DJ Fined €1.4M for using pirate music files

[brianmole 0]

QUOTE

News from Music Week DJ receives biggest fine for illegal downloading 16 February 2005 - 12:31:04 Rome police have fined a DJ a record €1.4 million for using hundreds of pirate music files in a hip nightclub in the Italian city. The DJ was found in position of more than 2,000 MP3 music files suspected to be illegal downloads and 500 pirated video clips. The fine is the biggest to be imposed on an individual in Europe for the unlawful copying and use of copyrighted music in the MP3 format.  The Italian DJ may also be subject to further criminal sanctions. Enzo Mazza, director of the Italian music industry association FIMI says, “We are pleased with the fine imposed by the Rieti Fiscal police. This DJ was touring clubs and making money out of the music he played – while those who had invested time, talent, hard work and money into creating the music in the first place did not get a cent. We hope this precedent will serve as a deterrent for those who are thinking of doing the same.”

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[DJ Marky Marc 0]

who's next?

[YourBigEvent 0]

Good !

[dj007 0]

OUCH! i bet that hurt

[Gary 0]

Ouch indeed, thats £967,260 in UK dosh... at todays exchange rates.

 

Thats a fine of just under £483 per audio track... http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/fear.gif

 

For what could have been simply as few as 10 CD's (although the news report doesnt mention whether it was CD's or a Laptop that held the dodgy stuff).

Edited February 17, 2005 by Gary

[DJ Marky Marc 0]

note that it says "suspected to be illegal downloads " so it upto you to prove that every track you have is leagal not upto them to prove its not....

 

and telling the judge your hard disc crashed and you lost all the originals wont wash...

[st1ngo 0]

MAMA MIA !!!!!!!

[YourBigEvent 0]

Good point Marc, so as long as you have the originals..........

[DJ Marky Marc 0]

QUOTE

so as long as you have the originals..........

 

no... not under uk copyright law.. the original wont save you

 

a copy is a copy they dont care how you do it , its against the law..

[Digital discos 0]

Sorry, but it seems fairly stupid to suggest that they would hold you over making a backup cd or mp3 file.

 

It might be against the law, but to be honest I can't see anyone stopping me WHEN I OWN THE ORIGINALS.

[speedy 0]

Um, i have pcdj red installed on my home pc which can use the cd drives, and i have two cd drives, so using the original cd's in my pc's drives i'm not breaking the law yes?

 

& yes i know it's defeating the object using a pc to play cd's when i could just as well use a cd player, but i thought i'd ask.

 

 

[Paul Smith 0]

QUOTE

WHEN I OWN THE ORIGINALS.

 

This may be a technical point but all our CDs are copies - the original of each is held by the record company/recording studio - so we're all playing copies anyway http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/533.gif

[DJ Marky Marc 0]

QUOTE

It might be against the law, but to be honest I can't see anyone stopping me WHEN I OWN THE ORIGINALS.

 

sorry but you dont own anything, you have paid for a licence to listen to the CD.

 

 

 

[Kingy 0]

QUOTE (Digital discos @ Feb 17 2005, 05:06 PM)

Sorry, but it seems fairly stupid to suggest that they would hold you over making a backup cd or mp3 file. It might be against the law, but to be honest I can't see anyone stopping me WHEN I OWN THE ORIGINALS.

I understand your view, but have you ever heard of the MCPS?

 

A copy is a copy and you have no authority to make a copy.

 

Would you photo copy a five pound note?

[dj007 0]

QUOTE (Kingy @ Feb 17 2005, 07:34 PM)

Would you photo copy a five pound note?

have tried that one but got caught out because i was using

a black & white printer,DOH! http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/wacko.gif

[Kingy 0]

QUOTE (dj007 @ Feb 17 2005, 06:39 PM)

QUOTE (Kingy @ Feb 17 2005, 07:34 PM) Would you photo copy a five pound note? have tried that one but got caught out because i was using a black & white printer,DOH! http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/wacko.gif http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/wallbash.gif http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/wallbash.gif http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/wallbash.gif

[Dukesy 0]

Don't feel sorry for the DJ in the item.

 

As regards what is law and what isn't - yes, the MCPS have quite a clear viewpoint on copying.

 

A duplication license will allow one to copy material - £20,000+ but there are other drawbacks, mainly the license fee. http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif

However, with companies investing in products aimed specifically at DJs, i.e. MP3 based systems, I understand that the MCPS is listening to the 'requests' of such companies and are considering a 'license to use mp3 material' for DJs to purchase yearly. This info was confirmed at the DJU M.A.X.

 

[Eskie 0]

Smells like another one of those scare stories.

He got fined a million bucks or whatever it was! yeah right, and Lord Lucan was sentenced at the same time! http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/rolleyes.gif

[DJ_Ajay 0]

I guess if you tour Nightclubs as a pro dj and you have truckloads of ripped music and asking top dollar to play, someone will dob you in. Just don't brag about it or if you getting paid $4,000 for 2hr set then buy originals!!!

