Official Post From Hawkwind

[M Holmes]

Michael Blackman writes:

> Well some record companies wont fund a live album if the same material can
> be obtained for free.

The thing is that the way the fan network works, folks outside of it
can't really get tapes for free. Someone has to establish trades within
that network and that pretty much means that they're already known to
people in the network because they are hard core fans or they already
have substantial tape collections amounting to the same thing.

The risks to the band come from someone who can obtain live tapes which
could profitably be copied and sold.  This means that they have to enter
the network, get the tapes and then find some way of distributing them
at cost less than the potential sales.  That's really not so easy with
Hawkwind stuff.  They don't have access to any real network of shops.
Few market traders would bother to carry Hawkwind tapes because sales
wouldn't be high enough.  The only way to make sales in volume would be
at music events such as festivals and Hawkwind concerts.  It'd be pretty
hard to sell bootlegs at Hawkwind concerts and not be spotted by one of
us.  Some festivals might manage to do this at a profit, but nobody is
going to manage to pay for a Glastonbury stall with sales of Hawkwind
tapes.

That leaves the Internet. Ebay is the obvious way to go. However that's
precisely what the Neo-Quark traders take most interest in watching for
and reporting Hawkwind bootleg traders. Doing so even in small numbers
can generally get an auction pulled and has done so on several
occasions.

MP3 sites are a bit more of a problem and I do believe that we shouldn't
have truck with people offering unsanctioned Hawkwind downloads and
should report sites inasmuch as it does any good.

The fan trading network will have some people quit in conscience and
some who won't. I've already stated my position.

If the lawyers are stupid enough to want to persecute the fans then it
might as well be me on the basis that I can afford it, and I'm game for
the argument anyway.  Bring it on! Even Perry Mason would have a hard
time proving that I could have spent more on Hawkwind if it weren't for
live tapes.

FoFP