ATTN: DAVE the Drummer

[teknorich]

Is it illegal though? On his website it says:

"Live DJ Sets are not copyrighted, however a few live DJ sets have been commercially released in the past. These sets will not be found on this Web Site, only non copyrighted non-commercially released DJ Sets are available on this site."

It is definitely cheeky, but if the above is true, then it is not illegal, and as DAVE etc don't own the recordings, they would not be due any royalties anyway.

I really don;t know how the law works on this topic. I woudl have thought the legal owner of the mix set mp3 was the club or the radio show who recorded it, not the DJ themselves, but even so I think we can take it for granted this dude has not approached each club/radio show to ask for permission to sell their sets.

[teknorich]

It is a weird one. I mean, you buy postcards from an art gallery, and they are reproduced with the permission of whoever owns the painting, so in that way I'd have thought the fella would have to get the permission of the club/radio show in order to sell the set. But then on ebay etc you can buy old flyers from clubs and raves, but the seller does not go and get permission from the club to sell their old flyers.

When stuff is given away for free, for promotional purposes, who owns it?

On the back of Mixmag CDs etc it always says "Not for resale" but I have bought them from Ebay and Discogs before now. That is definitely illegal, but nobody cares.

It's definitely cheeky, and I'm glad DAVE complained and had it withdrawn from ebay, but at the same time it appears to be legal, if distasteful.

[tonyc2002]

I can appreciate the convenience factor, i.e. paying some throbber a few quid if you can't be ****ed to scour the net to find those sets you've been dying to get to hold off, but its pretty damn cheeky to attempt to make a profit without even trying to get permission.

I would also argue that there is indeed a copyright issue as it is still recorded music that was being played to the public (PPL/PRS anyone?). But ho hum, I'm not a lawyer.

[teknorich]

But that then opens a whole other can of worms - i.e. when a DJ's promotional set is put online to download, it contains copywrited material (the tracks he mixed with) so should the artists of those tracks then be asked permission/ given royalties for the set to be made available? Should DAVE have to get permission from every artist in his mix before he can upload a promo mix? That would seem way excessive...

[tonyc2002]

But that then opens a whole other can of worms - i.e. when a DJ's promotional set is put online to download, it contains copywrited material (the tracks he mixed with) so should the artists of those tracks then be asked permission/ given royalties for the set to be made available? Should DAVE have to get permission from every artist in his mix before he can upload a promo mix? That would seem way excessive...

I think if you start charging for a DJ mix (i.e. if it was a published commercial compilation) then the artists involved would be entitled to royalties yes (or the labels would be). If the tracks are unpublished then I don't think they would get any royalties (at least not from collection agencies).

Also, if its just for promotional use (i.e. free) then technically the artist may be entitled to some form of compensation if the DJ was getting bookings, and thereby making a profit from exploiting the artists work, but has anyone ever heard of this happening!? Doubt it to be honest.

**** knows man, its a grey area really.