How Not To Connect With Fans: Have Gilbert Gottfried Tell Them To 'Go F Yourself' For Listening To Music

from the yeah-that'll-work dept

Fri, Oct 15th 2010 6:29pm — Mike Masnick

Robert Ring was the first to send in the news that Victory Records apparently had ridiculously annoying comic Gilbert Gottfried film a video "message" to file sharers telling them to "go fuck yourself" and using some ridiculous arguments. He claims that the reason people file share is because they think that musicians are too rich. Of course, while this may be true for some folks, it's actually not the reason most give for why they file share. And, then, of course, he goes off on a confused rant comparing tangible and scarce goods to music, and not understanding the difference between giving people a reason to pay you and demanding compensation. Then again, I would imagine that telling some of your biggest fans "go fuck yourself" is not exactly a good way to connect with them or to get them to want to give you any money in the future:

Of course, to make matters even more ridiculous, reader Metal Chris, who sent in a different version of the story, points out that Victory Records is famous in the industry for doing everything possible to avoid paying its bands (even beyond your typical RIAA accounting). Also, a looooong blog post from an ex-Victory Records VP made the rounds a few years ago, but apparently has been taken down in many places, which totally eviscerates the company's CEO, and (as part of it), notes that he helped move money around to avoid paying its artists. After detailing various bands leaving the label, and threats of lawsuits over refusal to pay royalties, he claims that he was regularly asked at the end of the quarter to hide money, often totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars that were due to bands on the label. He claims the label's boss, Tony Brummel, told him: "Fuck those guys, they're not entitled to that money," on a quarterly basis.

And this is the company that puts up the video above, pretending that it's about helping musicians?

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Filed Under: file sharing, gilbert gottfried
Companies: victory records

48 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2010 @ 6:56pm

The record company clearly had enough money to pay Gilbert Gottfried. Has there ever been a better argument for illegal downloading?
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- Derek Bredensteiner (profile), 15 Oct 2010 @ 9:39pm
  
  Re:
  That's really not as much money as you think it is.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2010 @ 7:32pm

So somewhere, around some upscale conference room table, this conversation occurred:

Exec 1: Sales are down. How can we get fans to buy our music again?
Exec 2: Let's film Gilbert Gottfried telling them to go fuck themselves!
Exec 1: Brilliant!

Also, they may have looked something like this:
http://www.davidduke.com/images/SouthParkJoozians.jpg
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- Angry Puppy (profile), 17 Oct 2010 @ 5:33pm
  
  Re: Music Executive Intellect
  You nailed it.
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  - Angry Puppy (profile), 17 Oct 2010 @ 5:43pm
    
    Re: Re: Music Executive Intellect
    Wait, you are using the site of David Duke, a hate crime site of the ex-head of the KKK! You had better not be saying it's the Jews or we'll find you and I swear to god... you will be audited.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 17 Oct 2010 @ 8:56pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Music Executive Intellect
      Actually it was just the first result on GIS. Don't sic your angry puppy on me!
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      - Angry Puppy (profile), 17 Oct 2010 @ 9:43pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Music Executive Intellect
        IRS IRS IRS IRS! OK I believe you, "Eleh Ha-chaim" (אלה החיים). !
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      - Anonymous Coward, 17 Oct 2010 @ 9:48pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Music Executive Intellect
        GIS=???
        
        For me the first thing that comes to mind is Geographic Information System but since you were talking about Google I suppose is something about that but I don't know what.
        
        Google I???? System/Search
        
        This is just curiosity if I wanted to be a deliberate a-hole I guess I would point people to wiki to show them how much GIS there are, but the intent is not to be provocative just to clarify a simple curiosity that needed this much text to not come out as a prick or trying not to.
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gis
        
        Life is getting difficult.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2010 @ 7:33pm

i think i would do the opposite of whatever that weaselly little man said, just in the hopes that it would make him kick off sooner.
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Any Mouse, 15 Oct 2010 @ 7:57pm

Remix
Maybe someone out there wants to remix this so Gulibert is telling himself and Victory to go fuck themselves?
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SUNWARD (profile), 15 Oct 2010 @ 8:00pm

annoying.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2010 @ 8:04pm

I worked for Victory Records on a music video where they agreed to one budget which we went into production on the first 50%, but the later payments never materialised. So we were vastly out of pocket on the video-but the video still went out on air.

Basically, they did ask us to work for free.

