Thread by @frenchbloke, I have an interesting story about an Italian pirate who is, on [...]

I have an interesting story about an Italian pirate who is, on paper, the director and owner of London Records. And also the man in charge of a massive rightsholder fraud scam going back decades. @london_records

On paper means that Mr Italian Pirate registered the company. HE is the registered owner of several companies in several countries, one of which is in Ireland which according to Dun & Bradstreet, has an Annual Revenue of
$438,256.00 USD
I& #39;m not sure how accurate this figure is

The first instance of Mr Italian Pirate& #39;s dive into the word of bootleg vinyl pressing dates from 1986.
He& #39;s also responsible for a @QueenWillRock bootleg album being repressed at least 25 times on LP, CD, Picture Disc, coloured Vinyl, 10" and free with a book about Queen

That Queen bootleg is available to buy on @amazon as are all the compilations on his very much unlicensed compilation albums.
How many of these can there be ?
At least 52.
With a grand total of 703 recordings.
None of the artists see a penny from these.

Mr Italian Pirate is the man who sent Marco Salvatori the & #39;repertoire& #39; list which both he and Stefano Ritteri used to license the releases on their label, Spaziale Recordings.
Plot twist, Stefano Ritteri never knew the list was dodgy.
and to twist things a bit further...

Ritteri had no clue that his partner in Spaziale Recordings was also the VP of the company they licensed their releases from.
Prime Direct Distribution had no clue either.
There were copyright claims from several rightsholders for early releases which they insist were legal.

Ritteri paid 350 Euros to license each track.
The 350 Euros were to be paid into a bank in Germany which also turns out to be the internet scammer& #39;s bank of choice.

Mr Italian Pirate has been in court a few times as well.
For SIAE Fraud / tax evasion and forging signatures on cheques.

This is the same & #39;repertoire& #39; list that also claims to own @kraftwerk "1" and "2" albums.
These are the same albums that Marco Salvatori almost managed to release for @RSDUK on his True Choice Recordings label.
1000 copies of each were pressed and sent to an address in Rome.

For anyone that wasn& #39;t aware, @london_records was sold to Warner Music in 1998, who then sold the catalogue (minus a few things ) to @becausemusic.

This leads to another old record company that stopped releasing records that Mr Italian Pirate owns & #39;on paper& #39;

Spaziale Recordings recently released Skatt Bros super sleazy disco anthem "Walk the Night" as part of a @RSDUK & #39;drop& #39; This was originally released by Casablanca.
To buy a Casablanca copy of that 12" will cost you anywhere up to £50 ish.
Seems a no-brainer to re-release it

As luck would have it, Mr Italian Pirate is the registered owner of Casablanca. Or to give it& #39;s proper name, Casablanca Record & Filmworks.
There& #39;s even a website under construction for it
http://casablancarecordandfilmworks.net/
and">https://casablancarecordandfilmworks.net/">... one for @london_records too, http://londonrecords.net/ ">https://londonrecords.net/">...

Home Page

http://casablancarecordandfilmworks.net/

but wait, isn& #39;t https://www.casablancarecords.com/ ">https://www.casablancarecords.com/">... the official site for Casablanca ?
which is the same @CasablancaRecs as owned by @UMG ?
Well, yes.
But isn& #39;t that trademark infringement ?
Quite probably, yes.
And just a wee bit illegal ?
Hell yes.

Casablanca Records

Official Site

https://www.casablancarecords.com/

And now for some music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIbw6M42abU">https://www.youtube.com/watch...

wait, what do you mean that this isn& #39;t actually "Boogie nights" by Porn Music ?
And seriously ? @LionelRichie is playing on this ?
No way

( well I already knew this but you have to laugh at the bare faced cheek of them )

This is, as you might already know, "Machine Gun" by Commodores
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVoMJSMgsUM

turns">https://www.youtube.com/watch... out Mr Italian Pirate is a fan of the movie "Boogie Nights"
who knew ?

You know the name of @markwahlberg& #39;s character in Boogie Nights is Brock Landers. Well, turns out Mr Italian Pirate likes that name too.
It pops up on this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtUCZtI51Ik">https://www.youtube.com/watch... and is all over legal digital platforms.

However, this is actually "Sound Experience" by JP Walk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOmF1BQ0bd0

So,">https://www.youtube.com/watch... is JP Walk or @LionelRichie& #39;s band seeing a penny out of these ?

Don& #39;t be silly. Course not.

another completely fictitious artist is Nepentha.
Nepentha can be traced back directly to Mr Italian Pirate.
Have a listen to Nepentha& #39;s "Starry Nite" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vG9w0TOL2w">https://www.youtube.com/watch...

