Italian DJ Fined 1.4 Million Euros For MP3s
from the whoa dept
While most of the stories about the recording industry cracking down on unauthorized MP3s focus on home users, it looks like they’re checking out more professional MP3 abusers as well. Over in Italy, a DJ has been fined $1.4 million euros for copyright infringement. Police said that he had 2,000 MP3s and 500 music videos on his computer. However, what’s unclear from the story is where these files came from. Were they files that he had made from CDs and DVDs he had purchased, or were they all downloaded? Also, even if they were unauthorized files that he downloaded, it’s hard to see how 1.4 million is a reasonable fine in any world that touches reality. As some have pointed out, it’s become clear that the industry, itself, only values unlimited access to music at $15/month. Obviously, you can add some punitive damages to that, but this was a popular DJ. He was promoting this music to club goers, many of whom were pretty damn likely to go out and want to pay for this music. It’s hard to see how the industry can justify 1.4 million euros other than to say that this is the amount they cost themselves in preventing this guy from promoting these musicians from now on.
Comments on “Italian DJ Fined 1.4 Million Euros For MP3s”
Only 1.2 Million?
The guy that lived next door to me during my Freshman year was one of the 4 guys that got sued for the “College Napster” thing.
We were looking over the legal briefing in his room. They were suing for something like, $100k for each song that his server listed on the Network (He just indexed the file network). We worked out that they were suing for something like, $20 Billion dollars.
Of course, he settled for $12 grand and three new services popped up within the week.
Good times… he actually made a style for the site dedicated to me.
Re: Only 1.2 Million?
Yeah, I remember those lawsuits. That was nuts… However, the industry always throws out ridiculous numbers, and then settles for a few thousand. This is the first time we’ve seen a case where someone actually got fined a ridiculous amount.
It's time for all good citicizens to express thems
Boycott the MPAA and RIAA. It’s your duty as a good citicizen to express your dissatisfaction with the membership of the MPAA and RIAA. We can change their egrigeous behavior by refusing to buy into their scam. Stop supporting their abuse. Stop encouraging them to believe they can act with impunity. Stop buying thier product. Just say no!
Re: It's time for all good citicizens to express t
Oh my Lord. I thought this was rubbish, until I just read it. That is a ludicrous amount of money to fine someone. There are over 10’s of thousands of DJs using illegally downloaded music across the world. There will be a few isolated cases, but they cannot stop them all. How is any normal person meant to be able to pay this amount of money? Shouldn’t the police be out there catching murderers and rapists instead of fining a DJ ?1 million for entertaining people and having fun?