Italian DJ fined 1.8 million dollars for playing mp3s

[Arkitech]

ouch


Text


ROME (Reuters) - An Italian DJ has been fined a record 1.4 million euros ($1.8 million) for using thousands of pirate music files in a nightclub near Rome, police said on Wednesday.
Police in the town of Rieti, near Rome, said they raided a popular nightclub earlier this week as part of a crackdown on piracy and seized 500 illegally copied music videos and more than 2,000 MP3 music files.

Police said the files belonged to a "well-known" Italian DJ.

"For the MP3 files, which were kept on the DJ's personal computer, the DJ has received a fine of 1.4 million euros," Rieti finance police said in a statement.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said the fine was the biggest ever slapped on an individual for unlawful music copying and the use of copyrighted music in the MP3 format.

More than 7,000 legal actions have been launched against alleged uploaders in the United States, Canada and countries in Europe as the music industry fights to stop piracy which it blames for a decline over a number of years in CD sales.

 

[Orsorum]

😕

 

[Gurck]

the music industry fights to stop piracy which it blames for a decline over a number of years in CD sales.

Yeah, manufacturing boy/girl bands and the idiot masses caring more what artists look like than sound like has nothing to do with it :roll:

 

[rh71]

policing in Europe ?! :shocked:

 

[gigapet]

and if he only has 100 in the bank then what?

 

[Malak]

Only 2000? Man, I'd hate to see how much they'd fine some of the people I know..

 

[Stark]

big ouch. i guess he deserved it if he was making a living off stuff that was never paid for.

Funny story... back in the day I worked at Circuit City in car audio. One of the other salesguys had a huge collection of cd's... he had the biggest caselogic case made filled with all the latest stuff. It turned out he had stolen almost every one from the CD department and hidden the jewel cases behind some speaker display. He had some relative that was a VP in the company, so he was just forced to pay for all the discs (or his parents did) and he was terminated.

Stealing music is bad news.

 

[mb]

I have some friends that DJ. They know better than to have even just one song that may violate a copyright. This guy is just a moron.

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: malak
Only 2000? Man, I'd hate to see how much they'd fine some of the people I know..

There's a reason they aim low. They'd quickly develop a reputation for destroying lives instead of defending their copyrights.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

How does police - or anyone, for that matter, decide whether an mp3 is pirated or not? Sure, once they could have asked if you have the original CD, but maybe it was the CD of a friend or girlfriend, brother or parent. And nowadays, since you can buy mp3s from websites, you can't even show proof you ever had those files before.

Unless the guy was negligent enough to leave the tags and names unchaged (i.e. "000_atb_-_dedicated-2cd-limited_edition-2002-mod.sfv", 'mod' being the group that released the music...)

Oh, and I know some people in the IFPI... if you think RIAA is scum, wait until you meet these arrogant bastards...

 

[aplefka]

Originally posted by: EyeMWing

Originally posted by: malak
Only 2000? Man, I'd hate to see how much they'd fine some of the people I know..

There's a reason they aim low. They'd quickly develop a reputation for destroying lives instead of defending their copyrights.

Nah, I don't think they care about their reputation. If the RIAA or even MPAA still think they have good reps then they're really stupid.

 

[Malak]

Originally posted by: EyeMWing

Originally posted by: malak
Only 2000? Man, I'd hate to see how much they'd fine some of the people I know..

There's a reason they aim low. They'd quickly develop a reputation for destroying lives instead of defending their copyrights.

Well if you count how much money that one individual cost the industry, I don't see the problem.

 

[Gurck]

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: EyeMWing

Originally posted by: malak
Only 2000? Man, I'd hate to see how much they'd fine some of the people I know..

There's a reason they aim low. They'd quickly develop a reputation for destroying lives instead of defending their copyrights.

Nah, I don't think they care about their reputation. If the RIAA or even MPAA still think they have good reps then they're really stupid.

Rep might play a part, I think a bigger factor is that they're trying to spend the least to do the most - after all, these are extraordinarily greedy and stingy people. They've acted against an extremely small number of people, yet everyone and their brother is terrified of being caught. Impressive, really.

 

[BullyCanadian]

Hey I have a question, I buy cds that I like. But what if I bought a CD left it at home and download a release of that CD at my dorm? Still considered illegal or not? I did this several times (The Game CD, Ciara, Mase)

(EDIT) - I'm ay 999 posts!!!!! I'm not going to post anything for a while, I want to keep it at 999

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: malak

Originally posted by: EyeMWing

Originally posted by: malak
Only 2000? Man, I'd hate to see how much they'd fine some of the people I know..

There's a reason they aim low. They'd quickly develop a reputation for destroying lives instead of defending their copyrights.

Well if you count how much money that one individual cost the industry, I don't see the problem.

what, you mean $100 or so?

 

[gigapet]

well if he should be charged in proportion to the business he took away they are likely to owe him money.

Without DJ's how would most ppl hear the music they end up buying?

 

[Arkitech]

Originally posted by: BullyCanadian
Hey I have a question, I buy cds that I like. But what if I bought a CD left it at home and download a release of that CD at my dorm? Still considered illegal or not? I did this several times (The Game CD, Ciara, Mase)

(EDIT) - I'm ay 999 posts!!!!! I'm not going to post anything for a while, I want to keep it at 999

But if you don't post no one can see your post count 😉

 

[Arkitech]

Originally posted by: gigapet
well if he should be charged in proportion to the business he took away they are likely to owe him money.

Without DJ's how would most ppl hear the music they end up buying?

good point, its kinda stupid to sue the guy who's actually promoting your product

 

[jlee]

There's no way that 2000 MP3s are worth $1.8 million...he could buy every song as a single and still have way more than $1mil left...heh

 

[mb]

Originally posted by: BullyCanadian
Hey I have a question, I buy cds that I like. But what if I bought a CD left it at home and download a release of that CD at my dorm? Still considered illegal or not? I did this several times (The Game CD, Ciara, Mase)

(EDIT) - I'm ay 999 posts!!!!! I'm not going to post anything for a while, I want to keep it at 999

I think you should be fine.

Edit- OMG 500 POSTS :beer:

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: CadetLee
There's no way that 2000 MP3s are worth $1.8 million...he could buy every song as a single and still have way more than $1mil left...heh

Part of that is punative damages.

 

[Pill]

:Q

 

[Arkitech]

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: CadetLee
There's no way that 2000 MP3s are worth $1.8 million...he could buy every song as a single and still have way more than $1mil left...heh

Part of that is punative damages.

thats a of lot freakin punative damages

 

[aidanjm]

why don't these people have an encrypted safe on their hard drives?

 

[CRXican]

Originally posted by: gigapet
well if he should be charged in proportion to the business he took away they are likely to owe him money.

Without DJ's how would most ppl hear the music they end up buying?

God point. You think they would be happy he was playing their stuff. I don't know much about DJs but if he was well known wouldn't it be likely that he gets music for free just so he can promote it?