This one is actually Crown Heights Affair& #39;s "Dancin& #39;"
just watch the amazing performance of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7r4HE2iYec">https://www.youtube.com/watch...

Just to confuse things Mr Italian Pirate has several labels, one being Disco Hustle and you can listen to their entire output over at https://discology.digital/labeL/disco_hustle_records/">https://discology.digital/labeL/dis...
Which greets you with these immortal words
"YOU ARE WELCOME TO Disco Hustle Records"

Welcome to Disco Hustle Records

This is Disco Hustle Records

https://discology.digital/labeL/disco_hustle_records/

http://discology.digital"> http://discology.digital are an aggregator service. You send them your music, they stick it up on several legal digital platforms for you.
An interesting side twist (again) is when you discover the name of Discology& #39;s manager, @emiliolanotte appearing on a certain forum.

Welcome to Default

This is Default

http://discology.digital

that certain forum is one for the Czech Pirate Party.
https://forum.pirati.cz/viewtopic.php?t=10237

it">https://forum.pirati.cz/viewtopic... mentions and links to a site that you need to use http://archive.org"> http://archive.org & #39;s wayback machine to view, https://web.archive.org/web/20111224150825/http://www.pirateparty.it/?page_id=5

which">https://web.archive.org/web/20111... lists Lanotte in the Italian Pirate Party "Executives" section

Esecutivo

Marco Manuel Marsili - Portavoce Scrivi a Marco Fabio Bergomi - Responsabile organizzativo Scrivi a Fabio Andrea Visentin - Responsabile web e immagine Scrivi ad Andrea ...

https://forum.pirati.cz/viewtopic.php?t=10237

The author of the Czech Pirate Party post is Marcel Kolaja.
Some of you might recognise that name.
He is the current Vice President of the European Parliament.
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197546/MARCEL_KOLAJA/home

Even">https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/1... he was wondering why Lanotte was on there as he works closely with @FIMI_IT

Home | Marcel KOLAJA | MEPs | European Parliament

Profile page - Marcel KOLAJA - Home

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197546/MARCEL_KOLAJA/home

Kolaja& #39;s post mentions an article in http://www.djing.it/view_news.asp?ID=99
"Emilio">https://www.djing.it/view_news... is a member of Fimi and is an active collaborator of the anti-piracy commission of Fimi itself."

It might be worth someone looking closely at someone who works in digital music distribution being a "pirate"

Discology aren& #39;t the only aggregator being used.
So far @Believemusic_UK & @JustEnte have been identified as being used by Mr Italian Pirate

But shouldn& #39;t Mr Italian Pirate have been asked to prove he has the rights to do this ?
He might have been but he has a backup plan

Mr Italian Pirate has ( or paid someone else to ) make Assignment of Copyright documents, make them look old, find signatures related to the companies they mention and use them to look aged by using modern, free typewriter fonts and using an online fax service to "age them"

The fonts were identified on here by several people ( thank you ) as well as the creators themselves.
There& #39;s one on BookFace posted by Peter Graute of Backstreet Records who had one record stolen by Spaziale ( they have yet to apologise for that )
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10217223539083740&set=a.1030619848952&type=3&theater">https://www.facebook.com/photo.php...

Look closely at the last paragraph.
"...on this London day..."
This precise wording is unique. An exact phrase Google Search for "on this London day of" brings up exactly:

No results found for "on this London day of"

because NOBODY speaks like that !

seems they used a template and filled the blank bits wrongly.
Oops.

The "EMI" signatures on that are real EMI signatures.
they& #39;ve just been pasted from somewhere else.

R. Fieldhouse& #39;s signature to be precise.

Ever seen a legal document that didn& #39;t tell you who signs it?

Me neither.

So whilst we wait for Stefano Ritteri to apologise publicly to all the artists Spaziale Recordings have stolen earnings from (copyright claims from Mr Italian Pirate& #39;s company resulted in tracks being removed from digital platforms - they also went after physical)

Back to Spaziale& #39;s Marco Salvatori (Ritteri is seemingly naïve and did not have any clue as to what was really going on)
You would think that being a registered owner of Spaziale Recordings that you& #39;d use an account at MPO in Spaziale& #39;s name ? No ?

Actually no. He didn& #39;t.

He used another label account.
Male Records.

Male Records were an Italian techno label in the early 90s owned by Francesco "Chicco" Furlotti.
Chicco Furlotti was wrongfully imprisoned for 8 months for the Bologna Train Station Bombing in 1980 that claimed 85 lives.

Marco deleted his social media after being identified on here in July. He& #39;s still hiding.
Marco used to work at Best Record Italy.
Then he wasn& #39;t.
He decided to get petty and start Disco Matto, a digital bootleg label that released Best Record releases.

