Gibson Gives In, Or Does It?

The case of Gibson Guitar vs. The US Fish and Game and their claim that Gibson violated the Lacey Act by importing wood on the endangered species list has gone on for a couple of years now, but now it looks like it's finally come to an end.

In a Department of Justice press release yesterday, the DOJ announced that Gibson has agreed to pay a $300,000 fine, and forfeit the seized rosewood and ebony from India and Madagascar, bringing the case to a close.

While this seems like an admission of guilt, it may have been a clever business move by Gibson. First, it puts the case behind them, stopping the unwanted press and the financial bleeding that comes from hiring attorneys required to fight such a high profile case.

But even more than that, it actually calls into question the DOJ's tactics, since many are now wondering, "Why did the DOJ decline to pursue further prosecution?" The agreement not only calls into question whether just was really served (I don't think it was), but also makes it seem like a company can buy its way out of criminal prosecution if it has the wherewithal.

All I know is that if I were buying a new guitar today, I'd be checking really carefully to see what kind of wood was actually used in creating it. Who knows how spooked guitar manufacturers are after this.

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The Feds Threaten Gibson And Artists Again

Last year I reported about how the US Department of Justice and the US Fish And Wildlife Service raided Gibson Guitars not once, but twice on the grounds that the company was using protected wood from overseas in the making of their guitars (you can read about it here, here, here and here). During the raids, not only were pallets of wood confiscated, but computers containing information about the wood as well.

The Justice Department claimed that Gibson somehow violated the 112 year old Lacey Act, which was originally instituted to regulate the trade in bird feathers for hats, but was amended in 2008 to include wood and plants, with the express intent of protecting certain species of wood from being over-harvested. Gibson claimed that any exotic foreign wood that they use in the creation of instruments came from certified Forest Stewardship suppliers, so there was never a violation.

After Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander got involved, it seemed like everything was smoothed over; until now.

It seems that word has recently come down from the Justice Department that it's planning to raid summer concerts in order to seize what they deem to be illegal guitars made from banned tone woods. Another possibility is that guitars could be seized from musicians returning from out of the country tours at the border by Customs agents.

The governments actions seem to make no sense on so many levels.

1) Gibson seems to have presented adequate proof that the tone woods used were legally sourced.

2) Even if that's not the case, seizing an instrument from an end user that's unknowingly paid a good deal money in a purchase without any compensation is just wrong. Seize the guitars at the factory if you must, but don't treat the end users as criminals too.

3) Expand that to the concert scene. Imagine going to see an act that suddenly had their favorite instrument confiscated by the government. That's not going to help their performance any; one that you paid a lot of money to see.

4) It's an election year. This action can't possibly make many many friends for the administration, and will most certainly alienate a number of solid constituencies.

Come on, Justice Department. Let's concentrate on more important things. Everyone is for protecting endangered forests, but there's got to be a better way than this.

Thanks to Rob Carty for the heads-up on this story. You can read more about it here.

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The Gibson Tonewood Debacle

I've posted several times in the past about the raids on the Gibson factory in Nashville by Department of Justice officials over an alleged violation of the Lacey Act. The Lacey Act has the noble intention of trying to preserve endangered materials like some of the imported woods sometimes used in guitars, but unfortunately the interpretation of the law seems to have been twisted beyond practical boundaries. Here's a great video describing the situation in detail, and where it stands today.

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Gibson And Guitar Owners May Get A Reprieve

I recently posted about the raids on Gibson Guitars by the US Fish & Wildlife Services for supposedly violating the Lacy Act and using protected wood in their instruments, and about the possible negative repercussions to guitar owners in the U.S. as a result.

A violation of the Lacey Act could mean guitars, violins and other instruments built before 2008 – when lawmakers added woods to the Lacey Act’s list of endangered plants and animals to protect – could be seized at airports by inspectors if the owner of the instrument couldn't produce documentation of where the individual wood pieces came from. Yeah, like that's possible.

Thankfully, two Tennessee congressman unveiled a plan to amend the Lacey Act in response to those raids, which would protect guitar owners and manufacturers alike. The revised bill, which supposedly has bipartisan support in the U.S. House of Representatives, would:

• exempt guitars, antiques and other items manufactured before May 22, 2008 (when wood protections were added), from the ban on importing or exporting endangered woods

• require federal agencies to compile and make public a database of the wood import and export laws for each nation

• eliminate penalties for those who “unknowingly” violate the Lacey Act

• and reduce the paperwork required for importers and exporters of plant and wood products.

This is not a done deal however. Timber and environmental associations (strange bedfellows they are) are lobbying congress hard to preserve the status quo. Obviously, timber groups think that the Lacy amendment would undercut the U.S. forest industry, but we're talking relatively small numbers of specialty lumber here. It would hardly make a rounding error in the bottom line of the industry.

I'm as much for environment protections as the next tree hugger, but we're talking about a renewable resource that, if managed properly, can help several economies and still have little impact on the local environment. Keep your fingers crossed that this amendment will get done.

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Feds Want More of Gibson's Wood

It seems that the Feds have it in for Gibson Guitars. Not satisfied with their recent raid and confiscation of tone woods, the Fish And Wildlife Service has asked Gibson to hand over an additional 25 bundles of Indian wood that the company planned to use in guitars.

The June shipment of 1,250 sawn logs from India was classified as "finished parts of musical instruments," which is allowed under Indian law. In reality, according to the sworn affidavit of Fish and Wildlife Service agent Kevin Seiler, the wood was unfinished, which is a violation of the Lacey Act.

The Lacey Act, originally passed by Congress in 1900, was amended in 2008 to include protection for certain wood and endangered animal species, which totally makes sense, but it also makes it illegal to import plants or wildlife into the U.S. if those goods are harvested in a way that violates the laws of another country.

That's the whole crux of the matter. Because Indian workers didn’t create the final product, the wood is not legally eligible to be exported, which means that we may be seeing more and more guitars made from inferior tone woods in the future. This just about eliminates the use of any tone woods not harvested in the United States, and most of the good forests are protected already.

Let's see - protect our forests or get good tone? A tough choice for some, but simple for others. Which side are you on?

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