Italian DJ fined 1.4 million euros

[2windy]

f**k

News like this is even more a reason for me to share as much as i can and fight back by keeping as many fileshare programs in the air as possible.

Industry taking out on simple souls is no reason for many of the folks on these forums to get angry. It seems like you guys are pro high cd prices to, and many of you feel music belongs to a snobbish elite and not to "everybody"

If cd`s were still as affordable as L.P`s were in the 80`s i would download less and buy more. The files i download are rare recordings from the 20`s 30`s and 40`s .... but you probably want "time life" or "dino" or whatever company to have the "rights" on recordings by people who have been dead by years.

news like this and the reactions from people on these forums make me downright pissed .... where are the rebels now we need them.

I'm with you on the price thing issue and the elitist issue bit a lot of people take the piss. It's the smaller artists who suffer.

The music industry has a lot to think about and act on. I'm not even anti file sharing (condradictory I know!) but there needs to be a way on making sure that artists benefit. Licenses maybe with a small fee? I applaud those artist that say f**k it, you can download this track/album for free.

Tommorow I might rip an 8 bar loop from a disoc track or an accapella snippet and throw into a track and that probably throws all my arguements out the window but if you get caught, you pay? Ask Richard Ashcroft or Fatboy Slim.

[3*s]

Take that, evil do-ers!

Now that DJ will have to pay back that 1.4 million Euros he cost all those musicians by playing their music in his nightclub!

JUSTICE PREVAILS AGAIN!!

[dystonia_ek]

I'd just like to ask where will that 1.5 million euros go? Not into the pockets of musicians that's for sure. All these fines do nothing to stop the copying of music - they just end up lining the pockets of the lawyers and fat cats who have a stranglehold over musicians. The DJ isn't the parasite - it's the music industry. I have no sympathy for record execs who bleat on about piracy while they enslave musicians.

Exactly... it's that 'Home Taping is Killing Music' crap from the 80's all over again. As a recording musician and sometime indie label proprietor, I have to say that all this anti-file sharing panic is a self-serving ploy on the part of the industry, which doesn't have the best interest of artists in mind, ever. I've always encouraged the copying of anything I've ever released, unless the artist in question was dead-set against it (which never actually happened, BTW) - the more it circulates, the better. I know many other artists and indie labels with the same attitude.

I see it ultimately as a conflict between traditional corporate-style and anarchist/libertarian modes of enterprise, at least on a certain level.

[John Vulich]

The music industry has a lot to think about and act on. I'm not even anti file sharing (condradictory I know!) but there needs to be a way on making sure that artists benefit. Licenses maybe with a small fee? I applaud those artist that say f**k it, you can download this track/album for free.

From what I gather smaller Artists already benefit from file sharing since most of their income comes from live shows and merchandising. A lot of smaller acts have gone on record saying that they'd rather see their music given away, as a form of viral marketing, than sell it, since they only make $0.10 or so off evey CD sale anyway. The only people that are (potentially) losing out from sharing are the Record Labels... and even that is debatable. I've seen many statistics that point out that the Labels make just as much money off each individual Artist, that they release, as they did before file sharing became popular. The big difference is that they sign and release far fewer Artists than they used to. IMO, the real reason for any slump in CD sales is far more due to missmanagement by Record Company Executives than anything else.

[clueless]

exactly

4 of my closest friends - and former bandmates - are DJ's. I was never really sufficiently interested in what they were doing to take that much notice, but one of them has spent the last few months e-baying his cast record collection, consisting of 12 inches which were basically given to him, because he was a DJ - i.e. "please play our artiste's record (and thus promote them) in your club"...

[shamann]

So how does does the radio and tv differ?

Because of the difference in the way laws govern broadcast content. You can't make copies of leased material as that would be a violation of a lender's agreement. But it would be impossible to enforce such an agreement on publically regulated broadcast bands.

If you record from the radio for personal use, you don't compete with the IP owner's exclusive right to profit from the material, and you've obtained the material through what equates to a form of squatter's rights. Recording a movie that you rented does interfere with profit rights, as leasing is an ephemeral transaction and it's expected of you to rent anew if you wish to see anew, and the material was not piped into your home.

[safeaim]

Just for the record..
Yes.. It's the smaller artist that suffers, but the RIAA and all those f**kers ain't doing it for the smaller artists.. or artists in general.. But that's already been said and I've just added another meaningless post

[Barbed Wire Kiss]

Oh..I thought he might have been fined for bringing out some extrememly dodgy piano house 'anthem' featuring some piss poor rapper , under the moniker of something like, 'DJ Fuckio'. Never mind, do carry on.