Disco Matto were on bandcamp until multiple copyright claims put a stop to that https://discomatto.bandcamp.com/
They">https://discomatto.bandcamp.com/">... had releases listed on Beatport, Traxscource, Amazon, Spotify etc..
Not any more.
The Disco Matto account on Instagram is still there though
https://www.instagram.com/discomattoooooo/">https://www.instagram.com/discomatt...

and if you look at who that Instagram account follows you should see Spaziale Recordings https://www.instagram.com/spazialerecordings/">https://www.instagram.com/spazialer... ( no new posts since they tried to release a certain Pigbag 12" that @firerecordings put a stop to )
you might see https://www.instagram.com/truechoice_recordings/">https://www.instagram.com/truechoic... they of the @kraftwerk lps

Salvatori went as far as buying domains for both Disco Matto and True Choice
http://www.discomatto.com/
https://www.discomatto.com/">... href=" http://www.truechoicerecordings.com/
both">https://www.truechoicerecordings.com/">... hosted by the same company.

Salvatori went as far as buying domains for both Disco Matto and True Choice https://www.discomatto.com/

https://www.truechoicerecordings.com/">... hosted by the same company." title="Salvatori went as far as buying domains for both Disco Matto and True Choice https://www.discomatto.com/">... href=" http://www.truechoicerecordings.com/ both">https://www.truechoicerecordings.com/">... hosted by the same company." class="img-responsive" style="max-width:100%;"/>

that is a detail from this, the circle with the dark blue border being Salvatori& #39;s place in all of this

Several people have pointed out that this would make an interesting documentary.

Although it might drag on a bit due to Mr Italian Pirate claiming ownership of at least 8000 recordings.

EIGHT THOUSAND.

Reading the artist names and titles alone would take you over two hours

Back to Marco, because, why not?
https://www.hhv.de/shop/en/charts/hhv-mag-artist-partner-vinyl-charts-of-2019/marco-salvatori
HHV">https://www.hhv.de/shop/en/c... in Germany asked him to choose his top 10 ( all on the label he was working for at the time )
So not a coincidence that these were available on his Disco Matto label.

Back to Marco, because, why not? https://www.hhv.de/shop/en/c... in Germany asked him to choose his top 10 ( all on the label he was working for at the time )So not a coincidence that these were available on his Disco Matto label.

So when a label tried to legally license something from the artist only to have it bootlegged by Spaziale Recordings, they, naturally tried to get the dodgy release pulled.
Salvatori, however, being a wee bit petty went after releases on that label trying to block their sale

This is one of a few sent to Phonica and Juno - the Juno one was accompanied by a three page letter from a lawyer but fear not, it was a conveyancing and property lawyer.

whose Fleet Street address appears in an unlikely place https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/apr/19/offshore-central-london-curious-case-29-harley-street">https://www.theguardian.com/business/...

Offshore in central London: the curious case of 29 Harley Street | Oliver Bullough

The long read: On a central London street renowned for high-class healthcare sits a property that houses 2,159 companies. Why has this prestigious address been used so many times as a centre for...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/apr/19/offshore-central-london-curious-case-29-harley-street

So, how exactly did Stefano Ritteri end up owning a bootleg label ?
This might help.

anyone good at playing Spot the Difference ?
(These were taken from http://www.primedirectdist.co.uk/ )
the">https://www.primedirectdist.co.uk/">... one on the left was saved before Prime started to take things seriously.
The one on the right is from 10 minutes ago.
from 16 releases to 11.

anyone good at playing Spot the Difference ? (These were taken from https://www.primedirectdist.co.uk/

If you were a label or distributor and were hit by a copyright claim you might think, " lets have a look at this and see if they really do have a claim "
Not Spaziale or Prime. Full steam ahead.
But then another claim, and another and another...

Dodgy much ?

Good news, Marco is alive and still posting under yet another Discogs account.
Wonder if he& #39;s still got those 2000 @kraftwerk albums?

Hello pop-pickers, what we have here is a very badly forged Assignment of Copyright document that has been used to claim ownership of a recordings from Peter Graute of Backstreet Records. This was sent by Spaziale Recordings via Mr Italian Pirate& #39;s company

Have a read

wonder if we can get
"on this London Day" trending ?

You might recognise the font from https://www.dafont.com/old-typewriter.font
from">https://www.dafont.com/old-typew... 2007.
Damn these time travelling record execs...

as this was sent as a pdf file we can open it and have a good nosey around the metadata.
Hello PamFax.

So Mr Italian Pirate and Spaziale Recordings stole Nyrabakiga& #39;s "Cor Corora" ( which would change hands for upwards of £250 ) but being really incompetent, they made a big mistake when placing the order for them with MPO

did you see it ?