[dj007 0]

QUOTE (Eskie @ Feb 17 2005, 10:37 PM)

yeah right, and Lord Lucan was sentenced at the same time! http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/rolleyes.gif

was he caught riding shergar by any chance

[Gary 0]

Until a UK DJ in a known UK venue gets him/herself in the situation - there'll always be a few people who think that these headlines should begin with "once upon a time..."

 

I wonder what the Italian DJ forums (if there are any) are making of the news. http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/533.gif

[Miler 0]

QUOTE (ADS Entertainment)

GOOD !

 

Can I ask why this is good? You give no reasons or justification as to why you think it is good. Is it good that an apparently good DJ has lost his livelihood and close enough to £1M? Okay, the music was "illegally" downloaded but do you think this is a fair punishment?

 

The law is fuzzy enough over here in Blighty so how do you know it's not even "fuzzier" in Italy, yet you sit at your computer taking the high ground.

 

In my opinion MP3's is the way forward for mobile DJs (as well as club, radio etc) and I'm sure others do as well as long as it was paid for (either the disc ripped onto the comp or downloaded from iTunes etc) but yet , people say "it's not right blah blah blah" and so on.

 

A computer with stored songs can make a DJs life so much easier yet can do so much more as well. Why do you feel the need to be so against this? (I've read the several page thread on this (in off topic i think))

Why be so against an obvious advantage to the DJ and to a way forward?

 

I really can't understand the mentality of this thinking.

 

Please enlighten me.

 

Regards,

 

Miler

 

(I do not intend nor hope to offend anyone with this post or what not, it just irritates me with the smug, smarmy comments that are sometimes produced with no justification)

 

[DJ Marky Marc 0]

Why is .MP3 the way forward miler?

 

lack of sound quality has ruled it out of my home hifi setup....

 

and the thought of playing a set from a laptop has ruled it out of my mobile disco...

 

vinyl is dead as far as some people say but i and many others still buy it .....

 

so each to there own......

 

As far as my performance goes im sticking to CD's and 12"

 

its hands on and i enjoy it !

 

and i only do this job becuase i enjoy it, if i was after more money i would jack it in and find another job......

 

So no MP3's for me

[ChrisPointon 0]

I read a story about a twice convicted drink driver who killed a pedestrian whilst twice over the legal drink drive limit. This guy walked free from what was to be his 3rd drink drive conviction in 4 years, he was fined £400 and will be back on the road in 3 years. The victim, aged 23, was robbed of the rest of his life, his parents lost their only child. For his family, life will never be the same again.

 

Strange justice, which can fine a DJ £1 million, yet only put the value of human life at £400 - Given this, I really hope that the story and fine has been exaggerated, otherwise it's time to move to the moon. Crime is crime, but lets have a reality check. If the fine is real, then I hope that Italy is also setting an example by handing down 4 million euro fines for muggers, and life imprisonment for drink drivers.

 

Miler, many DJ's feel so strongly about other DJ's who use copied music because it means that they are no longer competing on a level playing field. Consider the overheads of a DJ who perhaps buys £50 worth of music a week, then consider the Dj who downloads it all for nothing.

 

DJ 'A' has to charge his clients £200 a gig because he is paying £50 for his music, and also for PLI and PAT Testing, he is possibly also paying the inland revenue.

 

DJ 'B' can charge his clients £50 a gig because he downloads his music, he doesn't have PLI and PAT and he works cash in hand.

 

Chances are DJ 'A' and DJ 'B' are probably making the same amount of profit from the gig, however for DJ 'A' he has to work for only 25% of his money, whilst DJ 'B' (who has no expenses) is getting 100% profit.

 

Hardly seems fair does it, that one DJ can seriously undercut another and still come away with around the same amount of profit, and given that the client will have two quotes to consider - one quote for £200 and one quote for £50, guess who the client is going to be tempted to book in most cases?.

 

There is no way that DJ 'A' can match the price of DJ 'B' because of his overheads. This is usually why feelings run so deep on the matter and is often justified, since for a lot of DJ's, those who undercut by cheating the system are effectively threatening their livelihoods.

[HopDJ 0]

QUOTE (DJ Marky Marc @ Feb 20 2005, 08:51 PM)

lack of sound quality has ruled it out of my home hifi setup.... As far as my performance goes im sticking to CD's and 12" its hands on and i enjoy it !

MP3 quality is what you choose! If you choose 32kb then it won't be good quality, but that's your problem to sort out.

 

Computers are just as hand on as CDs if you want them to be, that's what I do. I don't have all these expensive DJ softwares that will mix for me, I do it all myself, treating the computers as CD players, just without the hassle of finding the CDs (or carrying them around).

 

This argument is just like being at a Mothers Union meeting with the elderly complaining about change (trust me, I've been to these meetings!). You can stick to the past if you want, but I'm moving forward with society. How many party goers actually care about how you play your music? All they care about is the music. The public are used to speed and accuracy in today's world, so they won't be happy at people spending hours to find a track. They're too used to their radio stations finding tracks very quickly, so unless you can get tracks quickly, they won't be overly impressed.

 

Sorry, but radio stations have already moved over to computers, and have done so for a while now. Does that mean that they are wrong? No, they are keeping up with technology. I work at the local hospital radio, and we are moving forward with technology all the time.