ethos    Technology matters


14 AUGUST 2005

Burn to run

IT was the middle of the night and the roads were empty. The sign up ahead at the traffic lights was explicit: 'NO RIGHT TURN'. A quick check of the mirrors, a gear change into first, a gentle pull on the steering wheel and another episode in my life of crime was complete.

The book of evidence stretches back to autumnal orchard raids and unlit bicycles. Playing soccer in prohibited places and unlicensed fishing with blackened faces. Adulthood arrived with the sweet taste of forbidden fruit - the pub lock-in.

Nowadays, I restrict myself to sharing unchecked Luas tickets and the occasional drop of Connemara's finest firewater, should it fall into my possession. Preferably sipped around an outdoor fire, the lighting of which, I'm told, is against the law. Should they be successful in an All Ireland final next month, victory fires will provide Corkonians with another reason to rebel.

There is one aspect of my recidivist life which I've never been able to control, mostly because I'm unashamedly in favour of the practice. It began when I copied vinyl LPs on to reel-to-reel tape and then on to cassettes. Now I get to 'burn' CDs to the computer.

Recently, a friend of mine unexpectedly handed me a double CD with Bruce Springsteen's face on the professionally-produced cover. I'm a big fan from the beginning and have most of his recordings. So this latest double CD caught me by surprise. Until I opened it.

The first time I saw Springsteen live was twenty years ago this week, on the sun-soaked slopes of Slane Castle. It was the biggest crowd he'd ever played, estimated at nearly 100,000. Minus the one overcooked, alcohol-sauteed lad in front of me who keeled over the minute the show started and only came to as the E-Street Band were waving goodbye.

The last time I saw Springteen live was a couple of months ago in Dublin's Point Depot, in a solo concert. It was another night to remember, with the certainty this time that I will.

The aforementioned double CD is a bootleg recording of the entire concert that night, with a running time of almost two and a half hours.

The quality is far better than I thought it would be. Springsteen's vocals are clear, helped by the absence of a band. His words, though, are joined with those people who were sitting near the secret microphone. Muttering, coughing, laughing and a few 'I love this!' are all part of the mix.

Bootlegging live concerts has been happening for decades in spite of the 'cameras, recorders, or laser pointer' prohibition. The legendary Grateful Dead regularly played before a sea of microphone stands, in a space specially reserved at the front of the stage.

Besides bootleggers, many live gigs were recorded by sound engineers or clued-in roadies with an eye on their retirement savings.

The miniaturisation of technology and the plummeting cost has put live recording into the hands of amateurs. Even bag and body searches can't always unearth state-of-the-art microphones and recorders. In the United States, it is estimated that camcorder piracy accounts for over 90% of bootlegged movies.

In a 'can't beat them, join them' move, some musicians are doing their own live recordings. When The Pixies toured Canada last year, CDs of the gigs were on sale inside the venues, fifteen minutes after the show ended.

Like other countries, Canada is grappling with copyright law in a digital era. As a result of a recent Supreme Court ruling on copyright, anybody buying CDs and then copying to portable players or computers was placed in a legal grey area.

In a letter published in newspapers, the head of the Canadian Recording Industry Association said that "no action will be taken against the 'good guys'. People who legally acquire music are the artists' best friends and we do not intend to punish them". Copying for personal use is okay.

In Ireland, such copying is not a grey area and is against the law. Last week, the Irish Recorded Music Association reiterated this but indicated that it was unlikely to take legal action for copying to iPods or computers. "The file sharing stuff [over the internet] is much more important and will remain our priority for the time being", a spokesman said.

As I write, Springsteen's live bootleg is 'burning' away in the computer and will join my other criminal records.

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