http://www.audiohacker.com/
World Famous Arrested by Local Police
Portland, OR - At 2:30 this morning, local DJ "World Famous Audio Hacker" was taken into custody by police after a performance at The Glitch Lounge, an underground dance club in the warehouse district downtown. Although specific charges have not yet been publicly made, one officer confirmed the DJ was taken into custody for performing unlicensed bootleg remixes, known as "mash-ups", at the venue.
"Currently, the U.S. performance license that permits DJs and night clubs to play copywritten songs," explained the unnamed officer, "is a strict license that does not allow home-made alterations under the same license. Once the illegal versions of the music are performed in public, it becomes a crime that can be enforced by an officer."
When pressed to confirm if any complaints had been filed against World Famous Audio Hacker, the officer simply stated: "We were made aware of the nature of material that this DJ typically performs based on a complaint by one of the copyright owners. Once the illegal art in question was performed during the night, our officers were empowered to take him into custody."
In other words, it appears there was a specific complaint against a well-known mash-up by World Famous. The officers were present during the performance, and apparently were issued a warrant for arrest as soon as the mash-up in question was played at World Famous' Sunday night performance.
Some speculation has been made by fans that Warner Music may have filed the complaint due to a history of conflict between the label and World Famous.
We are still working the details to confirm this story.
There has been no word if the Glitch Lounge will lose their performance license in relation to this arrest.
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http://www.audiohacker.com/_img/art_freewfah-arrest.jpg
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How dumb?
"... When asked if the club will support any mash-up events in the future, (the club) responded: "It's a ridiculous restraint placed on us at this time. If a DJ is doing a mix and blends two songs together live by playing 'untampered' sources on top of each other, there is no licensing issue. If our DJs do non-stop beat matching, there is still no licensing issue. If they alter a song digitally to result in the exact same sound, then apparently the police will kick our windows in, steal our equipment, and jail our DJs...."
