Moral dilemma

robfosters · 19 Dec 2010 at 21:40

Nearby there is a nice pub where my Dad, who is a karaoke entertainer, wants to work. However when I asked the guvnor about the possibility, he said that we wanted too much money as we ask for £140 (which is the average) and he has a bloke do it for £50.

Last week I went to this karaoke. Went I went up for a song, it skipped and there were on screen artifacts. My suspicions were confirmed when he pulled a CD-R out of the drive. A closer look and they were all CD-R's.

I asked him about this and he just grinned and said "If other mugs want to go out and and spend £3k plus on a set, thats up to them, but i'm not"

This grated me. Why should my dad be completely legal and spend loads of money and lose out on business to conmen like him? Okay, my dads more expensive, but his gear is miles better (this fellas gear was ropey), He has PLL (which I highly doubt this fella has) and all discs are official.

Something in me wants to call MCPS licensing, but I have always been brought up not to grass. However, this has got me thinking.

What would you do?

KnightsWhoSayNi · 19 Dec 2010 at 21:47

Mustard will get the scratches outta those cd-r's, they'll come up lovely.

One More Solo · 19 Dec 2010 at 21:47

I'd call the licensing people.

jp_bl_68 · 19 Dec 2010 at 21:50

robfosters said:
Something in me wants to call MCPS licensing, but I have always been brought up not to grass. However, this has got me thinking.

What would you do?

I'd report him to the relevant authorities seeing as his underhanded methods are stopping your father from earning.

andicole0 · 19 Dec 2010 at 21:51

http://www.prsformusic.com/Pages/default.aspx

Andi.

MiNxYyY · 19 Dec 2010 at 21:51

Its not your pub? Let him do what he wants.

Im sure your dad can find business somewhere else.

Fenris · 19 Dec 2010 at 21:51

robfosters said:
Something in me wants to call MCPS licensing, but I have always been brought up not to grass.

You were brought up to let people get away with crimes?

Ok slightly OTT for the nature of the "crime", still, you don't know this guy, he's taking your dads business because he's getting his music illegally, I would do everything I could to ruin him.

snapdragon · 19 Dec 2010 at 21:52

do the right thing and call the relevant people

robfosters · 19 Dec 2010 at 21:57

MiNxYyY said:
Its not your pub? Let him do what he wants.

Im sure your dad can find business somewhere else.

Not as easy as that any more. Pubs are struggling. A lot can't afford to pay for entertainment any more.

snapdragon · 19 Dec 2010 at 21:59

MiNxYyY said:
Its not your pub? Let him do what he wants.

Im sure your dad can find business somewhere else.

And when you see smoke rising from a roof top, walk on by. it's not your house I'm sure they all go out safely and are insured to the hilt

MiNxYyY · 19 Dec 2010 at 22:00

snapdragon said:
And when you see smoke rising from a roof top, walk on by. it's not your house I'm sure they all go out safely and are insured to the hilt

Ill happily walk on by.

Mark A · 19 Dec 2010 at 22:02

So even if you do grass this guy up the landlord will still consider almost 3x the price too expensive and go with someone else.

MiNxYyY · 19 Dec 2010 at 22:04

Mark A said:
So even if you do grass this guy up the landlord will still consider almost 3x the price too expensive and go with someone else.

Exactly.

so your not benefiting from anything. Just stay quiet.

jp_bl_68 · 19 Dec 2010 at 22:06

Mark A said:
So even if you do grass this guy up the landlord will still consider almost 3x the price too expensive and go with someone else.

The OP's father is playing by the rules and suffering for it whilst someone else breaks them and gets paid for doing so. That's not right.

The OP's father might not get the job but at least he won't have to compete with this other guy.

Morgoth · 19 Dec 2010 at 22:07

Grass him up, just for the lulz.

JBuk · 19 Dec 2010 at 22:09

Grass for the lol

jackthezipper · 19 Dec 2010 at 22:11

Why not offer to do a night for free or at a low cost so the guy can see what the extra £100 actually gets him.

I mean, if it's the exact same then obviously he's going to go with the guy thats cheaper. However, if your dad is a better entertainer, it may get him more customers buying more drink and more than pay the £100 difference.

Sinny · 19 Dec 2010 at 22:12

jp_bl_68 said:
The OP's father is playing by the rules and suffering for it whilst someone else breaks them and gets paid for doing so. That's not right.

The OP's father might not get the job but at least he won't have to compete with this other guy.

Same goes for Trades, you can spend years training, getting experience and getting your qualifications yet someone can rewire the house and the customer won't know anything about the guy installing it.

Happens in almost all trades.

I'd grass him up, things like this get on my t*** now I know how much effort and money people put into making a good business.

Demontec · 19 Dec 2010 at 22:13

I personally would do something to get this addressed. I used to have a scaffolding hire client who was fully legit with all the relevant insurances, own equipment etc. He periodically had scaffolding equipment stolen from him, this equipment was then hired out by the pleb who nicked it for much less than he could hire it out for due to the pleb not having the usual overheads like insurance, legitimate PAYE registered employees etc.

Greenlizard0 · 19 Dec 2010 at 22:14

At the end of the day you also can't guarantee the only reason why the landlord wants karaoke is because it's so cheap. He might not be able to pull in the extra business to pay somebody £140, so by grassing him in you may still not get the job.

Strikes me as slightly bitter really.

Your story also doesn't make sense on a legal point of view. "If other mugs want to go out and and spend £3k plus on a set, thats up to them, but i'm not" - what does that mean exactly? Are kareoke runners only allowed to use a particular set of cds or something? A "set" - does that mean equipment or are you sure he meant music only? How do you also know he doesn't own the music already - but has ripped and organised it for his convenience? Hence his stuff is on cd-rs.