DJ fined €1.4m for massive 'illegal' music cache

[method77]

A "well known" Italian DJ has been ordered to cough up Europe's biggest fine ever for music downloading after being found in possession of and using thousands of illegally copied music files.

The DJ must pay a record €1.4m ($1.8m), the Italian financial police have ruled. He also faces criminal prosecution, law enforcement officials said.

The fine follows a raid mounted by Italian police earlier this week on a popular nightclub in Rieti, a town between Rome and Assisi. During the investigation, officers seized over 2,000 MP3 files and 500 music videos.

FIMI, the Italian equivalent of the Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA), welcomed the whopping fine. "We hope this precedent will serve as a deterrent for those who are thinking of doing the same," said FIMI director Enzo Mazza.

"This DJ was touring clubs and making money out of the music he played - while those who had invested time, talent, hard work and money into creating the music in the first place did not get a cent," he added.

Earlier this month, a French teacher was fined €10,200 for illegally sharing music files - the first prosecution in France for unauthorised file sharing using a P2P network.

To date, the RIAA has issued lawsuits against more than 8,500 named and unnamed individuals in the US, all alleged to have illegally distributed music files using P2P software.

®The Register

[method77]

WTF are those industry people think? By making someone pay they will fuckin stop copying?????? After all, the writers and blank CDs are legally sold YOU FUCKS!!!

[Redneck4sure]

Meanwhile a guy that robs a store gets probation and a $200 fine. At least that's the way it seems around here. <_>

1.8 mil for 2k songs. Must be good music.

[Lord_of_the_Dense]

During the investigation, officers seized over 2,000 MP3 files and 500 music videos.

lol

They make it sound like they took 2500 objects.

Prolly just 1 hard drive.

[Redneck4sure]

Prolly just 1 hard drive.

A small one at that. :)

edit: I forgot about the 500 videos...I was just thinking mp3. I guess it was one good hard drive.

Edited February 18, 2005 by Redneck4sure

[Wolfie]

He didn't have it backed up somewhere? :rolleyes:

[rainbowdemon]

Just 2,000? damn, I'm in real deep shit then!!

[Wolfie]

I think they are on thier way over. :bigsmile:

[Redneck4sure]

900 bucks a song if the videos are free. Maybe the videos are 3000 bucks each so that makes the songs only 150 bucks each.

Yep, you are so screwed rainbow.

[KiwiCoromandel]

global copyright laws and global intellectual property rights......you must pay every single time you play..... these people want nothing less.......

Edited February 18, 2005 by kiwibank

[Redneck4sure]

They also want you to pay a monthly fee to maintain your account in case you may want to play. Actually playing is extra. <_>

[slum_goddess]

global copyright laws and global intellectual property right......you must pay every single time you play..... these people want nothing less.......

someone (larry lessig perhaps?) will take their asses to court to explain how our hard-drives are just fucking 'music-delivery' systems (as our stereos were). bastards.