Danny Sapko discovers… (now including follow up vid that is worse!)

[Merton]

3 minutes ago, jonnybass said:

What crime has been committed? Pretending to play guitar isnt illegal.  

 

Jonny

Passing off other people’s music as your own is basically theft isn’t it?

 

Selling a guitar which had been given to you for exposure but then not given said exposure isn’t illegal but is highly dubious behaviour.

[fretmeister]

8 minutes ago, jonnybass said:

What crime has been committed? Pretending to play guitar isnt illegal.  

 

Jonny

 

 

1: He sold transcriptions of other people's work claiming it was his work.

2: He released music on Spotify and claimed he was the only composer but he wasn't a composer of the tunes at all.

 

Both are fraud / obtaining money by deception. Not just civil disputes but actually criminal offences.

[Beedster]

10 minutes ago, peteb said:

 

That rarely happens for white collar crimes, especially in finance and related fields. 

 

 

That's the truth of it, and any percentage applied to the confiscation of proceeds versus number of prosecutions would be dependent on the rate of prosecution, the estimates of unlawful gains etc. In short, the overall percentage of money confiscated versus money stolen is far lower than would appear - the reality with most fraud is this it goes undetected or if detected unpunished and if punished often at nothing like equivalence 

 

10 minutes ago, TimR said:

 

Often it will be the cost and likelihood of recovery vs the amount recovered.

 

No one is going to pay thousands of pounds to recover a few YouTube royalties.

 

 

That's true

[BabyBlueSound]

19 minutes ago, jonnybass said:

What crime has been committed? Pretending to play guitar isnt illegal.  

 

Jonny

 

For example, promising small gear manufacturers that you'll review their gear, then you don't, then you actually SELL said gear instead of sending back to the manufacturer... I think that's actual theft.  

 

Selling the transcript for other people's solos (who are also trying to sell the same transcript they ACTUALLY wrote)... I think that's theft too.  

 

Just... read some, man. It was never about the pretending part.

[jonnybass]

10 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

 

 

1: He sold transcriptions of other people's work claiming it was his work.

2: He released music on Spotify and claimed he was the only composer but he wasn't a composer of the tunes at all.

 

Both are fraud / obtaining money by deception. Not just civil disputes but actually criminal offences.

Im not a lawyer, but isnt it Copyright infringement, i.e. the denial of profits which the creator is entitled to? which is a civil matter rather than criminal? until it gets to mass production of counterfeit goods.

 

Jonny

[jonnybass]

1 minute ago, BabyBlueSound said:

 

For example, promising small gear manufacturers that you'll review their gear, then you don't, then you actually SELL said gear instead of sending back to the manufacturer... I think that's actual theft.  

 

Selling the transcript for other people's solos (who are also trying to sell the same transcript they ACTUALLY wrote)... I think that's theft too.  

 

Just... read some, man. It was never about the pretending part.

Thanks for being condescending, I can and have read this.  This guy made most of his money from pretending to play guitar, therefore to take his income is to take money he has made by pretending to play guitar.

 

If the problem is if the 'theft' of gear iwhy is the majority of the content about his passing off playing and writing music as his own ?

 

also again I'm no lawyer but to me theft would be if the guitar was not given but loaned...ie can i borrow your lawnmower, i then sell it. Thats theft.  This may be more a case of "Can you give me that lawnmower you have made for free as i review lawnmowers, its my property i can then sell it and its not fraud, If i agree to review it then its possibly gained under false pretences (which may be fraud and theft) but that would depend on the detail such as I'll review it by 2024 etc.. certainly breach of contract, which again would be a civil matter...but definately morally wrong 

 

Jonny 

[fretmeister]

16 minutes ago, jonnybass said:

Im not a lawyer, but isnt it Copyright infringement, i.e. the denial of profits which the creator is entitled to? which is a civil matter rather than criminal? until it gets to mass production of counterfeit goods.

 

Jonny

 

It's both. The fact that Civil action can be taken for an IP dispute does not prevent there being a criminal offence.

