Following please find an e-mail thread between Eric Garland, CEO of BigChampagne, and myself:<\/p>\n
\nFrom: Eric Garland
Subject: Re: More Irving\/Leaks
Date: September 3, 2008 11:12:17 AM PDT
To: bob@lefsetz.com<\/p>\nSo often I hear "artists, labels, and publishers have the right…".\u00c2\u00a0 Well of course they have the right, both under law and in principle.\u00c2\u00a0 Is anyone you know really disputing that?<\/p>\n
Let’s all agree:<\/p>\n
1) Artists\/owners have the right to control their creative works.
2) These rights will be habitually, and increasingly, violated (sometimes by your most loyal fans).
3) As these rights are violated, of course artists can avail themselves of legal remedies.
4) However, this will not impact the ongoing, chronic, and mass violation of those rights.\u00c2\u00a0 See #2, above.<\/p>\nWhat is there to argue about?\u00c2\u00a0 Your work has been illegally wrested from your control.\u00c2\u00a0 Hey, that’s not right!\u00c2\u00a0 Agreed.\u00c2\u00a0 Now you have a simple strategic decision to make: pursue criminal or civil relief, or don’t.<\/p>\n
But let’s be very clear about the facts and the numbers.<\/p>\n
Arresting the GNR leaker has had a measurable impact on GNR piracy.\u00c2\u00a0 It has increased it, necessarily, by drawing a lot of attention to it.\u00c2\u00a0 News cycles do that every time. \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
All of the leaked tracks continue to be easily obtained from a wide variety of the most popular destinations on the web.\u00c2\u00a0 Google, for one.\u00c2\u00a0 Same as it ever was.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
From: Bob Lefsetz
To: Eric Garland
Sent: Wed Sep 03 18:14:59 2008
Subject: Re: More Irving\/Leaks<\/p>\nCan you provide me with statistics as to the increase after the \u00c2\u00a0
leak, after the lawsuit, etc?<\/p>\n\nFrom: Eric Garland
Subject: Re: More Irving\/Leaks
Date: September 4, 2008 12:41:13 PM PDT
To: bob@lefsetz.com<\/p>\nWell, only the leaker (nd now the FBI) knows for sure how many people grabbed the tracks directly from his own blog before he was shut down, but nothing like the more than 60,000 people (and counting) who have snagged it since the story of his arrest hit.<\/p>\n
Most people learn about these leaks in the press.\u00c2\u00a0 The bigger the news cycle, the bigger the leak.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
From: Bob Lefsetz
Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2008 1:23 PM
To: Eric Garland
Subject: Re: More Irving\/Leaks<\/p>\nBut how many downloaded it before the story about the arrest hit?<\/p>\n
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