UK Copyright Laws “The Worst”

The following article was taken from the BBC news website.  The original article is here.

UK copyright laws “needlessly criminalise” music fans and need to be updated, a consumer watchdog says.

UK laws that make it a copyright violation to copy a CD that you own onto a computer or iPod should be changed, says Consumer Focus.

The call came after global umbrella group Consumers International put the UK in last place in a survey of 16 countries’ copyright laws.

Consumer Focus said the UK had to catch up with the rest of the world.

“UK copyright law is the oldest, but also the most out of date,” said Ed Mayo, chief executive of Consumer Focus.

“The current system puts unrealistic limits on our listening and viewing habits and is rapidly losing credibility among consumers. A broad ‘fair use’ exception would bring us in line with consumer expectations, technology and the rest of the world.”

Violation

The survey by Consumers International looked at intellectual property laws and enforcement practices in 16 countries – Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, the UK and the US.

It decided that UK law was least effective in balancing the interests of rights holders against those of consumers.

“It is currently a copyright violation [in the UK] to rip a CD that you own on to your PC or iPod,” said Consumer Focus, “even though over half (55%) of British consumers admit to doing it and three in five (59%) think this type of copying is perfectly legal.”

The watchdog’s call was backed by digital rights campaign body the Open Rights Group, which called for a “more flexible” approach to copyright.

Open Rights group executive director Jim Killock said: “It is ridiculous to ban copying, sampling and parody without payment, yet that is how the law stands today.

“The government is undermining copyright’s reputation by failing to give clear rights to users in a changed digital world, where we all rip, mix and burn. Copyright urgently needs reform, as this study shows.”

Too much sex or too much bass?

On the H & S front, I have it on good authority that too much bass can damage…your….eyesight.

Apparently, frequencies over 150 hz WILL damage your hearing but frequencies in the bass or sub-bass region (5-40hz ) WILL damage your eyesight !

Bass, as I am sure you all know, is about moving large volumes of air in time with the speaker cones on a push-pull basis. So, out of doors at, say, Glastonbury, the bass cabs move huge amounts of air which is all ok as long as you do not stand within 10-20 metres of the speakers. You cannot hear the damaging frequencies, only feel your chest cavity going in and out in time to the beat. The same thing happens to your eyeballs if you get too close, the retinas rupture and become detached from your eyeballs, causing you to go blind.

Imagine using the same amount of power at a disco indoors with the dancers/audience very much closer to the speakers. It does not bear thinking about, does it ? Luckily most DJ’s do not use such huge amounts of bass power at their gigs, do we !

A practical test that can demo what I mean can be done in any kitchen or boiler room where there is gas boiler. All you need to do is stand very close to the permanent ventilator/air brick and wait for the boiler to fire-up. Its just like a piston in a hydraulic system.

My source tells me that they recently were able to demo this, quite by accident when testing high powered amps in a relatively small test building. The bass blew out the letterbox and, on further investigation, they were able to see the window frames bowing in-and-out in time to the beat.

Food for thought We might all end up as ‘pinball wizards’…….!

Cheers

Ian Barber

Queen Liz is a copyright infringer!

You may have read that President Obama has given Queen Elizabeth an iPod with 40 show tunes on it. Well, that’s better than the set of region one DVDs he gave Gordon Brown, but yet again as the EFF have pointed out Obama has stepped right into the territory of copyright infringement, and forced UK premiers to risk their reputations by potentially breaking the law.

Well, maybe not, as nobody in their right minds takes this sort of copyright infringement seriously. Except of course lawyers who construct 9,000 word legal contracts for iTunes, and rights holders, who resist legal change as a sort of bargaining chip to extract other concessions, like online enforcement, or levies on tapes, CDs or hard drives.

Campaigners like the EFF and the Open Rights Group, however believe that copyright law needs to be simple and clear, and reflect users’ needs, if it isn’t going to be a joke.

Legal experts were recently asked for a quick opinion as to whether the Queen and Obama were infringing copyright. It’s very unclear. Did Obama buy her a CD, and transfer the songs? In the UK, that would be a infringement, but not in the US.

Does the US iTunes Store allow you to buy songs in the US and give them to a UK user? Probably not, but you have to wade through the 9,000 word contract to find out.

Do you ‘own’ the songs you’ve bought, entitling you to give them to someone else? Definitely not.

Of course, Obama might have been really careful about all this, and made sure his staff spent time ensuring there was no copyright infringement. It’d be good to know that his diplomatic staff were investing their time avoiding diplomatic copyright incidents, rather than, let’s say, working on a common position for a Middle East peace process. Which brings us back to the point: copyright needs to be simple and clear, and not get in the way of doing things even the US President seems to think are acceptable behaviour.

Steve Angello tells Paris where to get off, DJ’s everywhere cheer!

Whilst I was at the Winter Music Conference in Miami a couple of weeks ago, the party next door had a little ‘event’ when Miss Paris was taught a valuable lesson.  Here is the article on Beatportal which explains it much better than me!  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did LOL!

