Biggest threat you face as a Newbie Dj

[DjDennis]

COPYRIGHT

some facts in Australia:

1. we are not permitted to use computers at a club / ouside our homes without a proper Dj licence which if you get caught (dont say you wasnt told)

2. the website www.ppca.com.au provides you with ALL Dj licences (not computer djing licences)

3. the website www.mipi.com.au will explain all aspects of copyright so if you get audited one day then you cant say you wasnt told!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

here is some news I posted before, on what an interview was done with Micheal Speck from the mipi (Music Industry Piracy Investigation) just after the mipi was formed to battle copyright

The Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA)

has set up Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI)

As a policing body to target music copyright infringements Australia wide Michael Speck, General Manager of MIPI says

"Our surveillance programs run 7x days a week and investigators work a 24x hour roster period." This means we get to cover a lot of ground.; We average an arrest every two weeks. By way of example, we currently have over 134 DJs (Could be more or less now days), Jukebox operators and Venues (and their operators) in the process of being prosecuted civilly. A further 50 or more Dj's are awaiting criminal prosecution from all over Australia. Over 250 notices have been served in the past year for MP3 piracy alone. Apart from issuing fines, prosecutors can confiscate all the equipment involved (eg: CD Players, Amps, Speakers, Whole Computers etc) for destruction. Even if you are lucky enough to convince a court that you should get some equipment back, you can be sure that it will have been seized for so long that it is out of fashion or superseded!At any given time, MIPI is able to identify current or emerging trends in infringing behaviour.  This is one of the things that make us so successful. At present there is a real problem with operators and venues using hard drives to play illegally copied music and, no matter which way you view it, this is illegal. Over the years, our investigators have heard every conceivable excuse for this form of piracy".

"At any given time, MIPI is able to identify current or emerging trends in infringing behaviour. This is one of the things that make us so successful. At present there is a real problem with operators and venues using hard drives to play illegally copied music and, no matter which way you view it, this is illegal. Over the years, our investigators have heard every conceivable excuse for this form of piracy."

"Yes, using hard drives to play copied music without the authorisation of the copyright owner is piracy, no matter what your explanation. The sheer size of the problem here has resulted in MIPI adopting newer approaches to piracy."

"We recently undertook undercover sting operations targeting Dj's, Clubs, Venues and some jukebox operators in Melbourne and Perth, we will be taking the operation on the road again real soon. So put simply, you will never know if your customer is just that, or the anti-piracy investigation unit coming for you."

In closing Michael Speck says, "Copyright is what gives us all our business or work. Without it you don’t have the ‘music business’. So if you know of someone ripping off music let us know! Our email address is mspeck@mipi.com.au , We hope to hear from you real soon!" (reports can also be filed out at the website)

So there you have it, if you have copied music onto hard drive without permission, sooner or later you will be caught and fined... It would seem that there might just be a few folk out there in for the odd sleepless night!

Some sites to view on copyright laws and music licences etc are here:

http://www.apra.com.au

http://www.ppca.com.au/tariffs.htm

http://www.copyright.org.au

http://www.mipi.com.au

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

*ADDED NEWS* (from March 11th 2005)

This is to add on what's been happening in Australia with actual prosecutions.

Dj's to pay damages for copyright breaches

Two Sydney Dj's and a record company have been ordered to pay at least $500,000 in damages for illegally using songs on compilation CD's. In 2002, Dj Christopher Fraser Smith, also known as Criss Kross, put out several dance compilation CD's through his company Tower Records. But the Federal Court has found he and the DJ who mixed the CDs, Peter Ferris or peeweeferris, knew they did not have copyright clearance for a number of the tracks. Smith and Tower Records has been ordered to pay $450,000 and Ferris has been ordered to pay $50,000 in damages to several Record Companies. Justice Jacobson found that threatening text messages was sent by Smith to different people who would not grant copyright, called for a very large penalty. The amount of damages to be paid for the actual sale of the CDs is yet to be calculated.

Coutesy of ABC News -- www.abc.net.au/news

may have to create a section where you can see/hear on whos busted.... on copyright issues

[Skank]

OK here we go i have a question

lets say in this senario,

I a bedroom dj hands out a few promo cds containg tracks that i bought legally, and i only handed them out to the entertainment co ordnator of the clubs i was looking to work for.