 

Same in all manner of things. Many criminal offences have a linked civil one. "Conversion" is the civil equivalent of "Theft". In a civil matter the result would be an order to pay compensation / loss of income etc. In the criminal one it would be either a fine (payable to the state) or prison.

 

Punching someone in the face is a criminal offence with criminal penalties. It is also causing a Personal Injury that can be sued upon as a civil matter.

 

Pursuing one option does not mean the other cannot be pursued as well.

 

 

ADDITION:

 

Not to forget that the IP owner - the real composer can take action against GT for IP problems but a purchaser of a song via a streaming service cannot take the same action for IP... because the purchaser doesn't have an interest in the IP. The purchaser has been a victim of deceit = fraud. The real composer has been a victim of theft and an IP issue and has probably been denied income because of it.

 

So - it's a multy-layered thing. But ultimately the evidence against GT suggests that he would fail to successfully defend civil and criminal actions against him...

Edited yesterday at 10:40 by fretmeister

[jonnybass]

26 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

 

It's both. The fact that Civil action can be taken for an IP dispute does not prevent there being a criminal offence.

 

Same in all manner of things. Many criminal offences have a linked civil one. "Conversion" is the civil equivalent of "Theft". In a civil matter the result would be an order to pay compensation / loss of income etc. In the criminal one it would be either a fine (payable to the state) or prison.

 

Punching someone in the face is a criminal offence with criminal penalties. It is also causing a Personal Injury that can be sued upon as a civil matter.

 

Pursuing one option does not mean the other cannot be pursued as well.

 

 

ADDITION:

 

Not to forget that the IP owner - the real composer can take action against GT for IP problems but a purchaser of a song via a streaming service cannot take the same action for IP... because the purchaser doesn't have an interest in the IP. The purchaser has been a victim of deceit = fraud. The real composer has been a victim of theft and an IP issue and has probably been denied income because of it.

 

So - it's a multy-layered thing. But ultimately the evidence against GT suggests that he would fail to successfully defend civil and criminal actions against him...

Thank you for this this is why i love Basschat

[Burns-bass]

2 hours ago, Beedster said:

 

I missed that first time around  

 

This would be considered fair use of a trademark. 

[fretmeister]

27 minutes ago, jonnybass said:

Thank you for this this is why i love Basschat

 

Obviously some practicalities come into it... imagine rocking up to Scotland Yard with a "GT lied to me and because of that lie I spend £9.99 on an album and I want you to arrest him please!"

 

The reaction from plod would be err, somewhat dismissive. Unless of course there were hundreds of similar complaints made. 

But a lack of action by the police doesn't change how the law does apply to it.

 

So in reality the most likely action will be someone suing him in a civil matter. At the moment there doesn't deem to be much appetite from the composers of the tunes to do that, but maybe D'Angelico or Laney will. They both spent a lot of money developing and launching signature products and they have reputations to protect.

 

They also have the assets to do it too.

[Hellzero]

3 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Charley's put up a vid too! 

 

 

I think Charles is a really clever person and he sums up the issues in the video very well.

 

His proposal at the end proves his empathy for the people who have had their music stolen, with some good exposition for them too afterwards.

 

Congratulations to him for that!

 

Edited yesterday at 11:53 by Hellzero
Grammar

[peteb]

39 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

So in reality the most likely action will be someone suing him in a civil matter. At the moment there doesn't deem to be much appetite from the composers of the tunes to do that, but maybe D'Angelico or Laney will. They both spent a lot of money developing and launching signature products and they have reputations to protect.

 

 

But they are unlikely to do so. They won't appreciate having got caught up in this and pursuing him through the courts is likely to be embarrassing and won't do any good to the brand. Far better to cut ties with him and draw a line under the whole affair. 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

3 hours ago, jonnybass said:

What crime has been committed? Pretending to play guitar isnt illegal.  

 

Jonny

 

Copyright theft.

 

Taking someone else's work and passing it of as your own.

[Leonard Smalls]

3 hours ago, jonnybass said:

What crime has been committed?

He doesn't half look smug.

IIRC, this is the offence of "Appearing so self-satisfied as to outrage the Public Decency".

