Crack down on D.J's

[clubhappy]

It's just been announced here in Ireland , that I.M.R.O , the organisation for performing rights are to investigate dj's in all clubs and bars in a crackdown on illegal music , ie downloads, over the next 12 months. A spokesperson for the organisation says, ''DJs with illegal music can face higher fines as they are "profiting for financial gain" off illegal music so imro and irma etc are much stricter and they say they will heavily enforce the law on this one much heavier than just a kid who listens to music at home.

Now, do imro have he right to take away laptops and case logics ????

i would imagine , not without the gardai present AND some kind of warrant .

I dont think IMRO expect a DJ to carry a filing cabinet of reciepts with them. Its the old "if its a CDR it must be illegal" line, from some idiot who doesnt know you can buy music online. Yawn.

Section 133 of the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000, and under that section (and as far as I know) they wouldn't actually have to have a garda present.

The big problem that all club DJs face in the past few years is the fact that it is IMPOSSIBLE to legally possess all the music that you need to do a decent gig.

Lots of tracks are available to the public to listen to, and to watch the video on the TV music channels, weeks, and sometimes months, before they are released, so DJs have no choice but to download them in order to meet the demands of punters to hear them in clubs. I think the record labels have shot themselves in the foot by making the tracks available for broadcast so far in advance of their release dates. It's not only DJs who will download them. The public want the tracks on their iPods etc. and as they can't buy or legally download them the only way to get them is through illegal download. It's fine for a record label to try to build up demand for a track ahead of it's release, but when the same track is freely available on P2P networks all they're doing is encouraging people to steal from them. A good example of this recently would be 'Gimme Some' by Britney Spears. Many people wanted to own it and hear it in clubs, but you just couldn't get it legally. Try telling punters in a club that you can't play a track because it hasn't been released when they are hearing the same track on heavy rotation on radio and TV.

I am one of the few that I am aware of who still buys CDs every week, and Vinyl and even if it is a track that I have already downloaded I will buy the CD when it's available so that I can have the best possible sound quality and because I believe that the artists and labels are fully entitled to their cut, just the same as we are entitled to be paid for doing a gig. I'll even buy albums to get individual tracks that aren't available otherwise.

I would love to be able to operate fully legally but it just isn't possible. I look forward to the day when record labels make DRM free, full CD quality tracks available. I also believe that if they were to offer such a service to DJs and make the tracks available at the same time as the promo, I for one would be very happy to pay for this service and be able to get the music legally.

Furthermore, if I look at the music I have amassed over the course of 2007 alone, how many of those tracks do I still use?

One more point , if record companies realised the amount of music we have been responsible for bringing to the publics attention , ie making them radio and club hits , maybe they would not send us out the sh*te they usually do every second Monday in the post .

 

[Tim W]

Much the same with bootlegs - Person A downloads a bootleg likes what he/she hears goes out and buys the band/artist's back catalogue then catches them live at the next opportunity who wins?. Bootleg torrent sites are getting closed down one after one, the one I use has such strict regulations now it's a wonder anything gets posted. Record companies have ripped virtually every artist off and every record buyer since day one, its the only thing they're good at.

 

[Lofty]

Much the same with bootlegs - Person A downloads a bootleg likes what he/she hears goes out and buys the band/artist's back catalogue then catches them live at the next opportunity who wins?. Bootleg torrent sites are getting closed down one after one, the one I use has such strict regulations now it's a wonder anything gets posted. Record companies have ripped virtually every artist off and every record buyer since day one, its the only thing they're good at.

You're so right there. Way back before WW1 it was concern at the sale of sheet music that the record companies claimed would kill live music. Later it was tape recorders, then cassettes/music centres - remember the "Home taping is killing music" with the skull & crossbones logo? Then when CDs came along, the record companies en masse re-released back catalogue after back catalogue at over inflated prices, because it's never cost more than a few pence to produce a CD, and as ever the vast bulk of the profits went directly to the record companies. And mp3s? Well it's the same law that applied to sheet music and cassette recorders, but now people can own better quality copies, and get them faster than ever before. So why the f**k should they continue to pay over the odds to record companies for what is often, especially for the young, very little more than a disposeable profit?

Equating copying music with theft is one of the biggest cons of all times. Oh and has anyone heard that the French are planning to deny Internet access to file-sharers? Under pressure from the media rights mafia, of course. From ISPReview.com:

France Bans Online Pirates From The InternetBy: MarkJ @ 9:40 am - [submit News | Link | Comments] The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has signed off on a new accord that will see online users that repeatedly download illegal online content banned from using the Internet. Could it happen here too?:

The plan has been drawn up by French retail exec Denis Olivennes. It will see signatory ISPs - including france Telecom, which owns Orange in the UK - hand over information on heavy users of file-sharing networks to a new enforcement body which will formally warn them to stop. If they persist, their connection will be cut.

As part of the bargain, movies will be released on DVD six months after the cinema run, and music will be offered for legal download DRM-free. The BPI, which used to stand for the British Record Institute, welcomed the French move. Chief exec Geoff Taylor said: "The BPI has been seeking to persuade ISPs for more than a year that they should implement such procedures but progress has been limited."

A spokesman for the ISP trade association ISPA told The Reg: "The BPI's opinion is up to them. The Department for Business, Employment and Regulatory Reform is aware that we are engaged with on this issue and we welcome contact from rights holders."

Naturally this isn't a UK news story but you'd be wrong to think that various British bodies and organisations weren't going to keep a close eye on developments over the channel. It's quite conceivable that if the French initiative proves itself successful then we could see something similar happening here.

In the meantime UK ISP's are already busy trying to thrash out some degree of voluntary agreement, although we'll have to wait until 2008 for word on that

 

[clubhappy]

Copyright bodies are notorious for being petty, bloody-minded and remarkably good at shooting themselves in the foot.

 

[The Moos]

Copyright bodies are notorious for being petty, bloody-minded and remarkably good at shooting themselves in the foot.

For a moment there I thought you were talking about Octville