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Legally / illegally acquiring music for DJing

Whats legal and whats illegal when it comes to getting the music you play out when DJing?


I'm guessing that its illegal to download a track off Limewire or Bittorrent etc, burn it onto a CD and then play it out right?

What about borrowing an original CD from a mate, burning your own copy, and then playing that out?

Or buying a vinyl, ripping it to WAVE or MP3, and then burning it on CD?

Downloading tunes from legal sites such as Napster, iTunes etc and burning them onto CD to play out is perfectly fine right?

Re: Legally / illegally acquiring music for DJing

It varies from country to country, but generally it goes like this:

quote:

Originally posted by solex999 I'm guessing that its illegal to download a track off Limewire or Bittorrent etc, burn it onto a CD and then play it out right?

Illegal

quote:

What about borrowing an original CD from a mate, burning your own copy, and then playing that out?

Illegal

quote:

Or buying a vinyl, ripping it to WAVE or MP3, and then burning it on CD?

Legal (for as long as you own the master copy)

quote:

Downloading tunes from legal sites such as Napster, iTunes etc and burning them onto CD to play out is perfectly fine right?

Yes - and if you want to be on the safe side, keep copies of the receipt these sites send you by e-mail when you make purchases there.

Normally I don't mind filesharing so much because the kind of tracks you find in abundance on those sites are 1. from rich pop stars who probably didn't even write their own material 2. affiliated with large corporations who push generic filler material and don't encourage artistic expression and 3. probably stuff you weren't gonna buy anyways. In the case of EDM though, these are labels and producers that make barely anything in the first place, and their primary source of income is from DJs themselves.

Plus why would you wanna do that?

Every now and then my mate will send me a tune he's just obtained, and it will be downloaded some immoral way, at like 128kbs, sound like shit cause tis been ripped awfully, and if you ever played it out, would sound worse.

I realise it's frustrating not having the latest promo's or super rare tunages, but fining tracks out there that everyone else has missed is a pretty good feeling, so it's worth the effort to dig about legal sites.

Alright, then what about this:

Let's say I own a tune on vinyl, but it's extremely warped or scratched/unplayable, or it simply sounds like shit. But there's a perfectly ripped 320k digital that I found on a P2P site. Now, I own the vinyl, so is it OK for me to download that 320k rip and use it?

quote:

Originally posted by djkoolaide Alright, then what about this: Let's say I own a tune on vinyl, but it's extremely warped or scratched/unplayable, or it simply sounds like shit. But there's a perfectly ripped 320k digital that I found on a P2P site. Now, I own the vinyl, so is it OK for me to download that 320k rip and use it?

yup.

how about mashups, promos, bootlegs, and unsigned/unreleased tunes?? legal?

i bought 86 mp3's from BP, but still I can't find many great tunes there. long live *e**M*u**l**e*!

quote:

Originally posted by Omega_Blue yup. how about mashups, promos, bootlegs, and unsigned/unreleased tunes?? legal?

you'd hope promos are legal, since its usually the label that sends em out to DJs to play :P
i heard someone got sued or something for playing a mashup? (wasnt there a thread about that somewhere here?)

this legal stuff really needs a sticky

quote:

Originally posted by Omega_Blue yup. how about mashups,

Technically illegal but not many are going to care.

quote:

promos,

Should be legal, however some stores sell them which is illegal in itself.

quote:

bootlegs,

See mashups.

quote:

and unsigned/unreleased tunes?? legal?

Legal, but you need the permission of the artist to play them. Then again I highly doubt any unsigned artists are going to mind

Re: Legally / illegally acquiring music for DJing

quote:

Originally posted by solex999 Or buying a vinyl, ripping it to WAVE or MP3, and then burning it on CD?

That's actually technically illegal in the UK.

I gather in the US & Canada, as long as you own the original it's legal, but that's NOT the case over here.

In fact in the UK, using a sampler on a mixer is technically illegal fucking daft isn't it.

Re: Re: Legally / illegally acquiring music for DJing

quote:

Originally posted by Stu Cox That's actually technically illegal in the UK. I gather in the US & Canada, as long as you own the original it's legal, but that's NOT the case over here. In fact in the UK, using a sampler on a mixer is technically illegal fucking daft isn't it.

Are you sure? I thought it was legal to do that.

Just like I used to tape all my vinyl albums to tape when I was a kid.

So is it only vinyl that this rule applies to?

Surely products like this could not legally be sold if encoding vinyl to MP3 was illegal:

http://www.decks.co.uk/products/decks/ion/iTT_USB

Jarv

perhaps downloading stuff at home is ok to a degree everyone does it or has done it but downloading stuff to play out is completley wrong the dj should be sacked.

