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ARIA produces some "top charts" in Australia, here's how.

This is much better than what they used to do many years ago: rely on distribution figures (that is, how many unit were shipped this week.) I still don't think they reflect much except the skills of advertisers.

Indeed. I wish I could go back in time to trademark the (very non-common) word AppleIBMfoxfiremicrosoftatariactivisionsonygamestop.

As a bonus you can sue the Australian arm of the RIAA because your trademark contains the string "aria".
http://www.aria.com.au/

Let's hope the primary schools are up to date with their ARIA license fees!"

Never let a fact get between a geek and his meme.

ARIA doesn't take money from the primary schools. ARIA licenses recorded music for commercial use in pubs, restaurants, dance halls and so on.

Licensing FAQs - What sort of sound recording reproductions is ARIA able to license?

We DO NOT license reproductions in the following circumstances:

Anyone wanting to put together a product/compilation for sale to the public (this includes all retail stores, market stalls, etc);
Any compilation /product to be created for branding, promotional or training use;
A DJ or any other person wishing to use a sample of a commercially released sound recording in their mix or any person wanting to create mix-tapes or remixes;
The reproduction of sound recordings for use in a film, DVD or video;
The use of sound recordings for theme music, promos or in a dramatic context in television productions;
The reproduction of sound recordings for use in any advertisements or commercials;
The reproduction of sound recordings for use as "walking on" or "walking off" music at seminars or conferences;
Music for use at wedding ceremonies or other public events;
Any person wanting to make a "back-up" copy of their album, CD or cassette;
Any person wishing to make a copy of a sound recording for a friend;
Any person wanting to set up a business where the customer details which sound recording they would like on a CD and the business puts the required sound recordings onto a CD and sells the product to the customer. This is considered the retail sale of a compilation CD;
Any person who wants to set up a business where they convert sound recordings into another format for customers (e.g. converting vinyl records into CD format for customers;
ALL reproductions of sound recordings downloaded from unauthorised internet sites;
Podcasts or other online uses.

1) Who do you pay?

You need to look at the list of participating ARIA members

Basically, ARIA just say "you need a license to play any music*", and then the hidden * is ".. the copyright for which is owned by a participating ARIA member".

2) The real question (to my mind) is, is such a license required at all? Format shifting is specifically allowed under Australian copyright law since the Copyright Amendment Bill of 2006, as long as its for "private and domestic use". I assume "domestic" in this context means "inside the home". I haven't read the actual legislation (yet).

3) ARIA will do what they always do - wait until violation is brought to their attention (I assume this happens less and less) or through their active enforcement measures (eg, they, or some other entity, have people wandering around looking for shops that play music that don't have a license sticker in the window).

As it currently stands in Australia, DJ's don't ever have to pay any royalty/licensing issues...
Its all managed by the Club/Event Production Managemnent. (ala the Companies responsible for running said event).

ARIA is simply trying to "Double Dip", as they already receive a 'licensing payment' based on the number of people who could potentially hear the music.
ref: http://www.aria.com.au/pages/licensing-faq.htm

As what music they cover ~ well they claim to represent "all music", regardless of the genre/nationality/copyright... and the Australian Government supports this view.

From personal experience, i was invloved with touring a Swedish Electronic Music Group thru Australia ~ where the group were signed to their own label, which they OWNED.
ARIA still claimed we owed them licensing payments for any music heard from the Swedish Group... WHICH WAS THEIR OWN MUSIC!!

Try being an unsigned garage band in Australia who write their own music, who decides to put on a "free concert" to promote themselves.... better watch out, ARIA will come calling, and they will find you.

Yep, they need to pay a licence fee to copy music they already own legally to their iPods, laptops, or compilation CDs.

What sort of sound recording reproductions can ARIA license? ... A DJ wanting to put sound recordings from his various albums on to a single source (computer hardware) for ease of use, and as a back-up in case originals get lost or stolen.

Under legislation passed in late 2006, you no longer need permission, under limited circumstances, to make a copy of a CD or a digital download that you own for your private and domestic use for use on a different device.