Interestingly, since Stefano Ritteri employes the services of a real music industry lawyer and not a conveyancing solicitor, this particular release vanished from @PrimeDirectDist& #39;s website ( screengrabbed up there somewhere ^ )

Another release Spaziale Recordings licensed from Mr Italian pirate& #39;s company was this one. Which, as you can see from the screengrab from @SOTUSOHO ( who for some reason have blocked me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) removed it from sale at the request of @PrimeDirectDist

$Another release Spaziale Recordings licensed from Mr Italian pirate& #39;s company was this one. Which, as you can see from the screengrab from @SOTUSOHO ( who for some reason have blocked me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) removed it from sale at the request of @PrimeDirectDist$

Another artist whose recording Spaziale and Mr Italian Pirate stole was this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWrZe25ckMI">https://www.youtube.com/watch... by @TonyOrlando. I& #39;m sure they thought he wouldn& #39;t notice but that release was also pulled from Prime Directs website.

remember I mentioned the 8000 recordings that Mr Italian Pirate has claimed ownership for ? well of that 8000, 2987 are reported as being in use. This implies that almost 3000 recordings have been licensed all without the real rights holder& #39;s knowledge.

the green dots in this diagram are Artists Names, the orange dots are Record Companies. The big blob in the centre is the In Use category.

lets have a peek at some of those dots then

Tag yourselves...
or if you know anyone

I know you& #39;re all wondering,
"Which countries are affected by this?"
These ones.

and how many from each country ?
Here& #39;s a graph I prepared earlier

The sheer scale of this makes visualisation a bit tricky when it comes to showing which artists in which countries have been affected by this.
For example, this is for record companies the UK

the results from the French Jury are in ( not really, here& #39;s the French record companies list )

There is far too many listed as being USA based companies which is why it looks a bit like this

I have to stress that these are the original record companies the recordings were released on.
The large majority of them are no longer trading, or have been bought up by a larger company, such as UMG.

Mr Italian Pirate can then create an Assignment of Copyright document using some free typewriter fonts, a PDF creator and an online fax service to age them a bit in order to say that he is the registered owner of these recordings.

They went as far as registering ISRC numbers with the PPL in London. So when they are challenged, they provide a link to the PPL Repertoire Search website which will show them and usually several other companies as being registered rightsholders

Anyone spot the mistake ?
well, mistakes, there& #39;s 2.

lets start with the font first
it& #39;s this one https://www.dafont.com/typewriter-rustic-rnh.font?text=Cedente&fpp=200&af=on&back=theme,">https://www.dafont.com/typewrite... Typewriter Rustic RNH from September 2019.

now, have a look at the signature.
why does it look as if it& #39;s been layered on top of the & #39;e& #39; like when you use photoshop ?

Mr Italian Pirate& #39;s company has sent a lot of pdf files to assert his claims whenever he& #39;s challenged by the, you know, real rightsholder
Again, great things about pdf files is the metadata.

Are you Alessandro Carboni ? Creator of pdf files for a bootleg label ? Get in touch!

The Carboni pdf files are often signed by one person. But after seeing several of these I noticed something odd about the signature.

See it yet ?
I& #39;ll stretch the small one to the same size as the other

you know where this is headed ...

it& #39;s a fun diversion for a few seconds before you realise that this company steals recordings, releases them or licenses them to third parties.

So back briefly to the Assignment of Copyright documents. These are the headings from three different documents from 1982, 1985 and 1987.
These claim to be from three different companies, 2 in London and one in New York.
And , surprise ! They all use https://www.dafont.com/old-typewriter.font?fpp=200&af=on&text=ASSIGNMENT+OF+COPYRIGHT">https://www.dafont.com/old-typew...

It& #39;s now almost three months since Stefano Ritteri found out he was the owner of a bootleg label and three months since he talked to someone from @DJmag about it.
The Spaziale Recordings @Bandcamp page is still there and to my knowledge not one word of an apology for it all.

That& #39;s an apology to the artists who have been ripped off, apologies to those who stood up for the artists only to find themselves targetted by copyright claims/legal letters out of spite and finally to the people who bought each release thinking they were "officially licensed"

Now, how do I know that Marco Salvatori of Spaziale Recordings was the one who tried to get @kraftwerk& #39;s "1" and "2" albums released for @RSDUK ?
Well, you know when you have multiple accounts for a website and forget to log out of one whilst posting a comment ?
That.

Which site? Discogs.
Going through the edit histories for their releases, as you do, only to be greeted by this.
if you have an account, you& #39;ll see it here #latest">https://www.discogs.com/release/14764315-Los-Ni%C3%B1os-Del-Parque/history #latest">https://www.discogs.com/release/1...