[jonnybass]

13 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

He doesn't half look smug.

IIRC, this is the offence of "Appearing so self-satisfied as to outrage the Public Decency".

Guilty as charged!!!! Stone him   

 

Jonny

[chriswareham]

[tauzero]

On 07/05/2025 at 11:31, jonnybass said:

If the problem is if the 'theft' of gear iwhy is the majority of the content about his passing off playing and writing music as his own ?

 

Probably because the people creating that content are content creators and therefore his passing off is something that will potentially affect them directly, which equipment supply doesn't do.

[tauzero]

On 07/05/2025 at 13:18, peteb said:

 

But they are unlikely to do so. They won't appreciate having got caught up in this and pursuing him through the courts is likely to be embarrassing and won't do any good to the brand. Far better to cut ties with him and draw a line under the whole affair. 

 

 

And leak the few signature models that they've created out via their back door as the extremely rare GT model (see "Edward VIII coins").

[diskwave]

Its the new normal and you cant argue with it... however great original well written music will always be there long after these Tube heroes are long gone. Last yr I seem to remember it was a young virtuoso called Charles that everyone was guffing about. Sadly I cant remember a single thing he did.

[Bagman]

9 minutes ago, diskwave said:

Its the new normal and you cant argue with it... however great original well written music will always be there long after these Tube heroes are long gone. Last yr I seem to remember it was a young virtuoso called Charles that everyone was guffing about. Sadly I cant remember a single thing he did.

He has launched a playlist of his favourite music and visited both Italy and Northern Ireland 

[Stub Mandrel]

Some live stuff in this video.
 

 

[Killerfridge]

If you want an example of his improv skills, check out this one. Genuinely funny:

 

 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

On 06/05/2025 at 20:40, Stub Mandrel said:

Perhaps that is why I like the music I like so much.

 

You can view videos of Hawkwind gigs, and they don't play the same song the same two nights running and will sometimes randomly improvise a song (notably Delilah on one recent live album).

Seeing Arthur Brown when the guitarist's combo blew a fuse mid-song, and Arthur helped him fix it while the drummer and bass player improvised for three or four minutes.

 

Or any band where you can see the little mistakes and recoveries or the bits where they pull it all together.

 

The best live music is like kintsugi. The flaws are the golden bits that raise it from the ordinary to the exceptional.

 

Incidentally, I saw Walter Trout last night.

He played a solo, then said "I enjoyed that so much, I'm going to play it again, because it's my band and I can!". The whole night was full of things like signalling people how many turns around to take for a solo, or to take another one. I'm sure even the encore was unplanned as the band were watching him, and he called out 'Going Down'. James Oliver (a very different style of guitarist) stood in for a song. Walter just called out let's go with Am, and started playing.

 

That doesn't mean there wasn't a framework for the night, but it was wonderfully loose and immediate. He was also incredibly generous to his bandmates and guests, it felt like a really special performance.

[peteb]

38 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

Incidentally, I saw Walter Trout last night.

He played a solo, then said "I enjoyed that so much, I'm going to play it again, because it's my band and I can!". The whole night was full of things like signalling people how many turns around to take for a solo, or to take another one. I'm sure even the encore was unplanned as the band were watching him, and he called out 'Going Down'. James Oliver (a very different style of guitarist) stood in for a song. Walter just called out let's go with Am, and started playing.

 

That doesn't mean there wasn't a framework for the night, but it was wonderfully loose and immediate. He was also incredibly generous to his bandmates and guests, it felt like a really special performance.

 

I love Walter, but it's a completely different type of music! It's great fun to play music like that and great to see live, although the studio albums often don't live up to the live experience. It's not about songs, but the performance and the feel. It is pretty simple music to play, but difficult to do it well. 

 

As you say, there is a sense of being generous to those sharing the stage rather than being competitive - it as different to the social media shredders as it is to mega-productions like a Beyonce show! 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

55 minutes ago, Killerfridge said:

If you want an example of his improv skills, check out this one. Genuinely funny:

 

 

 

The uncomfotable thing about that is it resembles my guitar soloing... which is why I'm a bass player!