Originally Posted by Jim_Gunn

I have to disagree here. I saw my favorite punk rock band Bad Religion recently in Boca Raton at an awesome outdoor venue called the Sunset Cove Amphitheatre and even though I didn't bother recording the show on my cell, there were dozens of other people recording it on phones or pocket camcorders. And some of the recordings were of quite decent audio and video quality. I thought it was great that I could watch much of the exact show I attended the very next day and for all time going forward on YouTube.

These kinds of fan recordings capture unique moments in time that would otherwise be lost to recorded history. For example sometimes a guest musician or musicians may appear with your favorite band in a given city on a particular evening; or they may play a song that they don't usually play; or something else interesting happens on the night. The official DVDs they release once every few years (if that) doesn't encompass everything.

With the ubiquity of cell phone cameras and small pocket camcorders with stereo sound capability, most bands and concert venues have completely done away with trying to stop fan recordings. I don't really think it hurts an esstablished band like Bad Religion anyway, since they tend to have really dedicated fans like myself who have been seeing them for years (No Control tour in '89 was my first!), own every CD, own every official concert DVD, and multiple t-shirts.