DCMA law For Djs ?

[DjZoim Bombastic]

Hello everyone, I am DJ in Second Life to 9 years, however have a following doubts: Recently I received a news informing one DMCA law (Law of the Digital Millennium Copyright) is a law of the United States on copyright, which criminalizes not only the offense itself, but also the production and distribution technology that avoids the security measures to copyright. In addition, it increases the penalties for copyright infringement committed via the Internet. Approved on October 12, 1998 unanimously by the Senate and signed by President Bill Clinton on October 28, 1998, the DMCA amended US legislation to expand the scope of copyright at the same time limited liability of online service providers for copyright infringements committed by its users.

then my question is: We djs can show titles (ID3Tags) in our Streaming when we're playing, or not?

thank you all

[KarenMichelle Lane]

Short Answer: Yes

Longer Answer: The text information your streaming encoder decides to embedded in the stream is very limited. Typically encoders stream only a very small subset of the available information present as ID3.v?? tags. The lame MP3 encoder that SAM [and many other DJing Programs] look for and send the Song Title and the Artist in the stream.

As a mater of collection policy I use a utility to clear all the nonsense tags that serve no purpose for my needs from any digital MP3s/FLAC/OGG music files. Very rarely do I see Copyright ID3 tags filled out. When they are they simply state what organization maintains the distribution license for the songs I have purchased.

The remaining songs I have ripped from my original CDs and during that process I control fully what tags are generated.

Since I maintain an Internet Radio Station, all my music content is scrubbed to make sure all titles and artist attributions are correct as well as other identifiable information that I report when asked to by my broadcast licensing service.

 

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DJs in SL typically have nothing to worry about. Here is some of my response text to another post about that topic.

Regarding your legal status

Second Life is headquartered in the state of California, United States and this is the jurisdiction where the laws regarding the broadcasting of Copyright protected music apply and need to be adjudicated.

Generally, and in most case law, the "**Venue Owner**" in a real Life location is responsible for maintaining the needed rights licensing when hiring a DJ or entertainer. When you look at the actual language of this regulation this does not translate to SecondLife Virtual Venue Owners. The equivalent Venue definition looks to mean the Second Life platform provider, Linden Research.

I'm unaware if Linden Research maintains the needed EMI / ASCAP / BMI Media Rights licensing but they may in fact have one of these in place. The reason I mention this is that Linden Research use to maintain several default media streaming feeds and as such should have a some form of Media Rights Licensing agreement in place.

In all cases, you as the DJ should have a legal copy of all the music you broadcast. The usual license that comes with physical media [ Vinyl, CD, Cassette Tape ] purchased in the United States includes a grand-fathered fare-use provision clause that has been tested in court many times. The digital licensing of music media is an unenforceable mess in that all of us are technically violating someone's licensing rights by playing any song where our friends can hear it even in our own home. In fact, copying your legally downloaded digital song to your phone to listen to later is considered illegal by these nonsensical agreements.

This is why the fare-use provisions need to be vetted and tested and evolved in each and every country's court system. I'm all for media rights holders getting paid for their catalog but as in all things legal, I pay only the minimum needed licensing that I need to pay. Notice I said "media rights holders getting paid for their catalog". The reason is that rebroadcast licensing fees are never passed to the original performing artists. These fees go to the distribution companies and no further.

Now this requirement for the needed EMI / ASCAP / BMI Media Rights licensing shifts to you, the DJ & Station Owner, if you broadcast via a publicly accessible Internet Radio Station. I maintain an official Internet Radio Station and I have to pay the required minimum fees for this license for a non-profit broadcast source. Just having a semi-private relay service that you use to stream into a Second Life parcel does not expose you to this requirement.

So by all means, please buy your music from your favorite artists sale point. If you can get it direct from the artists's own website all the better. Otherwise, a nice account to Amazon, or iTunes, or Discogs, etc. covers your fair-use of the music on your parcel and at the venues you play it at within Second Life.

 

[Reality Check]

Yes I know that many of you will get your music for your library from You-Tube, Usenet Groups and/or torrent sites. If so, Yes, you are starting off on the wrong foot and can run afoul of other laws regarding the downloading of music from illegal sources. In this case you are on your own.

Alwin's nightmare scenario has happened to those who were caught downloading music from illegal sources. This act is jurisdictional in that if you live in let's say Germany, and are caught downloading music illegally, you can be burned at the steak there.

In all the years that Second Life has been in existence we have no definitive evidence of anyone being singled out for licensing enforcement violations for playing music as a DJ in a particular SL venue. There are plenty of [Mythical] warnings regarding this but none are true.

There is some anecdotal evidence of people being snagged for downloading music illegally but those "stings" are happening external to Second Life.

 

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CODA: OK, if your collection of music has come from mainly torrent sites then you should be using tools such as Mp3tag to clean out the signs of your illicit music acquisitions. I have noticed that the people that make copyrighted works available on the various torrent sites love to brag about it on in the ID3 tags.

 

OKies, running off my soap box...

 

[DjZoim Bombastic]

Thank's So Very Much, Awesome Explicaion

[Lindal Kidd]

I must respectfully disagree with KarenMichelle.

It's true that what she's doing is WIDELY practiced by people who stream content on the internet.  But unless she is playing "royalty free" music or has secured the broadcast and performance rights to the songs she's playing, she is in violation of US copyright law. 

In a practical sense, she's probably right, and you will most likely not get in trouble for playing your CD tracks or your downloaded music files as a DJ in Second Life.  But it's still against the law.

I recommend you both read the following article by Douglas Spotted Eagle:  My Voice, My Choice.