The Digital DJ Licence

In a world which has gone completely mad, and a country which already forces it's mortals to pay twice for the same thing, the powers that be at PPL have put their collective heads together and decided to get a piece of the action. Somebody somewhere woke up one morning and thought 'Hey, how can we make consumers and Mobile Discos pay ongoing annual fees for the material which they have already legally bought' and decided that in order to create some additional revenue it would charge DJ's 200 ($350) a year purely for the right to convert one type of media (which they have already bought) to another type of media purely for easier archive and playback purposes.

Yes, fellow Dj's the age old rumour that you can back up your original CD's to MP3 format for use on a Hard Drive or Digital based player legally in the UK is FALSE! . Doing so is illegal and likely to risk prosecution despite it being perfectly legal and acceptable in many other European Countries, and Americ a either under Fair Use conditions in local copyright acts or the Home Recording Act of 1992 (U.S.A). So in other words, UK based DJ's are being singled out, penalised and getting the raw deal once again.

The Digital DJ Licence costs you 200 ($350) and this gives you the right to back up original CD's to MP3 or other digital format for storage and playback on Hard Drive format (upto a maxium of 20,000 tracks) for use on a PC or Laptop, however like anything else there are conditions and several flaws.

Q) I have a Digital DJ Licence so surely I am now fully covered

False!. The first and perhaps most largest flaw in the Digital DJ Licence is the fact that the PPL licence is only half the story!. In order to remain fully legal you also need permission to convert the tracks from the MCPS as well. The Digital DJ licence only covers the PPL side of the law. As well as buying the Digital DJ Licence you will need to contact the MCPS and obtain a licence from them or risk prosecution. Since the MCPS (at the time of Writing) do not have a blanket licence similar to the Digital DJ licence in place nor are they part of this Digital DJ licence, then this is likely to work out very expensive and time consuming once you contact the MCPS and also the individual record labels of all of the artists whose material you are converting in order to obtain permission. Assuming they DO give you permission!. If the MCPS or Record Label decline permission to convert any or all requested tracks and you have already bought the Digital Dj Licence then sadly, you have bought yourself a white elephant.

Q) What Additional rights and facilities does the Digital DJ Licence Offer?

Other than the right to convert your existing original CD collection to a more flexible means of archive and playback, absolutely nothing. You cannot use the digital back up at the same time as your original CD Material, so having two roadshows and using your CD material a t one, and Laptop at the other would naturally still be illegal and is not granted under the terms of the Digital DJ Licence.

Personally I believe that making Dj's pay twice and ongoing for converting material, is simply put, unfair discrimination and an attempt at cashing in on the rights of individuals to choose to use alternate technologies where they are available in their marketplace. Dj's in other countries are not subject to the same laws and fees, so why should UK DJ's be charged? - after all, we already pay more than our colleagues in other countries for the original CD's in the first place, charging us a yearly fee on top of that is just taking the piss. What would happen if everybody was charged an annual fee to own and play their legally purchased CD's in addition to the cost of the CD's in the first place? - there would be a public outcry and rightly so.Why should this stealth tax on Digital Dj's be treated with kid gloves?

Q) But we are DJ's and usi ng material commercially therefore we should pay

This is a tired point and one which is flawed. If you are going to use this point, then what you are suggesting is that all DJ's should be paying a yearly fee to PPL to play music where a fee is paid to the DJ. There can be no half measures or discrimination here. Either all DJ's who work for a booking fee (ie to make money) irrespective of whether it's a public or private function should pay the same Digital Licence fee every year whether they use CD, MP3 or a PC as a means of medium. Is a Digital Dj any more commercially desirable than a conventional CD or Vinyl one, do they earn more money?, command higher fees? do they deny the artist royalties?

Let me ask you a question, if a DJ buys a CD from the mall, goes home and converts it to MP3 purely because it is a more flexible and prefered method of playback for him / her, then leaves the CD in a cupboard at home whilst they take their laptop / pc to a gig, how is this adversely affecting the artiste who created the music?, is the artiste any worse off financially because of these actions? do they deserve a higher fee to compensate?.

Also remember that any venue we work in has to have an entertainment licence by law, which is payable to PPL, meaning that for playing music at least the PPL already has had it's pound of flesh!.

Q) How did this legislation get in and why wasn't I consulted?

Like most new legislation, rumour has it that this one arrived via the back door too. There was appearently DJ's and DJ Associations who were consulted as to their opinion on the matter and the licence was rumoured to have been constructed around their feedback and requirements. However exactly who was consulted and which DJ Associations remain a mystery because nobody has come forward.

Recent polls on the many DJ Forums, Entertainment Blogs and even the BBC show that the majority of DJ's are not happy with the licence in its c urrent form.

More information on the Digital DJ Licence and campaigns against this unfair legislation can be found at http://www.dj-forum.co.uk.

Author:: Chris Pointon
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