Talking of Steve Angello, one of my ’secret weapons’ is his version of the Eurythmics classic Sweet Dreams, which never fails to set the dancefloor on fire I suggest you find a copy on Ebay to add to your repertoire!

Last Night A DJ Saved My Life

Now 72

The latest edition of the nations favourite collection of Pop Music has just hit the shelves and as usual they are about 2 months behind as far as current releases goes.  It’s fair to say though that it will still be a valuable edition to ANY DJ’s music collection, I myself am a proud owner of every Now album released so having researched the cheapest places to buy this brilliant slab of plastic, i’ve provided some links below for you to chew over!

First of all, hop over to NowMusic.com to get the tracklist.

• Play.com – £11.99 (free delivery)
• Amazon – £11.98 (free delivery)
• Tesco – £11.97 (free delivery)
• ASDA – £11.93 (free delivery)

Have you seen it cheaper?  If so, get in touch and let us know!

Ableton Live 8 now available!

If you were at the last SEDA ShowNight, you would have seen SEDA member and HouseProud resident DJ Jonathan Dobson putting the amazing Ableton Live 7 DJ performance software through its paces.  The long awaited version 8 of this software has now been released, and you can try the demo version for free.

MixMash offer new MPEG2 Service

The extremely popular MixMash video service, and friend of SEDA, are now offering all of their back catalogue and monthly Pop/Dance/Urban and Indie titles as MPEG2 files instead of standard DVD’s.  This takes away the time consuming process of ripping the actual DVD’s for playback in popular software such as Virtual DJ, PCDJ VJ and OtsAV.

As I bring the latest MixMash DVD’s with me to each SEDA ShowNight i’d be interested to hear would you rather me bring the new MPEG2-style discs or the traditional DVD’s for sale on the night.  Please e-mail me at mixmash@seda.org.uk.

The Deckstand Booth Pro by Advanced Event Designs

The 2nd March 2009 saw the launch of a new innovative product released to the mobile DJ and Events community with the release of the Deckstand Booth Pro.

The Deckstand booth Pro is the missing link between the presentation and style of a booth and the functionality of a deck stand as it’s both products in one! It’s rugged and robust and able to protect your equipment and withstand knocks and bumps from people and life out on the road.

One of it’s biggest selling points is it’s flexibility. It can be used as a booth surround for a current deckstand or table or as deck stand booth with a choice of using one shelf or two shelves (included as standard) and with or without an overhead lighting bar (available as an optional extra).

Gone are the days where you need to worry about carrying in and setting up multiple stands as with the Deckstand Booth Pro you only have a small amount of items to carry (the main frame, 2 shelves and front cloth) with setting up taking less than a minute or 2.

Front Cloth coverings includes black or white fabric (other colours are available on request), black wool serge or black wool serge LED starcloth with power supply and controller (available around end of June 2009).

The Deckstand Booth Pro stands out from the crowd with designer angles playing a major part in its stylish design. Its top and sides are angled to no only give protection from food, drink and unruly guests but to give you a real focal point making you stand out from the crowds.

For more information or for details of where to buy the deckstand booth please visit http://www.deckstandbooth.co.uk

Pioneer releases new MEP-7000/SEP-C1 firmware upgrade – Version 2.02

Pioneer continues to increase the functionality of its already mega-versatile MEP-7000 multi-entertainment player and SEP-C1 software entertainment controller and today announces the arrival of a new firmware upgrade – Version 2.02.

This free upgrade provides the added advantage of enabling users to locate individual files amongst the vast digital music libraries employed by DJs. So, to be certain you will always find the track you want, exactly when you want it, the MEP-7000 can now conduct speedy keyword searches using the artist or title ID3 tag fields. These searches can be carried out by using either the MEP-7000’s scroll wheel or by connecting an external USB keyboard.

To utilise the search feature, it is first necessary to create a library database. This may be achieved by using the MEP-7000, although it is faster to use a PC software application to read the USB drives and generate the data library file that is required for the keyword search to function. With library mode activated, simply inputting the text allows you to make searches, while the intelligent GUI displays your results clearly on the 4.3-inch LCD.

‘Essential for all users, this update is an incredibly valuable and timesaving addition to the MEP-7000 player,’ says Ian Jordan, Pioneer’s European Technical Support Manager. ‘The actual track search process is very logical and straightforward – with massive benefits for any working DJ.’

The new firmware is also a bug fix upgrade for the SEP-C1, plus it improves the MEP-7000’s compatibility with third-party software applications. Virtual DJ and Serato* (Version 1.9), for example, now join Pioneer’s own DJS by providing native USB-HID support for improved hardware/software performance. The firmware furthermore extends compatibility to the Pacemaker DJ system, so you will even be able to organise/prepare your set in a Pacemaker.

* Serato: Operation of this software still requires the connection of Serato hardware.

For full details, please visit this page.

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