Ha ha I laught at things like this, the dj the one that breaks tunes and promotes the music gets charged when their target market is just downloading the music for free

Very true, but nevertheless, if they require such a license, then... it's a requirement, how ridiculous it may sound.

Here in Belgium, we also have such a "DJ license". The idea here is, you're basically getting a license to make copies for DJ use. If you rip a CD or vinyl, it's a copy. If you download a song, and put it on a different harddrive then the one you downloaded it to, it's a copy. If you burn your MP3's to a CD to use with your CDJ's or something, you guessed right... it's a copy. The digital format is not the problem here, but the fact that you're constanly copying, and copying requires authorization which is impossible to do for every single track. So to "adapt" to the new technologies, they created this license that basically gives you the authorization to make copies for your own use with regards to DJ'ing, nothing else.
(ridiculous right? Why pay extra for something you already own??! Just another scheme to get money)

So why bother getting the license?
Well... if you do not have this license or authorization for every single copy or rip you made, your files will be regarded as illegal... EVEN if you purchased every single one of them legally (go figure). So they are allowed to fine you, and the fine is ehrm... I think about 120Euro to start + 12,5 euro for every illegal track you have. So that could be considered a good reason to shell out the extra cash to avoid the hassle. A more positive side-effect of presenting this license when getting checked, is that they will most pobably not even check your collection (neglecting the few less legal downloaded impossible to find bootleg-remixes you might have). You got the license, so they got their money, so they're already happy.
Those were the 2 reasons why I got the license anyway. But that's what the system is about for belgium. I guess this UK-thing will be somewhere along the same line.

It sucks to live in a technologically retarded country that does not understand the concept of evolution and it sucks they squeeze more money out of you while having the law on their side... but that doesn't mean you can't hold a petition against these kind of maffiosi-practices in the meantime. :o)

Well does it not depend on where you get your music from in the first place? as if you pay to use record pools, are you not paying for the rights for you to download the content and then use it somewhere else?

Well that is so wrong

DJ is promoting music, therefore he (she) does a favor to record industry.
Industry does not finance from DJ's, but benefit from our willing to promote their product-music. They get $$ from final user, consumer that we have influence onto.
I as a DJ am getting mp3's from record labels and record pools. Some of them are still not published, some never will. So what am I copying here, when there is no official hard copy of it?

DJ got to have unlimited access to the music. Everything less is killing our creativity.
No DJ should accept this bull.

You don't even have to have hard-copy. If you buy on iTunes and iTunes downloads it to your C-drive, and you move it to your D-drive... "you copied it".
Basically... if you have music in any format, and you dare to glance at it... they suppose you copied it.

Well, I don't know for record pools, I don't use them. But for these not-published tracks... if they are not registered with whatever copyright organisation, they can not charge you for it either because it's not protected yet. That's also what the entire "creative Commons" thing is about. Musicians are registering their music under Creative Commons right so the music industry doesn't get shit.

I agree that no DJ should accept this bullshit. Actually, nobody should accept the bullshit of the industry anymore. Afaik, I pay 16 to 20 Euros for a newly released album, and artists only get to see 1euro from that ablum (some 2euros if they ahve a good lawyer)... So... why exactly should I buy music? to support the artist? I don't think so, not with 20Euros transforming into 1 euro.
Don't get me wrong, I buy my music, and I want to support the artists... but I don't believe I am supporting them by buying their CD's.

It's balls.

So if you DL it from itunes or a pool to a folder for that particular service, and play that track through DVS and never move it, do you still need a liscense

As far as i know, here in the uk, you do need a license to play music regardless of it being vinyl, cd, mp3 etc. If the club your working in has it ( which i assume all of them will), then you don't need it.
They can search your computer for illegally downloaded files, (how can they tell? im no computer whizz).
If you keep your back up hard drive at home surely you can tell them there is only one copy, and its on your c:
Here in Hull, i have never heard of one instance where peoples drives or cd's have been checked, then again sod all happens here.

If your promoting their music, then you are doing them a service, hell we have to pay for the tracks in the first place,(unless your big time and get them for free).

My club pays a shit load every year to the PRS and the PPL, I wouldn't ask any of my guys to pay for this 'license'.

Also going by the visits we get from PRS staff (they come into the club occasionally and stand beside us taking note of every song played, normally they have no clue what we are playing so we tell them it's songs by bands we know are registered so they get a small amount of royalties. some of them are so lazy they will accept an setlist emailed to them the next day) none of them are computer literate enough to know the difference between a ripped file, a file from a record company dj pool, a file from a paid pool, a file from a torrent/limewire/soulseek or a file from itunes/amazon.

I genuinely see a time where clubs will have to licence music from a centralised server (think Beatport) and the DJ will only be able to play those tunes. The DJ will also have the licence so they have access to the same music so they can practice. The first thing the DJ will have to do before playing is login to the server to authorise music access. They may have it all downloaded already, but without the login the music won't work.

It's all getting a bit silly. Never used to happen with vinyl. Just saying.

it was easy for them to spot the illegitimate djs before legalised downloads, but now you can pay for downloads and legally burn them to cd, there's no telling who's legal and who isn't. I don't see how its possible to police it these days without us keeping all our receipts from iTunes, beatport etc.
When I looked at it, I got the impression that as long as
the download isn't converted in format (ie wav to mp3), and isn't copied, you are covered under the ppl licence of the venue to play it from a computer. I might be wrong though.

Interesting, Im a dj from the UK but moved to the states, glad i dont have to deal with this utter bullshit... Here's a video regarding this in the states - Watchwww.youtube.com

What this guy in this video says stands. But what this mofo's are trying to charge is a license to copy music.
That means everybody that is not using original CD or vinyl record to DJ has copied music. So every mp3 or burned/copied CD they consider copied music. Even if you got it in ur email or from internet it was copied from a server.
And this also does not mean that you can use limewire or other "illegal" mp3 download and legalize it that way. They still can ask you to show original source of your music.

Shame is that many European countries and Canada are requiring this license.

The work around is (at least in Canada) that if you're a member of a "legal" Dj Pool you're good to go.