An unknown Italian DJ has been fined 1.4m Euros (about £950,000) - Europe’s biggest ever fine for downloading illegal MP3s.

Alberto Martin was fined after police raided a club he was playing at in Rieti, a town near Rome. They seized over 2,000 illegal MP3 files and 500 music videos.
FIMI, the Italian equivalent of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), welcomed the huge fine. "We hope this precedent will serve as a deterrent for those who are thinking of doing the same," said its director Enzo Mazza.

Deterrent
"This DJ was touring clubs and making money out of the music he played - while those who had invested time, talent, hard work and money into creating the music in the first place did not get a cent," he added.

The police claimed that Alberto was a "well known" Italian DJ. However DJmag hasn't come across this bloke before. When we got in touch with some Italian industry bigwigs, they hadn't heard of him either.

This is bad news for DJs everywhere. If Alberto was just a part-time amateur as we suspect he is, his whopping fine serves as a severe warning to any DJs who play, or are thinking of playing illegal MP3s in their sets.

It seems, no matter how minor-league a DJ you are, the record industry has you in their sights. Watch out.

Global Effort
This latest fine comes as part of a global effort by the record industry to legislate against DJs who infringe copyright.

Australian superstar DJ Peewee Ferris was recently fined £50,000 for a copyright-infringing mix CD.(T.C)