Printer Defends DFC Attack

In response to an article printed on theMusic.com.au earlier this week titled Printer Threatened To Boycott DFC Album, Mark Whitehouse, Manager of Perth-based ProCopy, has written the following letter. It has been reproduced in full without editing:

In response to the article Printer Threatened To Boycott DFC LP ProCopy is celebrating its 25th year in 2013 and there are good reasons that our business is still producing product for artists around the country. We operate a professional and honest business that has been involved in and supported the local music industry for over 35 years.

During that time we have learnt that it is necessary for us to inform our clients of any potential issues that may affect their sales or delivery of their project, after all that's in our interests too. We produce several hundred thousand CDs & DVDs per year and are unlikely to want to jeopardise the long term future of our business for a relatively small job.

It is not the first time that we have informed clients of artwork, copyright, sampling or other issues that need to be addressed before production of their project takes place and we wouldn't be doing our job properly if we didn't alert clients of those kind of problems.

I'd like to address the many factual inaccuracies in the instance of the DFC CD and it's artwork. We alerted the artists to the fact that an 18+ Advisory or Explicit Lyrics notification be placed on the artwork prior to production. This could help prevent CDs from being confiscated or removed from retail shelves if there is a complaint made or prevent someone from being offended by the material unintentionally, for example someone's 8 year old sister. It is surprising that the Studio and Graphic Designers also didn't alert the artist to potential issues with their product as they are part of the “manufacturing” chain also and could be considered liable if problems arose.

As many of our clients are producing product for the first time, we are not being “awkward”, “threatening” or do we make personal decisions about the quality of product or its content when we inform our clients of such issues, we are often alerting them to situations that they simply are unaware of and we consider that as part of our service to our clients.

Fortunately, even though the client has left production of their CDs to the last minute (that wouldn't be the first time either) they will receive their product in time for their CD Launch (unforeseen issues not withstanding), which is the commitment we make to all our customers. In the meantime we hope the extra publicity allows DFC to sell as many CDs as Kevin Bloody Wilson, one of our previous clients has in the past.

Yours sincerely
Mark Whitehouse
Manager