[This was published 15 years ago in The Sydney Morning Herald and I’ve pasted it here as it was put behind a paywall. It was being linked to in Wikipedia.]

I was in the elevator at the SMH, where I worked, with colleague David Higgins, who was Online editor. He asked if I had any stories they could use for online, and I told him this. So expertly chased up and written by reporter Dylan Welch, who went on to become a hard-hitting investigative Four Corners TV reporter.

ABBA fans cry SOS

By Dylan Welch

August 11, 2006 — 11.41pm

Music giant Universal has threatened an Australian ABBA fan site with legal action unless it hands over the details of fans who allegedly bought or supplied unauthorised or “bootlegged” live recordings via the site.

Abbamail.com, owned by Graeme Read and Grant Whittingham – who also founded the Swedish pop group’s Australian fan club in 1976 – has published online news of the band for about nine years.

Their latest venture is a protest website called Universalgreed.com, which argues the band’s record label is unfairly targetting Abba fans.

Until recently, the site also sold bootleg CDs and DVDs containing old recordings of ABBA performances, radio and TV appearances that were otherwise unavailable.

Titles included “Memories that remain”, “1979 Australian Radio interview”, “An Australian love affair” and “Dick Cavett meets ABBA”.

Bootleg recordings are usually inferior quality compared to official releases, but are sought after by hardcore music fans. The practice, which dates to the 1960s, is widespread on the internet.

“This is just about giving the people the opportunity to see stuff that they won’t release as otherwise they could never see or hear it,” said Read, who was 15 years old when he founded the Australian ABBA fan club.

The pair had been involved in “organised ABBA fandom” for 30 years, running conventions and tribute nights, he said.

“Fans have been saying for years, we’ve already bought all the [official] stuff that you’ve put out over and over and over again. Can we now have some stuff that’s unreleased, that’s rare. And [ABBA’s record label Universal] basically said no, we’re not going to do it.”

Universal is pursuing Abbamail through Music Industry Piracy Investigations, the Australian music industry’s legal arm.

MIPI demanded Read and Whittingham hand over the recordings and dob in the suppliers.

A MIPI letter dated May 29 says: “Should your client not provide the requested undertaking … Universal Music reserves its rights to take such action as they may be advised, including without limitation, commencing proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia.”

Universal later demanded “customer” details when Read and Whittingham said they could not hand over the recordings because they were manufactured on demand.

MIPI manager Sabiene Heindi wrote to Abbamail on August 1: “…we require details of past sales of the infringing goods, including product, date, quantity, customer and the total price of the Infringing Goods sold.”

Read told smh.com.au this week: “We just thought from a privacy point of view this would be really bad to start handing out people’s names and addresses willy-nilly without their permission.

“We thought if Universal gets this information, if MIPI gets this information, what’s to stop them from basically trying to track down these people and sending threatening legal letters to all these people, whose only crime is that the fact that they’re Universal’s best customers … that they’re an ABBA fan.”

NOT “PIRATED”

Mr Read and Mr Whittingham deny Abbamail.com distributes “pirated” music. There has been no suggestion that Abbamail has sold pirated versions of “official” commercial recordings.

“I’m sure that’s the view of most record companies, but the problem is that the kind of stuff that we’re selling is the stuff that they’ve refused to sell,” Mr Read said.

“Over the last 10-15 years Universal have just released the same kind of crap over and over and over again – Greatest Hits, Forever Gold, the Definitive Collection.”

Mr Read said Abbamail was trying to make available rare material that “hardcore” fans would willingly buy from Universal, if it was offered for sale.

Ms Heindl said MIPI would not pursue fans who purchased items from Abbamail.

“There is certainly no interest from our side in terms of pursuing any other fans or any other people that may have purchased these items.

“The issue in this case is one of piracy, and these guys, no matter how fanatical they are about ABBA and the fan club, which I completely appreciate and understand, it still does not mean you can be selling pirate CDs or DVDs, in this case for commercial gain.”

MIPI would consider the matter closed once all the bootleg recordings were removed, but only if Mr Read handed over his personal collection – which he has refused to do.

ABBA fans have voiced support for Abbamail in online forums on the official ABBA site, abbasite.com.

“It’s a site for fans and historians and even the CDs and the DVDs they are selling are actually not commercial products, but historical documents that also belong [to] the archives and the libraries of music history,” one fan said.

Another fan said: “Why, after Abbamail have been selling bootleg stuff for years, Universal have suddenly decided (according to Abbamail) that the time is right to try to shut them down?”

“If distributors and publishers choose not to release, for purely commercial reasons, then long live abbamail and other such forums, who can offer this material to the few and the far between,” said another.

Martin Aglander, Managing Director of Universal Sweden, told smh.com.au they were simply trying to stop the sale of pirated material.

“It’s no personal agenda against Abbamail, it just they can’t sell this material,” he said.

“We really welcome their contribution to the ABBA community and I wish them to prosper for a long time.

“But having said that … if you’re an ABBA fan, if you’re selling pirated material and making money out of it it’s something we might pursue.”

Abbamail might be forced to close if Universal pursued the matter, Read said.

“Right now we’re just trying to get through the day-to-day twists and turns … if it closes down, I don’t know what I’ll do.

“I just think it would be appalling to see everything that I’ve put into just kind of disappear.

“That’s the worst thing about the internet … you can literally have a massive resource there one day, and the push the delete button and the next day it’s just all gone, like it was never there in the first place.”

Do you have more information about this story? Contact reporter Dylan Welch at dwelchweb@smh.com.au.