This is a good point, cos part of my initial comment was in reaction to Reuters bad reporting!

It's very ambiguous, not telling anyone the real reasons of why he was prosecuted. In the end, to those who have no knowledge of the general siuation of mp3s, music industry and file sharing, it just looks like he was fined for having mp3s on his PC. Which gave the story a bias towards the RIAA, and makes it just a scare story.

[atomic_(no)afro]

I can't wait til these guys do an episode about copyrights and IP in general, it's so asking for it.

ATA

[TVD]

One final point, without DJ's there would be no dance music of any description. Mod, Disco and then House DJ's got clubbing and the dance music industry going. They are the pioneers. I remember dance musicians bringing their tracks down to Heaven, FF and Trade begging the DJ's to play their tracks. These musicians would visit the clubs to get an idea of the competition and go home with new ideas. Pushing the boundaries of what is possible in electronic music.

The reason DJ's are 'superstars' is because they deserve praise for raising the profile of many young musicians. They make music popular by creating a buzz. Never underestimate the influence of the DJ.

Exactly!

But let me tell all of you THE real reason for this DJ getting busted IMHO:

He/she was not a register member of BMI, ASCAP, or PRS.

I don't know all of the rules in Europe. But in the USA, some nightclubs & cafes can never play music in their respected building unless they're register members of BMI or ASCAP.

And maybe the rules also apply to independent DJs in general. But until now, it was never locally or internationally enforce.

[munchkin]

Using your philosophy, I could buy Vanguard use it for a bit then sell it and transfer the licence but, I know, I'll keep the DLL to play with.

Is that ethical/lega?

But it's not the same. I can take a CD I bought from HMV or Virgin and sell it secondhand. I can make copies of it for myself because I bought it originally. There are no laws stopping people selling music secondhand. It would be ridiculous to expect people to erase every copy of the music they sell secondhand. Don't mix up the copyright laws that apply to software with those that apply to music.

Copyright law is a mess. It varies considerably from country to country. The US has completely different copyright law to the UK. Some of the laws are equivillant but a lot of them aren't. Copyright law is made up by lawyers who lobby governments to impliment the will of multinational music industry. Copyright law changes frequently in relation to the success of the various political lobbyists funded by the music multi-nationals.

Don't mix up the propaganda of the 5 multi-national music monopolies with the law of individual countries.

Don't mix up the interests of multi-national companies with the interests of the musicians who are in debt to them.

The monkey does all the entertaining but the organ grinder pockets all the money.

[munchkin]

Oh..I thought he might have been fined for bringing out some extrememly dodgy piano house 'anthem' featuring some piss poor rapper , under the moniker of something like, 'DJ Fuckio'. Never mind, do carry on.

"Ride On Time!", "Ride On Time!"

The Italians will never be forgiven for that song and Mussolini.

[herodotus]

Don't mix up the interests of multi-national companies with the interests of the musicians who are in debt to them.

The monkey does all the entertaining but the organ grinder pockets all the money.

On that note, have you ever read this article by Steve Albini? Just about says it all.

[Omniphonix]

To everyone who posted in this forum that it should be OK for DJs to download illegal MP3s and play them in a club, are you saying it's OK to download illegal software and sell the music you've made with it? There is no difference between the two. Many of you are still thinking in terms of the old way.

Nowadays, many underground artists can sell their tracks directly via paypal links on their websites. Internet dance record stores are offering more and more MP3 selections by the day. Bedroom musicians don't even really need record labels anymore. When these underground tracks get traded illegally on the internet, many times it doesn't even impact a record company or media conglomerate.

Maybe downloading Brittany Spears latest BS is gonna piss off the RIAA, but not Joe Dance Producer's latest floor pounder. It's just like if I stole Tiny God's Meridian Pro. He sells the thing for $35 dollars, I spend that much on a nice dinner. If a DJ can't spend one lousy buck to legally play a track that some guy in his bedroom spent two months producing on thousands of dollars worth of equipment, he deserves whatever kind of anal rape he is given.

Whether this guy in Italy stole this stuff or not may still be in question, but the principal is not. I'm sure there's plenty of free tracks to get their hands on, either via promos or artists that don't mind giving their work away (just like free plugins from generous devs). I'd venture a guess that a good percentage of those 2500 MP3s don't fall into that category.

Also, for those who think dance producers make their money off live shows and whatnot, how many live dance music PAs have you seen recently? How many from Noname Dance Producer you've never heard of? How much do you think the one or two you may have seen got paid? Underground dance music is entirely different from the mainstream music industry everyone seems so eager to attack.

[TVD]

EDIT: stupid server!