Newsfilm: "Fight against record piracy" from Stax Records -1971
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I thought it would be about people using cassette tapes to record their record albums. But it's about bootlegs.
Around the time that Isaac Hayes' best-selling record "Shaft" was released, Stax records had a piracy problem. In an article from Billboard magazine, Adam Oliphant claimed that 40% of the total sales from the album were lost through bootlegging.
So here's part of his news conference that was sent to stations as a one minute clip on 16mm film.
Transcription
at a New York press conference Adam Oliphant a Stax record organization executive unveiled a plan to fight record piracy a crime that's costing the record industry 150 million dollars a year a team of ex FBI agents will institute close surveillance tactics after fabricating plants pressing operations and known bootlegging operations throughout the United States FBI methods will be utilized in detecting and apprehending pirates the Stax organization and their leading artist Isaac Hayes have been particularly hurt by record piracy it is for this reason that the Stax organization is opening the fight against this nationwide crime we believe that our control plan will benefit the entire industry as a guideline in their efforts to fight the plague of record piracy we also believe that our efforts when publicized will act as a deterrent to the Pirates and counterfeiters throughout the country
Sources
- YouTube channel: In16mm · video ↗ — title, description, video
Record added 2026-06-15 17:35:55