful Dead performances and trade them freely, so long as no money changes hands. You send 'em a blank, they make you a tape, and vise-versa. As soon as money enters in on any level, it's a commercial transaction; and with our music, decisions on commerce are ours and ours alone. Thank you, Grateful Dead *** For the record, earlier fan questions prompted a few other responses below. Anything in them is presumably superseded by the 2005 stance above. *** Elaboration 1: From: GDP Intellectual Property Division To: Sent: Monday, November 06, 2000 12:24 PM Subject: Fwd: taping concern > Hi, thanks for your concern. We have no problem with you trading > audience tapes of any show, released or not. But you cannot sell any > of the music, and you cannot trade tapes of a released CD. Like, you > can't make a tape of a Dick's Pick and then trade that. But if it's > an audience tape of the same show, trade away. I hope that answers > your question. Happy trading... > > Jan Simmons > GRATEFUL DEAD PRODUCTIONS, INC. > P.O. Box X > Novato, CA. 94948 > >>From: "darren" > >>To: > >>Subject: taping concern > >>Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2000 07:57:05 -0500 > >>X-Priority: 3 > >> > >>Hey Now, hows it going? I had a question regarding taping. Can you point > >>me to the recording/trading policy of the Dead? I am wondering if its still > >>ok to trade a show thats been released? Like say, one of the Dicks Picks, > >>but of course, from a different source(Not the source Dick released)? Is > >>that still accepable for trading, or is it once released, NO trading of that > >>show whatsoever? Any feed back would be much appreciated. Thanks, and have > >>it good! > >>darren *** Elaboration 2: From: GDP Intellectual Property Division To: "Kirby Bell" Subject: Re: GD tape trading policy Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2003 11:51:39 -0800 As I just wrote to someone else who just submitted the same question: No, soundboards are not okay to trade after the show has been officially released. Technically, audience taping was the only thing the band ever authorized, not soundboards. Audience tapes of the same show are okay to trade. Thanks for asking, Jan >Hello > >I am hoping that you can clarify something for me(and the rest of the >trading community). > >I know that selling or any kind of profiteering of any GD music is >verboten. However, it is my understanding that once a show is released >commercially that it is still okay to trade AUDIENCE recordings of said >show. My question has to do with soundboard recordings of a commercially >released show. Obviously you can't tape a commercial release and trade >that. But what about trading soundboard recordings that were in circulation >before the commercial release?? Are these still fair game? > >The reason why I ask is that a lot of traders seem to think that because it >is okay to trade audience recordings of a commercially released show it is >okay to trade the old soundboard tapes as well. > >I think the GD trading policy needs to updated to address trading SBD and >AUD recordings of commercially released shows. > >Sincerely, >Kirby Bell *** Elaboration 3: Message from Jan, passed along to Diana Hamilton by Tony Gardner on 1/25/2004: Tony remarked in preface, "Here is a letter from Jan at GDP that reiterates the policy we have always observed. I know there have been other letters floating around which contradict this one, but, obviously, this is the one we'll be using from here on ;-) Here is the exact letter from Jan at GDP...." This question seems to be coming up a lot. As I told someone else ecently: Tapers are free to trade their old sound boards of shows, so long as they don't trade the re-mastered versions that we put out. Thanks for checking, Jan >Jan, > > I just want to make sure I understand the band's >sharing policy. Someone has recently made GD 7/8/90 >Three Rivers available for download from the SBD >source. They claim it's OK because the source is not >direct from the DVD or soundtrack. I've advised them >not to offer it as that show is an official release. >They claim it is still OK, and I don't want to give >them false information, is it alright for them to >continue disseminating it? > >Best, Tom