Just a follow-up to some discussion earlier in this thread - regarding the ethics of putting out material with/without permission of the original performers... I have taken the suggestions on board and since this year, attempted to contact performers (in this case, pro- and semi-pro musicians in the main) before putting material up, following the principle that they deserve to be the "gatekeepers" of such material recorded by audience members - whether this is ultimately for good or bad (for posterity) is a different question of course.

Of around 10 acts contacted this far, about 7 said OK (some with a little hesitation in case they thought that the performance might not be good enough, or no-one would be interested in seeing/hearing it, or they may have said something politically incorrect on the night...), so those shows have gone up... One has said no, they prefer to keep control of "performance quality" of what is available to go out to their audience, and this *might* not be good enbough (that is without seiing the footage, I have sent it privately to see if I can change their mind). One I sent to the artist who (it turns out) is doing their own series of live recording releases, and *may* want some of it for inclusion in that; what happens to the rest, or all of it if nothing is used, is not clear...

Another tape is a bit bogged down... one member of the group concerned is fine with it, but needs to contact 2 others who may or may not be contactable 25+ years later to get their OK as well... Hmm. I am still hoping that one can go out at some stage.

In several cases I sent the material to the artists involved several years back and received a vague "thanks" but no bites as to my suggestion to release it further, however on re-contacting them recently they said fine, why not? So it seems persistence can be required, and produce a useful result in some cases...

Just my experiences so far, potentially of interest RE this thread, more to come no doubt.

Cheers - Tony