And go fuck yourself was about the level of conversation with them. The money that they screwed us on was worth several years of illegal downloading even at RIAA lost sale prices...
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2010 @ 8:39pm

ok then. lets just design the whole world so that it benefits record labels.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2010 @ 8:49pm

I love the adds they use to try to get people stop doing stuff like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up863eQKGUI

The same can be said about the anti-drug-use adds.
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- Matt (profile), 16 Oct 2010 @ 3:44am
  
  Re:
  Works a lot better than some very nasal guy telling me to f myself (I don't pirate but if I did the polite one would probably be more effective)
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- Blatant Coward (profile), 16 Oct 2010 @ 4:59am
  
  Re:
  Guys I think we should listen to this guy. He seems like he knows what he's talking about. I mean, check out those sweet moves.
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- Karl (profile), 18 Oct 2010 @ 8:13am
  
  Re:
  Amazingly, they're still at it:
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUCyvw4w_yk
  
  The video features men in black breaking down the doors of a suburban mom, because her kid has been downloading software. Do they actually think this will send any message other than "aim for the head?"
  
  The end of the video has an appeal from Jeremiah Mondello, who (he says) was put in Federal prison for pirating software. In fact, he was selling pirated software commercially, and hacking into bank accounts to retrieve money, by using a Trojan virus to record keystrokes. Not exactly your typical teenage Torrent freak.
  
  As a final bit of irony, the video is available on iTunes as a free download.
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Karl (profile), 15 Oct 2010 @ 9:10pm

Victory
That blog post, long as it is, is only half the story. I couldn't find the rest, but significantly more is posted as a comment to a story about Victory on the Matador website.

I'm wondering how long it will be before Techdirt gets legal notices, and whether it's before or after the threats of violence.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2010 @ 10:29pm

"Tell me to go f*** myself? That'll cost three album downloads... Let's see... which ones....?"

(Not that I download, mind you. But you can certainly see how someone might think this.)
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- IronM@sk, 16 Oct 2010 @ 12:16am
  
  Re:
  I honeslty couldn't find anything of theirs worth downloading...
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- Anonymous Coward, 19 Oct 2010 @ 8:59am
  
  Re:
  Already have a bunch of their artists on my hard drive. I now feel that much less guilty about that too. If the bands want my money, they'll leave that label, plain and simple.
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gadZooks, 15 Oct 2010 @ 10:31pm

hm?
Did the parrot from Aladdin just insult me? He said I probably didn't have a job, insinuating that I'm a looser. Then tells me to give him my lemonade because he's been sitting in the hot sun all day? That would explain his sales pitch. I like the end especially, where after this icon of pop culture gets done insulting and patronizing me, the video says "Now send this to everyone you know". It's like they're so used to just telling people what to do, what to think that they look up "viral video" aaaannd ACTION!

Ok, so I AM forwarding it to everyone I know, both of them. And, I'll be sure to mash it up with that crotchety old singer from the insane clown posse who hates fresh faced kids with freckles.. or something like that. Just to let them know, He's coming to take their cars and houses.

What phase are these pre-seniors going through? I've lost track... they do know that the worst era of online file sharing has passed, and that most of the people that are willing to pay, are. Those that are still downloading are doing so because they either cant afford it, or would have gotten it illegally even if it were on CD.
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Rekrul, 15 Oct 2010 @ 10:42pm

I like how they disabled the comments on the video...
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DandonTRJ (profile), 15 Oct 2010 @ 11:14pm

Victory Records is synonymous with band mistreatment in the alternative music community. They sign tons of groups, but give them no promotion unless they break out, then proceed to screw them on the financials. Hawthorne Heights left on the worst of terms, being told they owed the label a million bucks after selling hundreds of thousands of records. Atreyu phoned in a Greatest Hits album just to finish out their contract with the label and bail. Alumni like Thursday, Bayside, and Taking Back Sunday all have choice words about Brummel. One of the label's biggest remaining moneymakers (Silverstein) just left, and I wouldn't be surprised if their latest cash cow (A Day To Remember) ends up leaving in a year or two as well. Bizarrely, Brummel's new strategy seems to be picking up random nu-metal bands who lost relevance years ago [Ill Nino, Taproot, etc]. We'll see how that works out for him, I guess.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2010 @ 12:23am

Oh the remixes opportunities on this video :)

"Go to anybody and ask them to pay you one time, they probably be ok with it, now go there and ask them to pay again and what you will hear is F#$% YOU!, you can try with other people too and they all will tell you the same thing"

"Go to people on the street and say they have to pay to listen to radio, they will tell you F$%& YOU in no uncertain terms"

"Go to a store and steal something, what you get is a $100 fine, copy music and you get a million dollar, now ask people what they will tell that guy suing everyone, that is right F#$% YOU!"

"What we are dealing here is a bunch of real thieves that think raping the public is ok, for them I say F$%& YOU"

"There is no work involved in reproducing sounds that needs to be paid every time, if that was true everybody would be asking to get paid. Would you pay your plumber guy if you reproduced his work in your home? If the plumber tried to force you to pay him what would you say? Alright or F$%& YOU!" I know what I say to that guy ;)

Oh it is just endless fun one can have with this clip, this one is pure gold for remixers.
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Ben, 16 Oct 2010 @ 12:46am

You talkin' to me?
I have to say that I don't particularly like being told to go fuck myself, or to go to McDonald's.

