Top Techno Tunes Takedown Trouble

I don’t know that much about the world of electronic music but I was sent an interesting read about a chap in the USA called Modular Punk who allegedly managed not only to copy, rename, re-brand and release fifteen tracks actually produced by Italian DJ and techno producer Alex De Stefano, he also copyrighted said tracks in the USA and claimed ownership of such. Perhaps unsurprisingly, said Mr M Punk (real name Felipe Cersosimo, aged 27) had a JD in Intellectual Property and International law apparently from the American University, Washington College of Law, and for a few weeks had ‘his’ tracks out on sale, distributed by his own label and distributors Dark Digital Underground, Iris Distribution and Perfection Recordings and he even managed to get them onto all major digital distribution platforms (including iTunes) and even got the onto the Billboard, MTV Meteor and MySpace techno charts. So, a now very peeved De Stefano tried to take action and a number (but not all) of the digital outlets removed the offending tracks BUT of course Mr Punk had those very annoying copyrights registered in the USA and so what ensued then appears to be a battle of DCMA ‘takedown’ procedures from Mr De Stefano which prompted what I understand to be DCMA ‘counter-notification’ letters and emails between websites, Mr Punk and Mr De Stefano – meaning De Stefano , whilst asserting ownership, was often somewhat on the back foot. It appears it all ended up well for Mr Stefano although a few websites took some persuading, and if you want more the interesting world of DJs, producers and remixers, have a look at Analogik here http://analogik.com/articles/20668/modular-punk-stole-15-tracks-from-alex-di-stefano and more on Modular Punk here http://toptechnotracks.com/modular-punk-interview-september-2011/#.TzOUtly7U8Y and some Alex de Stefano tracks on Stormcloud here http://soundcloud.com/alexdistefano