The logic is quite erronious: labels have been losing sales not due to competition/substitution from downloads, but from a lack of new, fresh product to sell. ... Sales would drop even with zero downloading.

Ask the ARIA.

The rest of the world ignoring the Recording Industry Association of America would have such a huge impact

Take Australia for example. The major RIAA labels (Sony, Warner, Universal, EMI) are also in the ARIA.

• ARIA Top 50 Albums
• HMV Album Top 40

Too late, Australia's got it now :-)

Or maybe these guys just beat them to it...

MIPI - Music Industry Piracy Investigations

This seems to be an organisation set up by ARIA Australian Recording Industry Assoication (equivalent to the RIAA) to hunt down commie thieving file traders.

The ACCC lists the MIPI website as ARIA's. and ARIA have come out in support of the bully boy tactics that MIPI have been using. In fact, ARIA's CEO has listed himself as the contact on their press release on this issue ARIA News and was nice enough to give his mobile number(cell phone) as the contact number - 0422 604 668.

BTW A bit of trivia. His name is Stephen ... the AU EDT time zone is GMT +10 and Australia's international phone country code is 61 (remember to drop the zero.) - its now 10:50pm so best wait for a couple of hours to make sure that he is well asleep.

I wonder if you can /. a phone...

MIPI - Music Industry Piracy Investigations

This seems to be an organisation set up by ARIA Australian Recording Industry Assoication (equivalent to the RIAA) to hunt down commie thieving file traders.

The ACCC lists the MIPI website as ARIA's. and ARIA have come out in support of the bully boy tactics that MIPI have been using. In fact, ARIA's CEO has listed himself as the contact on their press release on this issue ARIA News and was nice enough to give his mobile number(cell phone) as the contact number - 0422 604 668.

BTW A bit of trivia. His name is Stephen ... the AU EDT time zone is GMT +10 and Australia's international phone country code is 61 (remember to drop the zero.) - its now 10:50pm so best wait for a couple of hours to make sure that he is well asleep.

I wonder if you can /. a phone...

The ARIA press release is available here if anyone wants evidence that FUD isn't confined to Microsoft and SCO.

So in essence the MIPI is an organisation set up by the music industry to investigate alleged music piracy. I would have thought that carrying out the raid would have been the responsibility of the police or other government agency, rather than an industry association, but apparently jackboots are more freely available here than I thought (Godwin's Law notwithstanding).

sites like this exist only to allow me to make use of my protected right to a backup.

Er, not in Australia.

Real, law-abiding people getting screwed by the RIAA (or its AU equivalent) legal machine does not make sense.

Slashdot these people: ARIA - Australian Recording Industry Association

Yeah, they're just a member of ARIA instead. Same thing penis-faced bastards, different letter order. I don't think ARIA's sued anybody itself, but FOX has sued Scour and a couple other programs on it's own from time to time. Sorry for the crushing intrusion of reality, but FOX owns it's own legion of crappy pop cutouts, they're not going to try and bring anybody down. Since Direct TV being what it is didn't turn down FOX's hard-on to merge with them, I think I can continue burning effigies of Rupert in my bathroom without feeling guilty.

When RIAA comes to town in Australia, for instance, we do it the other way around.

Australia actually has its own version of the RIAA.

I doubt music piracy is a real issue there (at the moment) as broadband is limited/expensive and as a result most users are on dialup (either by choice because they dont justify the costs OR no options).

But yes - it will happen soon.

They very much fail to make clear that breach of copyright is only a criminal offence when the breacher makes money out of it (or breaches "to an extent that affects prejudicially the owner of the copyright" - quote from the law). Any other breaches are simply civil offences (in general much less rewarding in Australia when compared to the US). [how large a breach needs to be before affecting the owner prejudicially has never been tested in the courts here to the best of my knowledge]

They also don't make mention of the right to back up software - a right which has been supported by the Australian Competition and Consumer comission when they supported the right to sell Playstation modchips.