Grateful Dead force Archive.org and others to remove concert recordings

from RollingStone.com:

Until recently, Deadheads could download countless live recordings of the band for free from third-party sites, including the popular Live Music Archive (archive.org), which once hosted nearly 3,000 Grateful Dead shows. All of the downloads were pulled last week at the request of Grateful Dead Merchandising (GDM), the group that handles official products for the band and is overseen by its surviving members…

…Deadheads have answered in protest. In an online petition, fans have pledged to boycott GDM — including CDs and concert tickets — until the decision is reversed…

…GDM recently began selling live music downloads through its online store. The sudden lockdown could be a simple non-compete strike, or it could foreshadow a long-rumored deal with iTunes that will make the entire Grateful Dead live vault available for purchase…

…Fans were incensed that the policy change applies not only to official soundboards but audience recordings as well.

Now, I have no problem with them pulling the soundboards, as those are the best recordings of the shows, and there is an obvious market for those. They are ultimately the band’s property, as they were recorded using the band’s sound equipment. However, high quality audience tapings should stay up there, if purely for archival purposes. The boycott seems a bit much, but then, apart from my Skull & Roses iPod skin, I haven’t given GDM a dime in five years. Perhaps that’s the problem right there.

UPDATE 12/1 -

from cnn.com:

After the Grateful Dead angered some of its biggest fans by asking a nonprofit Web site to halt the free downloading of its concert recordings, the jam band changed its mind Wednesday.

Internet Archive, a site that catalogues content on Web sites, reposted recordings of Grateful Dead concerts for download after the surviving members of the band decided to make them available again.

Band spokesman Dennis McNally said the group was swayed by the backlash from fans, who for decades have freely taped and traded the band’s live performances.

“The Grateful Dead remains as it always has — in favor of tape trading,” McNally said.

He said the band consented to making audience recordings available for download again, although live recordings made directly from concert soundboards, which are the legal property of the Grateful Dead, should only be made available for listening from now on.

Isn’t that exactly what I said yesterday? Damn I’m smart!