[Meef Chaloin]

Originally Posted by Lion of the Tribe

Torrent files?

yeah its a form of file sharing, very popular.
you have a downloading program & go to a website & download the torrent file (only a few kb) and then the program will download it. im not sure exactly how it works but its good for large files

[Don P]

I have to agree with Alionsonny

Trying to rescue the backcatalogue is a waste of time - who the hell is supposed to upload all that stuff? It would also mean accessing people's accounts or crating new ones for people not registered.

It is very unethical to repost someone elses material without permission - and bear in mind that a lot of tracks were only allowed for streaming - not download - if you start passing the mp3s around then you'd be no better than a pirate
For example I uploaded one track a few days before it all went down just because I knew it would only be accessible for a few days. I'd be seriously pissed off if someone else reposted it without my permission.

Rob made his decision and withdrew the offer and I hope he sticks by that

[IRISH MOSS]

I just want this whole thing dropped really. LOTT is very passionate about trying to preserve this and I respect his good intentions. I would have liked to try to find some right thing to do.
There are good points here. Stuff was uploaded to one site only. Without ownership of the site it's not ethical. Great point Don....stream onlys for download. A person may have already shared most of this stuff on dc++ for all we know.

I wouldn't buy Versionist for the value in tracks. It was a goodwill offer for a worthless site and a database that was owned by the artists. The ethical mess it all creates and seemingly brought to light is a headache.

We have so much new material here that it boggles the mind. I can't really stay on the backward thought. I respect LOTT and appreciate him reaching to me this morning. If I owned Versionist.com there may have been a legal way to do this without infringing on the artists. Stream them all? I dunno. Round and round it goes.

I am certainly positive I'm looking forward to bigger and better things like releasing a record.


V is dead. Perhaps we should show some respect for the deceased and family (ourselves).

[Lackatee]

That is very true Don. There's definitely some legal issues with buying data that's owned by the artist that created it(music). If the data was actually sold to someone and re-posted on a different site without the artists consent. ANYBODY could take that too court, and probably win a nice chunk of change if they really wanted to go through all that. Will they? Probably not. I'm not a lawyer, obviously.. but i do have lawyer friends and i could find out more details about this if needed.

Now, if there was some sort of clause in the terms and conditions of versionist that stated that anything you upload becomes property of the website and you forfeit your rights to your tunes. Well, that's a different story. But i doubt that a website like that would make it very far.

I believe there's a fine line between buying the data from the site, and buying the "site" as a whole, where the purchaser and the seller can remain legal and legit. But again, I'm not a lawyer and i would have to find out the facts and leave my assumptions at the door.

As with everything in life, nothing lasts forever. Things change, people change and its just a natural progression and cycle in this thing we call life. While I'm all for restoring the history and keeping the spirit alive. I'm also for new chapters and beginnings. When one windows closes, another one opens.

Because the laws regarding internet music distribution are still in there infancy ,us artists may have no other recourse but to simply demand our works be deleted from the archive so that Steve may not use them (rendering the archive near useless,I suppose). Although I do not advocate doing that yet...

[Don P]

The site is dead but that's OK, because versionist community and its music lives on

The community outgrew the site very soon after it started. Artist started connecting immediately to collab via email, then met at other place - at myspace and other sites - and then for real - visting people in otehr countries, hanging out and recording tunes, even performing live and releasing records. I made some great friendships and will continue to consider myself a versionist no matter what happens to that site or where I choose to post and listen to chunes.

[baroquedub]

As far as i'm concerned IRISH MOSS said it well and true. Let's move on to new and better things and "show some respect for the deceased and family" lol!

Without even getting into the legal technicalities, there's a serious breach of trust when a site owner passes on music tracks which were uploaded to a specific community website - either to be used by another website or to be made available on a torrent.

As originator of that music I'd expect to be asked for my permission. I didn't upload tracks to Versionist to have them there for posterity (if you want that then use archive.org, it's free, non-profit and pretty much guaranteed to make your music available for generations to come).

The reason I uploaded my tracks was to be part of a community and to get feedback from people who love, understand and respect reggae music. As far as I'm concerned the tribe has moved on and I now choose to upload my new music to RDW. For old times' sake I'll be uploading a selection of 'greatest hits' from the old site but I'm looking to the future, not the past.

[the manor]

people move on , its not 4 us 2 judge others , think of the great things 2 come , past lives on in our memories future is for us 2 create , bless rdw

[blaminack]

I am starting to see and appreciate the swing that I am feeling. I would have been sad if I had not been able to get my hands on my olds tunes again, if I-Rebel or some other had not been a better steward than myself but I had moved on from the loss of them when my hard drive had crashed. Likewise we must shift gears and move on. Thanks to Rob for the vision.

[Lackatee]

I say this thread gets locked and we call it a closed chapter and we move on and discuss cooler things like music and gear. Its almost bordering on useless dramatics at this point and pretty much wasted energy. We have a new site, we still have the same community. Lets talk about fun things, and less of the downer stuff Whats done is done. Its just beating a dead horse at this point.

So whos got a distressor? Dont'cha love 'em?