This led to thinking if there& #39;s an account with that name on discogs, where else is there one ?
And as mentioned way up there ^ - there& #39;s one on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/truechoice_recordings/
And">https://www.instagram.com/truechoic... who was that account following ?

Hello Marco ( he deleted this account in July )

MPO confirmed that 1000 copies each of TCR0032020 & TCR0042020 ( the catalogue numbers for the @kraftwerk albums ) were sent to an address in Rome belonging to the account holder, Male Records, Marco Salvatori.

Interestingly, @PrimeDirectDist have pages one their site for every release. This includes True Choice Recordings.
These are :
http://www.primedirectdist.co.uk/products/Vinyl/TCR0032020/
and">https://www.primedirectdist.co.uk/products/...
http://www.primedirectdist.co.uk/products/Vinyl/TCR0042020/

These">https://www.primedirectdist.co.uk/products/... are currently blank pages

whilst we& #39;re on Prime& #39;s website,
the & #39;missing& #39; Spaziale releases.
http://www.primedirectdist.co.uk/products/Vinyl/SPZ004/index.html">https://www.primedirectdist.co.uk/products/... - Nyrabakiga
http://www.primedirectdist.co.uk/products/Vinyl/SPZ008/index.html">https://www.primedirectdist.co.uk/products/... Liaisons Dangereuses
http://www.primedirectdist.co.uk/products/Vinyl/SPZ013/index.html">https://www.primedirectdist.co.uk/products/... Pigbag
http://www.primedirectdist.co.uk/products/Vinyl/SPZ014/index.html">https://www.primedirectdist.co.uk/products/... Tony Orlando
http://www.primedirectdist.co.uk/products/Vinyl/SPZ015/index.html">https://www.primedirectdist.co.uk/products/... Moebius Plank Neumeier

I must stress that Prime Direct are a completely innocent party in this as are MPO - they didn& #39;t know they were given dodgy paperwork.

Now you know when something keeps saying certain words over and over that you find it a little bit suspicious ( just me ? )
“an official remastered limited edition reissue”
“a long awaited fully official remastered reissue”
“an officially licensed, remastered reissue”

“The first officially licensed, re-mastered reissue”
“This fully licensed, remastered reissue”
“an officially licensed, remastered reissue”
“The first official, fully remastered reissue”
“Fully remastered, official reissue”
“another officially licensed, remastered, reissue”

“an officially licensed, remastered reissue”
“the official remastered reissue treatment”

Spaziale Recordings PR Dept wrote that , or at least that& #39;s the blurb that has accompanied all their releases.

Mind you, their documents often say this on them

Remember Nepentha ? The band that doesn& #39;t actually exist except only to make Mr Italian Pirate some money by robbing Crown Heights Affair ?
Turns out there was a "Big Nepentha" and it& #39;s a club in Turin.

tell me when you see it....
( they actually sent this )

I& #39;m no Steely Dan expert but I& #39;m sure that& #39;s not it& #39;s title
https://discology.digital/labeL/disco_hustle_records/catalog.php?catalog=DHR002">https://discology.digital/labeL/dis...

I& #39;m sorry but slowing it down and giving Phil a French sounding first name doesn& #39;t make this look legit
https://discology.digital/labeL/disco_hustle_records/catalog.php?catalog=DHR193
and">https://discology.digital/labeL/dis... does @midgeure1 know about this ?

I& #39;m sorry but slowing it down and giving Phil a French sounding first name doesn& #39;t make this look legit https://discology.digital/labeL/dis... does @midgeure1 know about this ?

wrong track, not foolling anyone there -
paging @martynware

Mr Italian Pirate claims to own the rights to everything on this page https://discology.digital/labeL/disco_hustle_records/
(this">https://discology.digital/labeL/dis... is a side-label of his)

Welcome to Disco Hustle Records

This is Disco Hustle Records

https://discology.digital/labeL/disco_hustle_records/

Seems nobody noticed it but on this particular "EMI" Assignment of Copyright document they added Kate Bush& #39;s "Wuthering Heights" to a list of recordings with the one that they were trying to steal

After & #39;leaving& #39; his former employer (another record label), Marco contacted MPO in France and cancelled the manufacture of several of that record labels releases citing that their licenses had expired adding an instruction to be like the cast of Grange Hill and just say "NO!"

The Copyright Claim and Cease and Desist are from Mr Italian Pirate& #39;s company which Salvatori is the VP of

that letter was sent to a record shop deliberately trying to disrupt the sales of several releases from another label.
Petty much ?

