Had he patented it, the eventual makers of karaoke tracks such as laser discs, cassettes, cd's, and hard drives would all be paying Daisuke, and perhaps put an end to eventual law suits which would envelope the industry moving forward.

If he had patented his invention (assuming, of course, that it could be patented, since it wasn't altogether different from what Mitch Miller was doing in the 1950s), that patent would have expired in the late 1980s, which would have put the invention in the public domain from that point forward.

Can't one renew a patent (thus making your statement about being put into public domain not completely accurate)?

Just some thoughts on karaoke lawsuits, history etc. Having been introduced to karaoke over 25 years ago by my father, I just have a few observations and my 2 cents. There was a gentleman named Daisuke Inoue, from Osaka Japan, who was the first to use tracks in 1971 and is considered the inventor of karaoke. Daisuke never patented his new found invention, just did it out of necessity. Had he patented it, the eventual makers of karaoke tracks such as laser discs, cassettes, cd's, and hard drives would all be paying Daisuke, and perhaps put an end to eventual law suits which would envelope the industry moving forward. I've noticed a marked decline of karaoke from areas where it once prospered. I was in Las Vegas a couple weeks ago and noticed only 2 karaoke venues near or on the strip from whence there were many. In Florida, karaoke use to show up 5 or so days a week at restaurants and bars and now there are none, except from the VFW, American Legion etc. Because there are many seniors, they don't buy lots of alcohol, just soda etc., so the karaoke host earns less money. Many of the venues pay less then $100 for a 4 hour show. When I was doing shows in Md. 10-15 years ago, we would earn over $200, using cd's. I guess the question begs, is it worth spending $1000s of dollars to make $100s of dollars, and the answer is no. As an example people in the AC industry here pay $250 for a State license and a $1000 for insurance however, they're making over a quarter million a year. In conclusion, with the industry in decline (in my area), and the heavy use of home karaoke machines, threat of lawsuits, I just do a few shows now for disabled vets, nursing homes. Just my 2 cents good luck to all.

"He's dead Jim"..

You have hit the nail on the head today it is not worth it to even consider starting a karaoke business. Many former hosts like myself retired and I think it was a great time to do so. They say it is all about timing and for those of us that got in, made ours, and got out, the timing was perfect. The real reason places like non-profits pay little is not because seniors don't spend money, but rather they are not profit motivated since they exist for the benefit of the members. So when you are working such places expect to get paid less, on the other hand you don't have big brother PEP looking over your shoulder, since the copyright law protects non-profits from copyright suits under I believe section 10.

Can't one renew a patent (thus making your statement about being put into public domain not completely accurate)?

For me it was always about the music and producing a great sound, more of a labor of love. It seems sound is not the goal for many karaoke hosts these days, maybe it's PEP looking over your shoulder. I've noted a market decline in quality of music, even though the advent of powered speakers make it easier to obtain awesome sound. It seems better singers buy the equipment and sing in the confines of their own home and will not venture out to horrible sounding shows. My hope was for karaoke to move forward and progress, with better pay, and actually I was for State licensure in the early days. However, that's not what has occurred, now you have mom/pop operations springing up, using some very inferior equipment like portables, and they have driven the market pay way down to the point that I won't truck out $6,000 worth of sound equipment for a low paying job. I seriously doubt that any of these people purchase licenses for very low pay. Today I mostly just do my own singing jobs and I've used icroons for years to buy tracks online and they are very good, in fact I use them as mp3's on singing shows I've done myself. These tracks are available especially for newer music.