It's always a little scary how people try to argue that a different opinion (that there's nothing wrong with downloading mp3s, for example) is not just wrong but *immoral*. In this case because it's the same as stealing. Not believing in God is not just wrong, it's immoral because it led to things like Nazi-ism and communist Russia. Accepting gay marriage is not just wrong, it's immoral because the bible says so. Once you've painted your opponents views as immoral, you've made them Evil, basically. Can't we disagree without resorting to that?
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Bradley Stewart, 16 Oct 2010 @ 4:10am

There Is More To It
than this but I always have thought Gilbert Gottfried is fantastic!
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CN, 16 Oct 2010 @ 5:04am

Think of the cows!
If you don't buy a hamburger, the cows will be out of a job. Think of the cows!
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Spork Eater, 16 Oct 2010 @ 5:32am

When's the last time Godfrey was funny?
Last time I saw him "perform" was on the roast of the Hoff. Over the years the less funny he became the louder he got. When he came on the roast I had to turn down the sound he was that loud and that bad.
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- Gilbert G., 16 Oct 2010 @ 8:20am
  
  Re: When's the last time Godfrey was funny?
  Go fuck yourself!
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2010 @ 6:44am

Madonna
This reminds me of a stunt Madonna pulled some years ago. She made a short recording where she, like Gottfried, cussed out her fans with the F word. She then had it turned into a fake file and circulated on file sharing systems.

The attitudes in the entertainment industry are amazing sometimes.
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- techflaws.org (profile), 17 Oct 2010 @ 2:32am
  
  Re: Madonna
  Which then some DJs used as a sample in their songs pretty much turning around her message.
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TPBer, 16 Oct 2010 @ 7:10am

This is working..
To make me DL another TB of stuff :)
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2010 @ 8:29am

I can make burgers that taste just like McDonald's at home (no ammonia though, I try to buy beef without e-coli so I don't need to feed my guests poison to keep them healthy). Do I now have to pay McDonald's?

I can also make an exact replica of a song at home for free. Recipes are not covered by copyright, so the analogy falls apart legally and logically.

Of course, when you are wealthy, you stop caring about art because you love money.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2010 @ 8:33am

The More I Can Annoy People Like This...
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2010 @ 8:33am

The More I Can Annoy People Like This...
the better.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2010 @ 9:39am

hrrrm
just say no to intellectual property
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Tom Landry (profile), 16 Oct 2010 @ 2:22pm

too bad.

Gottfried is one of the most ballsy comedians ever.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2010 @ 3:12pm

I think they manufacture victims
Someone should make a rebuttal using the artists who work hard, and don't get paid as a club to beat labels about the head neck and face. It would go something like this:

"We see less than 1/5 of the minuscule revenue from MP3 sales as CD sales. The labels have no significant overhead no supply chain, no distribution cost, no manufacturing costs, not even bandwidth! So why are we getting robbed blind by these guys who are trying to convince you that they're the victim? You tell us."
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BruceLD, 16 Oct 2010 @ 4:29pm

Subject
That's right...choose the most ugliest and most annoying man in the entertainment industry to stop piracy.

They might as well get the most ugliest and most annoying man to run Microsoft.

Ooops....hey wait a minute *head bang*
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2010 @ 8:06pm

You don't say "Fuck You" to people who pay you! ever!
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Anonymous Howard, 16 Oct 2010 @ 10:00pm

Gilbert Gottfried just went from "ok guy" to total jerk in y book
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2010 @ 11:23pm

Victory Records are scam artists. That's what they mean by getting more money for the artists... They don't mean musicians, they mean they need more money for the scam artists like Brummel.

Music has evolved into a free medium. I don't see what any of this propaganda does to address that at all. Is the music boogeyman under my bed gonna get me if I don't pay them some money? Please...

Hey Victory Records: Go FVCK YOURSELVES!
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Ken Hopkins, 17 Oct 2010 @ 12:22am

Victory records scam artist
http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002951851#/bbcom/news/articl e_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002951851
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Oct 2010 @ 7:35am

Gilbert Gottfried is a pervert. A freak! Who the hell would use him for any message.
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- Angry Puppy (profile), 17 Oct 2010 @ 9:50pm
  
  Re:
  UH...Perverts and freaks?
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- Karl (profile), 17 Oct 2010 @ 10:39pm
  
  Re:
  Speaking as a card-carrying member of the Perverts and Freaks club, I can tell you that he's neither.
  
  In fact, he tried to show up to our last meeting, but we kicked him out after he started reading Garrison Keillor stories in that annoying voice of his. He even did it once with a parrot on his shoulder, but we weren't convinced.
  
  Besides, everyone knows he ripped off his best material from Jackie Martling.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Oct 2010 @ 9:50pm

same bottom line, you want the product, but don't want to pay, and you will make any self righteous argument you want to justify your theft

if your an undeserved customer, or they aren't giving you want you want, don't download the file, but you wont do that will you, you will steal it anyway
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