The Null Device

Crazy remixed-up kids

A recent Fairfax weekend paper piece on the recording industry's crackdown on homemade mix CDs in Australia. People (mostly in the hip-hop scene) are being raided by the federal police (whose usual business is invstigating drug cartels and terrorists) and facing 5-year jail sentences and massive damages bills (not yet on the level of the US$180M damages awarded for planning to pirate satellite TV, though we'll probably get there soon enough) for distributing mix CDs of their DJ sets and/or bootleg remixes. The message is: if you break the law, the law will break you.

There are 13 comments on "Crazy remixed-up kids":

Posted by: Bowie http://realkosh.weblogs.com/ Tue Jul 1 23:00:38 2003

Serious question to a DJ. Do you know if the venues you play at have to pay fees to APRA? And do you need to fill out performance scripts?

As a band we generally play at venues that have paid cash to APRA. At the end of the year we send a form telling APRA what songs we played (99% of then are our songs but I assume cover bands have to do the same thing), then APRA distributes a $1 per song played to the writers of said song.

How long before they start cracking down hard on DJ "performing" copyrighted songs live? Or are they already?

Posted by: gjw http://the-fix.org Wed Jul 2 02:17:13 2003

Bowie, my understanding is that DJs are not considered "live performers", but a licencing fee still has to be paid for the broadcasting of copyrighted content - same as the music you hear in the lift or on call waiting.

This article is genuinely scary - I think it's actually turned me off participating in international internet mix-CD swapping, knowing customs could open one of my envelopes, find my mix CD, and have no qualms about prosecuting me.

Posted by: Luke http://www.captainfez.com/blog/ Wed Jul 2 05:38:57 2003

Packages are actually being opened a lot more these days, too - stuff I've won off Ebay, innocuous stuff from o/s - it's now all getting eyeballed. Very odd.

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Wed Jul 2 05:46:31 2003

The last thing sent to me that customs opened was a packet of Whittard's mango tea. They put in a pamphlet saying that tea with fruit pieces can't be imported but left the tea intact. Odd.

I wonder whether anybody will be prosecuted for trafficking in pirated content in this way. I'd like to think that sort of thing wouldn't happen, though in the current climate, that's not so certain.

Posted by: Bowie http://realkosh.weblogs.com/ Wed Jul 2 11:57:13 2003

I should track down some old tape trader friends and see if they're getting looked at lately... amusing though that they're only just cracking down on this stuff in customs now that there is a way to do (trade CD quality live/mix/whatever tapes) outside of meatspace.

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Wed Jul 2 13:20:27 2003

Btw, did you know that copying your CDs for personal use is technically illegal in Australia? There is no exemption for making a copy to listen to in the car, or ripping them to your iPod, or whatever. So if ASIO/the AFP raid your home looking for drugs/terrorist weapons/&c. and find a hard disk full of MP3s, you can do time for it.

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Wed Jul 2 13:21:12 2003

Now might be a good time to brush up on your hard-disk-destruction techniques. (I hear disassembling it and dropping the platters into sulphuric acid works well.)

Posted by: Stephen Thu Jul 3 01:30:29 2003

From the SMH article - "Music piracy, he often reminds people, helps finance organised crime and international terrorism..."

Reading this makes me laugh. A couple of Septembers ago I'd have been called cynical for pointing out that they'd eventually resort to this...

Posted by: Stephen Thu Jul 3 01:42:52 2003

Interesting thought, acb. We might end up with a backyard industry built around literally underground (so as to avoid detection,) highly destructible file servers which link to a cluster of users' PCs via WiFi or something. If The Feds come, the users send a panic signal that floods the PC casing with acid and shuts down the wireless link. Those running these wireless networks under the noses of The Law would be like the Beer Barons of prohibition times: "I swear officer, no contraband content being enjoyed here!"

Posted by: Graham http://grudnuk.com/ Thu Jul 3 02:08:49 2003

Hmm, reminds me of that bit in Cryptonomicon where... oh geez. It's about time I started doing my second read of that.

Posted by: dj http:// Thu Jul 3 05:18:05 2003

Made me think of that too.

Posted by: Luke http://www.captainfez.com/blog/ Thu Jul 3 11:21:45 2003

Making copies of *any* recorded material in Australia is strictly verboten, as I understand it: even putting vinyl to tape is illegal...

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Thu Jul 3 11:49:14 2003

Coming up: AFP raid Apple stores, subpoena lists of iPod purchasers.