Japanese bootleg label Empress Valley released a partial soundboard recording of Led Zeppelin’s September 29, 1971 show in Osaka, Japan on September 29.
Inside the box, the bootleg company included a message to a customer who has previously uploaded the label’s releases online for people to download for free.
“Fuck you! jesusmahdi!”, the message read. “Please stop uploading all EVSD, MVR releases!”
The message continued: “Fuck you! eelgrass, mar kin ho Please stop copying all EVSD, MVR releases!”
It seems that the bootleg label is unhappy with its releases being uploaded to the internet and then copied by other labels. The label even included a screenshot of jesusmahdi’s user page on a popular live show torrent site on the leaflet.
Read the message from Empress Valley here:
(Twitter/yuminori0616)
Here’s what was on the reverse of the leaflet:
(Twitter/yuminori0616)
We asked jesusmahdi if they had a response to Empress Valley’s angry message. Here’s what they said:
“1. Pot… Kettle…
2. Liberating the bootlegs after I spent good money on them… So honored that they mention me by name. (I hope my copy of 9/29 arrives soon so I can be the one to liberate it!)
3. They should take it as a compliment… If their product was shite, Nobody would buy it or want it.
4. Free advertising for their company… they should send me free shit for telling everybody they are my favorite label.
5. Get a Life…”
This isn’t the first time that Empress Valley has expressed frustration at customers uploading its products to the internet. Last year, the company released a soundboard recording of Led Zeppelin’s March 21, 1975 show in Seattle under the title “Deus Ex Machina.”
That release included this leaflet which asked customers not to upload the release to the internet:
(Twitter/LLX2774)
This is greed at it’s worst. The EV asshole(s)are exploiting this for every nickle. First the bullshit singles, now they release only 90 minutes of the tape. Fuck them. I’ve already got the raw tape and the EV copy. I encourage everyone to download it for free. Meanwhile they are hoarding the 28th, a better show btw.
Give the elitist bastards No Quarter! Support and thank those who make these recordings available to you for free!
You are all ripping off the band you idolize.
so evsd think it’s fair their products’ price can be over 300$ which costs more than 3 times than the original releases but it’s unfair to them when somebody’s sharing all these gems so people can enjoy it without spending so much money on something that doesn’t cost as much and it’s not in its full version also they don’t have the rights even to sell it but this is another subject. Also as i see nobody stopped buying these products and if they really want to get even more profit they should discount dem overpriced products. They are not qualified traders imho they are greedy scammers.
The incridible thing is that a bootleg label acts like being the owner of this LZ material!
I really enjoyed the juxtaposition between “Fuck You” and “Please”.
Let this be the final word on this subject:
If any company makes money out of any band’s music, they cannot complain if this music is then copied in any way. The band/record company hold the copyright. In Japan there are liberal rules about bootlegs but, ethically, no bootleg company has a right to demand that their products should not be copied, no matter how much time and effort they put into the production. The music belongs to the band — NOT the bootleggers.
Well said. And you have a cool name.
A bootleg label getting pissed that their bootleg is being bootlegged is rich to say the least. Meanwhile, the Dogs of Doom and others are doing painstaking work with Zeppelins stuff and asking nothing in return.
The Great Band of All Time LED ZEPPELIN , Thank you for the Love and GREATNESS me,!!!