Over at http://Discogs.com"> http://Discogs.com , a site they rely on so much they have multiple accounts to bump up the ratings.
Hre you have 2 Spaziale ones, 1 Ritteri, 2 Mr Italian Pirate, 1 Ritteri& #39;s former label partner and friend, True Choice Recordings and Salvatori (as Mikeboog).

Over at http://Discogs.com , a site they rely on so much they have multiple accounts to bump up the ratings. Hre you have 2 Spaziale ones, 1 Ritteri, 2 Mr Italian Pirate, 1 Ritteri& #39;s former label partner and friend, True Choice Recordings and Salvatori (as Mikeboog).

Salvatori has several Discogs accounts which he sometimes forgets to log out of when commenting on or editing pages there.

Remember I mentioned Salvatori& #39;s bootleg label, "Disco Matto" ? and how it was completely petty and an attempt to get back at his previous employer, Best Record Italy ?

Disco Matto didn& #39;t last long.

Spare a thought for Tom though.
One day he& #39;s a manager for Spaziale and selling the labels records on Instagram, the next day, not a manager and no longer selling the dodgy Spaziale records

back to the Assignment of Copyright documents ( there& #39;s one up there somewhere ^ )
Apart from the odd wordings, it mentions a company called
Halca S.A.

Halca S.A was registered in Panama and was still trading as late as early this year.
Company details can be seen over at OpenCorporates, https://opencorporates.com/companies/pa/43310">https://opencorporates.com/companies...

Halca S.A was created in 1979 and lists an Alessandro Protti as it& #39;s director and president.

Finding information on Alessandro Protti proved to be rather frustrating however there was an Alessandro Protti involved in the music industry.

quoting Discogs here, "Label that was ran by Milton Mezzrow from 1945 to 1947. In 1960 Mezzrow sold it to Italian music producer Alessandro Protti."

It might be a coincidence that Protti& #39;s name appears on the covers of a few CDs on another of Mr Italian Pirate& #39;s labels.

if anyone has information on Alessandro Protti especially if he was the kind of person to register companies in Panama in the 70s, do let me know.

Back to Spaziale and Mr Italian Pirate -
Beppe Loda (see http://www.tropicalcomputersystem.com/loda/beppeloda_interview.html">https://www.tropicalcomputersystem.com/loda/bepp... )was approached by Salvatori to compile a compilation album of his & #39;Typhoon& #39; club& #39;s classics.
Typhoon was one of the & #39;Afro / Cosmic& #39; clubs in Italy, based in Brescia.

said Loda, “ i meet Salvatori for first time like to months ago , in order to give he my choice of track from the list he sent to me. the new complilation is gonna be on SPAZIALE RECORDINGS label.”

earlier this week Beppe Loda emailed to say,
"SPAZIALE RECORDING LTD SOLD OUR AGREEMENT FOR COMPILATION TO... " Mr Italian Pirate& #39;s company

Why is this any use ?
In recent months several albums compiled by the DJs of influential Italian clubs have been released.

These have been Melodj Mecca, Arlecchino, Afro Station and Invydia, Chicago and Baia Degli Angeli.
What do all of these albums have in common ?
Mr Italian Pirate& #39;s company.

Typhoon, it seems, is next.

it& #39;s not the first time Beppe Loda and Mr Italian Pirate have crossed paths either.
You have to go back to 1986 for the first instance when Loda was bootlegged on vinyl by our friendly neighbourhood Pirate.
Various albums of Typhoon classics have been & #39;licensed& #39; from Mr Pirate

Beppe also had this to add:
“ i didn& #39;t know that Salvatori was involved with " Mr Pirate " recently Salvatori asked to me about doing an AFRO Typhoon compilation , and i choice some tracks for that . he said to me about licenses everything would been official ."

Mr Pirate "says around that" his company "has all licenses and he recently went to typhoon logo owner , getting license to use it for ten years. At the age of compilation you mentioned (80& #39;S), i went to S.I.A.E. (italian association of authors and publishers ) to denounce THAT "

The Typhoon logo was designed by Nevio Catassi. It& #39;s also registered as a trademark to him.

that logo appears on various questionably licensed compilation albums

When Mr Italian Pirate ( a term I can& #39;t wait to stop using ) says that he& #39;s licensed something I can& #39;t help but not believe him, especially given his track record over the years.
It also appears that Mr Pirate is linked several times with Self Distribuzione Srl. A lot.

From Beppe again, "“a very important particular is that , everything made by" Mr Pirate "was and is distribuite by http://www.self.it/ita/default.php
the">https://www.self.it/ita/defau... owner is the brother of SEVERINO LOMBARDONI recently dead. Severino was founder of DISCO MAGIC , and ..."

“he had a lots of problems with law
for bootleg , wordwide."

