8/28/2009 - The AVLA DJ Licence     [back]

Canadian DJ’s enjoy a privilege their colleagues in other territories do not – the ability to obtain a licence permitting legal reproduction of sound recordings for use in their DJ business. If you are an AVLA licensed DJ, your licence permits you to legally reproduce sound recordings owned by over three hundred member record companies, including all of the multi-national record companies and all of the major independent record companies – that represents over 95% of the sound recordings produced and distributed in Canada! In the premiere issue of DJ Pulse, AVLA’s article “Music On The Right Track” provided a primer on the AVLA DJ licensing program. There are, however, some areas where confusion has arisen – below are the facts dispelling some common myths surrounding the AVLA DJ Agreement. Myth - My DJ licence allows me to make back up copies of Music Supply Service CD’s (e.g. - ERG, MultiMusic, Promo Only or Innovative Entertainment). Fact See Section 4.02 of your agreement. Your DJ licence only allows you to copy sound recordings from products (i.e. LP’s, cassettes or CD’s) that are commercially produced by Record Companies that own the copyright in sound recordings. Also, when you lease your Music Supply Service CD’s, you sign a lease agreement that clearly states that you may not copy the leased CD’s. If you breach your lease agreement by copying the leased CD’s, your Music Supply Service company is obliged to terminate your lease agreement, recall all CD’s that you have leased and will require you to surrender up all copies of its CD’s that you have unlawfully made. There may be further legal consequences as well –from the Music Supply Service company, from AVLA on behalf of its record company members, or from both. Myth - I can download sound recordings from peer-to-peer sites if I have an AVLA licence. Fact Your DJ licence requires that the copies of sound recordings you use in your DJ business must be made from original sound recordings produced by record companies that own the exclusive copyrights in the sound recordings. Record companies have not given the individuals who post copies of the record companies’ sound recordings on peer-to-peer sites permission to do so, and the peer-to-peer sites do not have permission to make these copies available to the public. For more information on the damage peer-to-peer file sharing has caused, please go to www.pro-music.org and/or www.musicunited.org (see Section 4.02 of your agreement). Myth - My DJ licence allows me to create compilation CDR’s of the bride and groom’s favourite music as “giveaways” for guests at weddings. Fact Your DJ licence permits you to copy sound recordings only for use in your disc jockey service. Your licence does not give you the right to sell or give away any copies of sound recordings. Only the record companies that own the copyrights in the sound recordings have the right to give away or sell the sound recordings that they own (see Section 4.01(a) of your agreement). Myth - My DJ licence allows me to edit sound recordings. Fact Your agreement states that sound recordings “will not be edited, modified or otherwise altered in the production of Programs” (see Section 7.1(b) of your agreement). Myth