Copyright Law, the interpretation of Options

[sadolakced acid]

Alright, let's keep this a debate, not just stating opinions. that's important.
don't just state your opinion, support it

alright. here's some background

Copyright law prohibits the copying of Digital audio for commercial use. Copying of audio for personal use is allowed, but only first generation copies may be made (copies of the original) second generation copies are illegal (copies of copies). however, computers allow this, and thus the RIAA has said that using your computer to copy digital audio, no matter first or second gen. copies, is illegal. this was ruled as incorrect and not what the law says by a court.

First off, the obvious, is whether or not ripping your CDs to MP3s is illegal

also, is downloading music from online illegal? (copyright law only mentions distributing, not taking)

and, do new CDs that prevent ripping to MP3s, and DRM (digital rights management) WMAs violate the user right to copy?

[sadolakced acid]

No. I believe copyright law allows a person to shift their music or film to another medium. Even if that's still a grey area, I think that if I buy a CD, I should be allowed to shift it into whatever form I wish.


^ fair use only applies to cassette tapes. if you were to make copies to cassette tapes, then the law would make that legal.

copies to anything else is murky business, although courts have ruled it legal; the law doesn't actualy say it is.


now; here's how file sharing applies to me:

there are a few bands i would like to hear how they sound and see if i want to buy thier CD. lacuna coil, seether, godsmack.

now; my library doesn't have thier CDs. i can't listen to them online. i would like to download them off a P2P server; but i don't want to get prosecuted.

therefore; i haven't bought their CDs yet.
i'd like to, but i don't want to spend 15 bucks on a CD just to find out it sucks.

i think record companies would find significant increases in sales if they provided 2 or three 45 kps MP3 songs from each CD for download.

[*mipadi*]

^ fair use only applies to cassette tapes.  if you were to make copies to cassette tapes, then the law would make that legal. 

copies to anything else is murky business, although courts have ruled it legal; the law doesn't actualy say it is.

Mmm, I'm not sure where you got your information, but fair use applies to every medium that is covered by copyright law, including text, images, cassettes, CD's, DVD's, and so forth.

More about Fair Use provision