It& #39;s is true that Lombardoni had a history with bootlegs. He is the one that was arrested at MIDEM for selling bootleg CDs
see #v=onepage&q&f=false">https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1wkEAAAAMBAJ&pg=RA1-PA50 #v=onepage&q&f=false">https://books.google.co.uk/books... from Billboard 4 Oct 1997,

it& #39;s unclear if it was these particular CDs https://www.discogs.com/label/25310-On-Stage-Records">https://www.discogs.com/label/253... but the parent label of this one is Lombardoni& #39;s Discomagic.

On Stage Records

Unofficial Italian label. Until 1995 it was legal to release recordings in Italy by bands if the copyright fees were paid into an account for the bands to collect. This is one of many labels at the...

https://www.discogs.com/label/25310-On-Stage-Records

Back to the data and a look at what countries exactly are these recordings from originally ?

So a lot from the US and UK but you can& #39;t really see what& #39;s going on in the lower parts of the charts.
As if by magic, the big hitters get removed and you can see the wee guys

almost worked, if only Mr Italian Pirate had stolen fewer things.

Behold, the top 29

What& #39;s wrong with this picture ?
"on behalf of Disco Hustle Records..."

Disco Hustle Records are a bootleg label that issues (digital) compilations of very questionable quality owned by Mr Italian Pirate.
So, does this mean that the dodgy label is getting paid for this ? @UMG

this was claimed by Justente.
Disco Hustle Records also have 184 videos on @YouTube
This is one for the fictitious & #39;Nepentha& #39; ( mentioned previously up there somewhere^ ) which was provided along with 183 others by @JustEnte

why have one revenue stream from @YouTube plays when you can have two. It& #39;s & #39;Nepentha& #39; again, this time on Mr Italian Pirate& #39;s main label.
Provided to YouTube by @Believemusic_UK
Interestingly this lists Lieber Ottmar Barthel as author and composer.
Who ?

As mentioned up there ^, this "Starry Nite" track by Nepentha is really "Dancin& #39;" by Crown Heights Affair.
Which was written by William Anderson of Crown Heights Affair which @Unidisc_Music will confirm (hopefully)

So who the hell is Lieber Ottmar Barthel ?
seemingly not Lieber Ottmar ( https://www.amazon.com/Alles-Gute-XXL-Lieber-Ottmar/dp/B07FSNVRF3)">https://www.amazon.com/Alles-Gut... nor Ottmar Liebert ( https://www.delafont.com/music_acts/ottmar-liebert.htm)">https://www.delafont.com/music_act...

Alles Gute XXL (Lieber Ottmar)

Alles Gute XXL (Lieber Ottmar)

https://www.amazon.com/Alles-Gute-XXL-Lieber-Ottmar/dp/B07FSNVRF3

184 videos that a bootleg label has convinced @JustEnte that they were totally legal, or Justente never bothered to ask for proof ?
It& #39;s the same Disco Hustle as mentioned on https://discology.digital/labeL/disco_hustle_records/catalog.php?catalog=DHR069">https://discology.digital/labeL/dis...

https://discology.digital/labeL/disco_hustle_records/catalog.php?catalog=DHR076">https://discology.digital/labeL/dis... hey look, it& #39;s Porn Music again
( @LionelRichie )

This is perhaps my favourite typo from Mr Pirate from Italy.
(from one of his earlier escapades - Cosmic Communications is a label that issued rather a lot of live picture discs from The Cure, Beatles, Megadeth, Depeche Mode, Prince etc.. )

it& #39;s not even 9am, time for Porn
not quite, that Commodores track, "Machine Gun" that is on various streaming and legal download platforms which isn& #39;t credited to @LionelRichie and his bandmates ?
it& #39;s been credited to "Moorhouse Alan" yet it was written by Milan B. Williams

Alan Moorhouse is, rightly, credited as Alan Moorhouse on Youtube so the use of "Moorhouse Alan" is questionable at best.
"Machine Gun" by Commodores is published by Jobete Music Company, Inc. [ASCAP]

around 7 years ago Mr Pirate decided to try his hand at being a real record label that releases things legally.
He would upload tracks to YouTube and then decided to hire a click farm to get some likes, comments and views.

The problem with click farms is repeated phrases

so being the kind of person that has a few minutes to spare ( well more than a few ) I scraped the comments, then sorted them alphabetically. You know, just to see if there were more identical phrases

Guess what ?

back on youtube, looking at the publishing credits on some of these as a pattern of using "Copyright Control" is there.
This clearly says Music Publisher : Copyright Control
However, the label for the record itself clearly states, "I& #39;ve got the Music, ASCAP" @ASCAP

and another one that says Music Publisher : Copyright Control
The label itself says otherwise :
"Martin Colter Prod. Ltd. BMI " @bmi

intentionally changing the publishing details surely can& #39;t be legal, but then this isn& #39;t a company that operates legally.

remember that credit to a Lieber Ottmar Barthel on a @YouTube for a fictional band that used "Dancin& #39; " by Crown Heighs Affair ?
There is a Liebert Ottmar Barthel credited on this as composer.
Now try and find something else composed by him.