1- In handing out the promotional cd's to people who do have the licence am i breaking the law?

is it going to get to the point where you can only play music in your car stereo to yourself with the windows all the way up so that no one that has not payed there $1.25 on beatport carnt hear it.

the MIPI say you carnt lend a cd to a friend, so is that to say they are assuming the friend is only borrowing it to copy and not just listen to? the word paranoid springs to mind. if i was going to be serious about stoping piracy id proably start with the 16 year old kid walking into jb hifi buying 100 cdr's for $30. GET REAL

[t0rne]

what a load of balls. and not the good type of balls.

BALLS BALLS BALLS!

[daz]

wow...is this the only thing you post? ive seen it in multiple places now. this forum is for djing, not for mafiaa employees to recruit more brainwashed lemmings! take your propaganda elsewhere.

It's disgusting that the music industry execs (aka the ones who make money off other people's talent) use these scare tactics to try get people to pay for licenses they do not need.

The reality is that you will only run into problems if:

- You do not buy your tracks (like wtf are you thinking? support the people who made it possible to be a dj! its like $3 a track)

- You try to sell your demos (making money from music without a license is asking for an audit)

- You are playing at an unlicensed venue (order of responsibility for licensing is traditionally venue->promoter->dj, just ask the promoter if your not sure, but all clubs are covered)

tekstepa: technically (according to the scaremongers) you should be paying thousands of dollars a year for the "privilege" to hand out 4 demo cds to your friends/promoters/whatever. in real life however, you are unlikely to be targeted unless you are exchanging said demos for money.

I believe in protection of the rights of artists, performers (including djs) and consumers (the people paying for the music) NOT protection of the rights of the companies that can make money fining people for infringements, and believe me there IS a difference. I pay for my music and I have never been paid for playing a gig, I do it to entertain regular people not get some fat exec another Lexus.

This outrageous claim that it is illegal to use a computer outside of home to play music better be backed up with some solid facts because I just wasted an hour of my day trolling websites to verify it and have found nothing. I buy my music digitally, I download it to the computer that is hooked up to serato (which I also bought), so it is perfectly legal for me to use said computer to play said legal tracks at a club.

Australian copyright laws are ridiculous and no-one can be expected to follow them to the exact letter. They do not protect the consumer in any way. It is illegal to backup music you bought to protect it, if the cd you paid for gets scratched and is unusable you have to pay for another cd. The 'smart' person, who makes a copy of the cd and plays that, leaving the original in a safe place is a dirty criminal bastard who, according to the OP, deserves to have their equipment destroyed and massive fines/jail terms .

If you buy a song for your iPod, you cannot play it on your car cd player. I break the law every time I play out without my laptop because I have 'format-shifted' my music from digital to cd. Welcome to a draconian society. It is morally wrong, but it will be years before any change happens.

I am not a copyright expert, I do not make money of have a job from knowing who is violating copyright law (aka who can I sue) so feel free to correct me on the 'correct' law. All I know is what is fair use of music, regardless of the mafiaa's definition of fair use.

Stop trying to scare people, if this was an unbiased non-opinionated informational thread about the rules and regulations you wouldn't piss people off and they would be a lot more open to learning and obeying the law if they weren't being treated like a criminal from the start.

[Luke]

Daz just won. Hard. Real hard.

It was the post I wish I could've made.

Hard.

[Skank]

thanks for that daz awsome post. Ive played at clubs that give you the option to use serato i too have searched for the computer laws to no end

[deanmaessen]

Bravo, Daz - great post.

I agree with Luke, "It was the post I wish I could've made".

[Blodders]

amen daz

[Jay_Kaos]

the licence is generally for format shifting... To get your traxx from computer to cd or usb. (APRA)

Its fukn awesome and should be worldwide cuz it protects Producers... You know how hard it is to make it when your getting 20c per track? Vinyl production has already cut by 60% mostly cuz of Digital. Everyone wants everything for free. You already getting some producers weeks or months of hard work for $1.50. And if your playing out you prob get min $50 an hour for begginners... so whats the problem??

REAL DJS PLAY VINYL!! 12 year old kids can hit a 'sync' botton or match the BPM's on a screen and mix!!