If the band unequivocally treats them as freely shareable recordings - and we know this for certain - this is fine. If they are only legitimately available by purchase, not OK.
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Its a bit more gray. They are no longer available for purchase. You can’t go to Dead.net and buy a copy. They only released like 9000 of them. But they were once official commercial releases, thus not the same as the bootlegs that freely circulated.
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That is not grey; that is a do not copy it.
Thank for letting us know.
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For DeadHeads, it not grey in the least, but with the opposite conclusion 
No worries, just thought it would be fun. Some years ago I offered the same on Computer Audiophile without issue. All the same to me, just figured there was no other way for the original poster to get a copy of the Dead shows I recommended unless I gave them to him 
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Sharing is caring; but in the case of official releases (including those that are out of print), it is also unlawful. It is best to err on the side of caution.
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I understand and think you are conceptually correct. But someone owns the copyright and we need to respect this.
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This is why I don’t like “limited releases.” Those who come late to the party are locked out. At least some of the Grateful Dead material no longer in print is available for download at nugs.net (this is authorized and you do have to pay). Most of the boxed sets are not included.
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On the Grateful Dead side of the equation, they sell out 9000 copies right away. If it’s $160 for a set, that’s over $1.44M collected in a day or so. So I see why they do it.
OTOH, it drives the after market prices way up. Spring 1990 “The Other One”, which was the follow up to Spring 1990, costs over $500 on Amazon, effectively locking people out.
But the official releases end up being traded around as if they were bootlegs, and as long as no is making money, the Dead have never cracked down on that sort of thing…
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I’m all in favor of limited edition collections: the ones extra with books, pictures, maybe a guitar pick or something. However, I think with the collectors edition, there should also be a standard edition.
@dancingsea and @stevem2 have made some really good points about locking fans out of the music. A music fans listening should be a journey, not a race to see who can get there first.
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dancing sea, i think Jerry would’ve been ok with it! 
and i agree, the 1990 shows were killer…in mean DEADly
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Limited edition physical box sets and unlimited high-res digital downloads, preferably with PDFs of the booklets, would be my preferred approach. They’d still sell out the physical sets.
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It’s hard to pick their best as there are so many. Most popular bests are 5/8/77 Cornell, 7/8/78 Red Rocks, 8/27/72 Veneta Oregon, 9/11/73 Winterlands SF, 3/29/90 Nassau Coliseum, 6/9/77 Winterlands, to name a few. All great shows. For me though I like the shows where something different goes on. Don’t get me wrong, every show is unique - no two shows are the same. But every now and then something very different happens. So I point to these:
The second set sequence of He’s Gone -> Not Fade Away -> Truckin is played unlike any other. Plus the Peggy-O is set one is an absolute killer.
The band is really in a jovial mood and it shows throughout.
From the opening 14 minute Here Comes Sunshine to the 2nd set jam from Truckin to Stella Blue is well stella and different.
The 1st set Sugaree is really special and the 2nd set from Estimated Prophet to Morning Dew is really unique.
Otherwise, listen to anything in May 1977 and you can’t miss. Then check out the 72 shows too. All very good.
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The Spring 1990 shows were released in 88-24 FLAC as well as the physical box set. The 1990 Sprint TOO as 192-24 FLAC. The former were taken from the two tracks board tapes, the latter from 24-track tapes. The difference in sound quality is obvious. No real explanation for getting lazy on the first set has been given, as far as I know. They had 24-track masters for the whole tour. It still annoys me
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I have hundreds of Dead shows, but only listen to them perhaps once a month and return to the old standbys of all the Spring 1990 sets, Get Shown The Light box set, acoustic vinyl rip of Reckoning, 7/8/78 Red Rocks, and a few others.
As I mentioned earlier, one of my all time favorite Dead related releases is “After Midnight”, the Jerry Garcia Band release.
In the spirit of something different, I like this sequence from Dick’s Picks Volume 21, 11-1-85 Richmond, VA:
- He’s Gone" (R. Hunter, Garcia) – 11:07 >
- “Spoonful” (Dixon) – 4:54 >
- “Comes a Time” (R. Hunter, Garcia) – 8:26 >
- “Lost Sailor” (John Barlow, Weir) – 7:27 >
- “Drums” (Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann) – 9:06 >
Disc threeEdit
Second set, continued:
- “Space” (Garcia, Phil Lesh, Weir) – 11:26 >
- “Saint of Circumstance” (Barlow, Weir) – 6:52;
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My favorite audio salesman (who has gotten less and less business from me over the years thanks to PSA) turned me on to Dick’s Picks 25, New Haven 5-10-1978, disc 2, after the drums. The Other One into Wharf Rat into Sugar Magnolia is a killer combo. He told me Betty let Owlsley Stanley mix the board tapes that night (this guy knew Dick Latvala a little bit and friends of his knew Dick well so I believe him). Crank it and enjoy.
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Supposed to come out later this month.
Yes, looking forward to it. www.jerrygarcia.com has an exclusive bonus disc (acoustic material) with the purchase of the set. I ordered it from them while wearing my Air Garcia t-shirt.
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very cool! I was lucky enough to see JGB at Eel River in 1991 - in August.
We drove down from Vancouver BC in a tripped out Volkswagen van to see the Reggae Festival - and had no idea Jerry was coming the following weekend. So we made a deal with the festival organizers and camped out the whole week on the Eel River, and help the set up crew when the JGB buses started showing up. It was one of the most memorable times of my early 20’s. Got to even meet Jerry. But that’s another story! 
Sully.
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Just ordered JULY 1978: The complete recordings, can’t wait!
https://store.dead.net/music/cd/july-1978-the-complete-recordings.html
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That’s a great set!
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