An open letter to Glenn Rogers...

Glenn...I just saw your posts in the Vengeance/Vengeance Rising Human Sacrifice/Once Dead (Steinhaus Remasters) thread that is now locked up here on the board in the R.I.P section (There is a similar thread on the CMR board). While you may think highly of ol' Temple Of Blood for alerting you to the matter, here are some things to think about that you may not have initially considered:

As you know, these albums have been out of print for years and years and years. I didn't get paid for doing this, nor am I charging people for the downloads. The people who are PMing me to get hooked up with copies of my personal remasters of these two GREAT albums are people who have already purchased them...that means that the broken up band and the out of business record companies have already received their due compensation.

If anyone were to ask for the download links who has never purchased them before (though, thus far, everyone who has requested them HAS claimed to have purchased them before), there's still the little matter that the albums haven't been available for years and years and years and the only way to get them would be to stumble upon a used copy somewhere. Again, as you know, you get nothing from the sale of a used copy of one of your albums. If you are, indeed, still getting yearly checks for your Vengeance/Vengeance Rising work then those aren't checks for album sales, they're checks for occasional radio airplay. What I'm doing doesn't play into that, nor does it take away from it in any way. If anything, it simply resurrects your profile among all of 20 to 30 people...it makes them remember how much they love these old albums that THEY ALREADY OWN.

As a long time recording and touring musician myself (21 albums released to date between my bands, Huntingtons, The Stivs and Main Line Riders), I have no interest whatsoever in taking money out of a fellow artist's pocket. I believe that what I'm doing here is completely above board and ethical. You've already received the money from the people who are downloading my personal remasters. I'm not engaging in public posting of download links.

This is me, a fellow artist who is now a mastering engineer, taking it upon myself to remaster some old albums for myself that I love and then deciding to share the excellent results I've achieved privately with some likeminded individuals on two message boards I frequent (this one and the CMR).

If you'd like, I'd be very happy to provide you with the download links so that you can check out my work for yourself. If you are pleased with that work and think you might make some money by getting it online via proper digital distribution or using it to hit up a modern record company to see if you can garner interest for a re-release then I would be most happy and honored to provide the files necessary for you to do so.

Here's my number if you'd like to further discuss it. Call anytime, Glenn.

302-438-1977

later...Cliffy

Good stuff, Cliffy. Especially that last paragraph.

Hope all is well with the family.

i wonder how many people are dialing Cliffy right now??

exact33 wrote:

i wonder how many people are dialing Cliffy right now??

My phone ain't ringin'!

Cliffy wrote:

exact33 wrote:

i wonder how many people are dialing Cliffy right now??

My phone ain't ringin'!

then they are dialing the wrong number!!!

Furthermore, it has come to my attention since my initial thread post, that several record companies have attempted, on more than one occasion, to convince Roger Martinez (the legal owner of all things Vengeance/Vengeance Rising related) to allow them rights to give these two great albums proper re-releases. His answer has remained a steadfast no, as he no longer wishes to allow the message/music contained on these albums to be available for legitimate sale.

Roger has, interestingly enough, publicly posted these albums for free download in the past via his (now defunct) message board.

When Roger posted those mp3s for free download, it could be successfully argued that, by doing so, he gave legal permission for anyone to give away digital copies of the albums. What he DIDN'T do by doing that was give legal permission for anyone to PROFIT from the SALE of new copies of the albums.

later...Cliffy

Very good explanation Cliffy.

To continue to put this all out there in the public record...I have messaged everything I've posted here on the board to Glenn via his Facebook page. I also sent him this particular olive branch:

I do, humbly apologize for not thinking to seek you out to ask for permission to post these remasters before going ahead and offering them up for people (who own or have owned these albums) to private message me about.

Do you think, all things considered, that the other guys who were in the band at the time, would be equally as bothered by what I have done?

later...Cliffy

Here is the deal, The point is ask first. I am on Facebook and at this site all the time. I'm not hard to find. I dont care if you played around in your studio to see what you could do with the tracks. What I do care about is you need to let us know first,and check it out before you put it out for all to hear. Out of respect to the people who put their blood sweat and tears into their music. Maybe someday it happens to you. You might feel different. None of this would be a problem if you contacted us first...Was'nt hard to find me on FB now was it...

OK. Take it to PM. You guys are both adults. This doesn't need to be a public battle.