SCENE PROFIT MAKERS
¾Scene Profit Makers
¼-------------------
¢By²:¾ Magic / Nah-kolor 

¹Trough  the  years  I have been in the
scene, I read many articles discussing
the   fact   about  certain  companies
selling  the  productions we made, and
so  making  some  money  with  it.  In
Upstream  there even was a big article
how  we  could  fight against this low
level money making !!

When  a  brochure  of  "Computer City"
came trough my mailbox, I was about to
fall  from  my chair!  A two pages big
advertisement  came  to  my eyes, with
alot  of  scene  productions  made  by
welknown  Amiga  groups  like Reality,
Spaceballs,Movement,Abyss,Sonic,Phenom
ena,Spoon,Sanity  and many more.  Even
my  former  groups Mirage and Applause
were mentioned!

So  it took me no time at all to think
of  a  little conspiracy, I took a pen
and  paper and dialed Computer City to
ask  them some questions.  Here is how
the conversation went down.

I  got some weird guy on the phone and
I  friendly  asked  him  if  they  had
permission to sell demos from the guys
who made the demo.

`Well,  I  have to ask the guy who put
together our Public Domain series"

he   said.   This  was  ofcourse  very
smart,  since this guy was not present
as  I  later  found out.  Than I asked
about   No  1382  in  the  list  which
happened  to  be  the Mirage slideshow
Forgotten with graphics from Danny.  I
said that Mirage never gave permission
to  sell the slideshow, and if he ever
heard of copyright!  He again got back
on   the   part  that  he  didn't  put
together their Public Domain section.

When  I  asked Danny about this matter
he   said  that  he  didn't  have  any
trouble   with   the  selling  of  his
slideshow,  if  they  don't  make  any
money  on  it!   But  since  they make
money  on -not only my production- but
on alot of scene demonstrations, maybe
there   should  be  something  like  a
lawyer for the scene, somebody who can
help us ;-)

The  guy who I spoke with on the phone
even   denied  that  his  company  was
making money on the scene!

"We  don't  make any profit on this at
all."

This  was  quite  strange  to my eyes,
anyway  I  asked  him  to  explain the
above mentioned.

"We  sell each disk for 3,40 guilders.
1,30 is for the disk+label itself, the
other  two  guilders are for the wages
of  our  employees  who copy the disks
all  the  time,  and  to  write of our
machine costs!"

Yeay  sure,  use  the scene for paying
you employees wages..  Especially when
it only costs about 1 minute to copy a
disk  with  one  diskdrive.   Anyway I
asked  him if their wasn't somekind of
special  damage  agreement, since they
atleast  didn't  got the permission of
Mirage..
"NO WAY!" he replied..

I  said  I  would  come  back  on  the
subject,  and  I  thanked him for this
conversation!   I  also  said  I would
talk   about  his  company  with  some
friends  of mine who also make demos..
We  hang  up and that was that!  Don't
you think this whole thing smells like
shit?   If  you do, call Computer City
at:

+31 (0) 104 517 722

And   give   them   your   thoughts...
Together  we  are strong !!!  They are
reachable  by  phone  between  working
hours...  Don't let them get away with
it  !!   They are one of many who make
profit of the scene..

Fight Scene Profit Makers !!!
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