Re: Re: Re: Legally / illegally acquiring music for DJing

quote:

Originally posted by Jarvmeister Are you sure? I thought it was legal to do that. Just like I used to tape all my vinyl albums to tape when I was a kid. So is it only vinyl that this rule applies to? Surely products like this could not legally be sold if encoding vinyl to MP3 was illegal: http://www.decks.co.uk/products/decks/ion/iTT_USB Jarv

Yep, I'm afraid so. And no, it doesn't just apply to vinyl.

Basically in the UK the law's pretty indiscriminate - i.e. it's just illegal to make any kind of copy of any copyrighted material without permission (in fact the Digital DJ Licence is basically just a licence allowing you to copy material from CD/vinyl/MP3 onto a computer for playing out) - obviously some forms, like batch copying for resale, are worse than others and will of course be much more likely to be prosecuted than just making a backup of your vinyl... but if someone really wanted to screw you over for it, they could.

It's not illegal to sell a product to do it, it's illegal to ACTUALLY do it so theoretically using an ION iTT to record records would be illegal, unless you obtained permission or a licence to do so, which is kinda feasible but pretty damn unlikely, while them making/selling them isn't.

wow, with all this new information i just learned...i cant post up my mix.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Legally / illegally acquiring music for DJing

quote:

Originally posted by Stu Cox It's not illegal to sell a product to do it, it's illegal to ACTUALLY do it

Same as the rule about selling marijuana seeds isn't illegal, but the minute they sprout a root you've been a bad boy... !

Cheers for the info, you learn something new everyday.....

Jarv

What about legalities of making the hour+ long mp3s of your sets available for public download?

??? Probably illegal, eh?

quote:

Originally posted by DJ Z What about legalities of making the hour+ long mp3s of your sets available for public download? ??? Probably illegal, eh?

"For Promo Only"

quote:

Originally posted by Stu Cox That's actually technically illegal in the UK. I gather in the US & Canada, as long as you own the original it's legal, but that's NOT the case over here. In fact in the UK, using a sampler on a mixer is technically illegal fucking daft isn't it.

it's the same in finland. you actually can't play out any tracks bought from beatport etc. if you don't pay some ridiculous fee (like 8�/track or what was it). in finland pretty much everything concerning these issues is illegal.

quote:

Originally posted by Allied Nations "For Promo Only"

that doesn't make it any more legal.

quote:

Originally posted by skip it's the same in finland. you actually can't play out any tracks bought from beatport etc. if you don't pay some ridiculous fee (like 8�/track or what was it). in finland pretty much everything concerning these issues is illegal.

Yeah, but who's watching?

quote:

Originally posted by Mr.Mystery Yeah, but who's watching?

the teosto and gramex etc. fuckers! i know i wouldn't want to risk it. as the fines you can get are apparently huge. but then again i'm not playing out and probably never will be, so it doesn't really concern me, but it still pisses me off greatly.

quote:

Originally posted by skip it's the same in finland. you actually can't play out any tracks bought from beatport etc. if you don't pay some ridiculous fee (like 8�/track or what was it).

The MP3 download sites usually have an agreement with the labels allowing one CD copy of the MP3 to be made (which is then legal to play out in an appropriately licensed venue, which nearly every venue will be) - Beatport state it in their T&Cs as do some others... I understand that with all of the major download sites (Beatport, Trackitdown, AudioJelly, Vonyc, Juno, etc) it's fine.

quote:

Originally posted by Stu Cox The MP3 download sites usually have an agreement with the labels allowing one CD copy of the MP3 to be made (which is then legal to play out in an appropriately licensed venue, which nearly every venue will be) - Beatport state it in their T&Cs as do some others... I understand that with all of the major download sites (Beatport, Trackitdown, AudioJelly, Vonyc, Juno, etc) it's fine.

i know, but the finnish law still forbids it! that's the way it was a while ago at least. stupid, eh? but that's what we get here for voting total fucking idiots to the parliament. dunno if they're thinking of changing though it or doing a similar thing you have in the uk with the digital dj license or whatever it's called.

1) play what you love
2) acquire as much music as possible through legal means
3) dont sell sets or mixes with other peoples tracks on them unless you are planning to pay royalties or get sued.

i have to say, not all of my tracks are legally acquired. i buy as much as i can from beatport and mp3 sites. i rip stuff from vinyl that i own. i play from cds that i own. but if there is a really killer track out there that hasnt been released yet, or isnt going to be released, i'll get it by any means necessary.

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