*puts tin foil hat on*
both videos "Provided to YouTube by Believe SAS"

*removes tin foil hat, throwing it in the recycling bin*

@vvhdsty spotted a Liebert Ottmar wiki page.
On there is a track called "Starry Nite (March of Kings)"

Seems @YouTube and @Believemusic_UK& #39;s system filled in the composer field incorrectly.
Has that happened before?

Looks like @AppleMusic are on the ball

unlike @TIDAL (although they did remove the Spaziale ones)
Even @SpotifyUK have removed this one

remember that Panamanian company, Halca S.A ?
An address in Miami appears on the back of some CDs that have both Halca and Mr Pirate& #39;s main company listed as the label.
That address at 1144 Ocean Drive, Miami Beach is that of a hotel.

on one of Mr pirate& #39;s earlier adventures into the Music Industry he released a single on Cosmic Communications, they of many live picture discs and compilations that share some tracks with the Spaziale releases
There& #39;s an awful lot of logos on this press release - hello Pioneer!

have a look at Cosmic Communications "Cosmic Sounds & melodies" compilations https://www.discogs.com/label/1910274-Cosmic-Sounds-Melodies
These">https://www.discogs.com/label/191... were still for sale a year ago from Mr Pirate.
Yarr.

have a look at Cosmic Communications "Cosmic Sounds & melodies" compilations https://www.discogs.com/label/191... were still for sale a year ago from Mr Pirate. Yarr.

some familiar names appear on the "Cosmic Communications" series too
*waves to @firerecordings and @dickodell1 *
these were also on sale in the last year

More familiar names appear on the "Afro Trance" series of releases too which, again were on sale recently

Spare a thought for Colin from the Shamen who was credited on the label as "Angos"

Another two they released were these two.
Although they get some plus points for the artwork and titles.

As Mr Pirate has been mining the Afro Cosmic DJ playlists for recordings to pilfer you get some crossovers with other bootleg labels which there just isn& #39;t enough information on to prove a link.

This one in particular did make me go & #39;oh?& #39;
https://www.discogs.com/Various-Disco-Explosion-Vol-2/release/2720594
as">https://www.discogs.com/Various-D... it lists @martynware& #39;s B.E.F "Groove Thang" wrongly.
This album as well as Mr Pirate have used the same wrong track at the same speed. ( "A baby Called Billy" )
Coincidence ?

Disco Explosion Vol. 2 (1987, Vinyl) | Discogs

Label: Not On Label (Disco Explosion) - DEVO-2 • Format: Vinyl LP, Compilation, Unofficial Release • Country: Italy • Genre: Electronic, Folk, World, & Country • Style: Electro, Synth-pop, Disco,...

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Disco-Explosion-Vol-2/release/2720594

I should really add a Soundcloud link in here *

can of worms opened
new links between three companies
one name in common.
And he& #39;s on twitter too.

What the can of worms looks like when you print a copy off

things are afoot, as they say ( probably in the 19th century ) but still...

Does anyone have any information on Self Distribuzione Srl ( apart from what& #39;s common knowledge ? )
There be music of questionable origin on there amongst the legitimate releases

it turns out that man who manages Discology, @emiliolanotte has a track on a bootleg compilation that is sold by Self. It even has Self& #39;s logo on it.
Lanotte feat Monster is the same Emilio Lanotte.
wait, doesn& #39;t he also work for Self Distribuzione Srl ?
Yes.

I& #39;m not saying he& #39;s complicit but his name does keep appearing
oh, and Discology was used by Disco Matto with Lanotte personally removing items after copyright claims were sent.

some fun over the weekend when one company who own the rights to one track in particular off a forthcoming compilation album decided to edit my email and send that to other companies, one of which got a bit stroppy and jumped to Self Distribuzone& #39;s defence

and then I had to inform that company that one recordings they were the rightsholders for features on another compilation on the same dodgy label.
Oops.

Imagine you want to start a record label.
You& #39;ll need a name.
Something memorable.
Easy to search online.
So you call it

Use Vinyl Records

And then another one for CDs as you can& #39;t have a label with Vinyl in the name selling CDs
So you come up with a suitably memorable and easy to search for name...

Not Only CD

Seriously.

it& #39;s like calling your record label "Record Label"

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