technoculture314-09

The concept "you would never steal a handbag" differs from downloading/burning movies/music online because: there's a low risk of getting caught (narrowing down to who, what time...starting from which distributor) in comparison to - if someone actually stole somebody elses handbag - you'd see exactly who they were. So what about music? Through our tutorial discussion about pirated music... everyone's admitted to owning a mix CD of various artists tracks or songs - yup apparently thats Illegal. So... what about DJ's? PPNZ which stands for Phonographic Performance New Zealand is a non-profit company which issues out licenses for music which are played/performed in public areas. As retail stores and other locations such as Gym's, Bars and Nightclubs are responsible for obtaining a license for the music they play... I wondered if DJ's had to get permission for the music they not only play in a public place, but making the song sound different by adding differents artist beats, words and sounds. Anyway, I looked on the internet and found this Dj website http://djsauckland.co.nz/288577-Dj-Video-Pool.html which states that if any DJ has to obtain their own license to play music copied from music videos even Kareoke clips if they're not from the original music video clip!. It must cost alot to be a DJ?. I wonder if every DJ out there has a license, and who even bothers to check? What about DJ's who cater for private birthdays/weddings... because it is in a private space - is that still considered public to PPNZ?.

I also found an article/blog on the herald website which has various awesome points about why stores.. and even offices shouldnt need to pay a license to play music. http://blogs.nzherald.co.nz/blog/your-views/2009/8/15/should-you-have-pay-licence-fee-play-music-office-or-shop/?c_id=466

Its interesting how big the issue of copyright spreads to today. Check out the PPNZ website to see how much copyright clearance is for various songs. http://www.ppnz.co.nz/copyrightclearances.asp

I personally think that the payment for a license to play music should be equal. It becomes a big controversy when each song has its own value - I wonder if we're gonna have to start paying to listen to our music at home...