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Re: [ARSCLIST] Historical Recording Enterprises
At 04:55 PM 8/10/2003 -0700, John Ross wrote:
Can anybody tell me something about a record label called "Historical
Recording Enterprises"? I've recently acquired a handful of classical and
operatic LPs on that label as part of a collection. They have all the signs
of being bootlegs.
"Bootleg" is difficult to define in some cases and I believe that HRE, like
BJR and MRF, was a small label which was in the neighborhood of the
unscrupulous ones, but may not be considered one of them. I know them from
rare material, often with little-known artists, which merited distribution
for historical and musicological reasons. They were well produced from
sources of broadcast quality, suggesting that the tapes were provided by
the producing organizations directly or indirectly, knowingly or not. BJR
was the most professional of the lot, MRF less so, HRE least of the three
and comparable with OASI and many other labels, but still far ahead of EJS
and the true pirates who fed off one another's product and issued cheap
ripoffs of commercial recordings or standard works with stellar artists
from audience tapes.
Still, they are extra-legal in the sense that they are not licensed, they
presumably paid no royalties, and they probably violated copyright.
Mike
mrichter@xxxxxxx
http://www.mrichter.com/