Ripping CDs for personal use Illegal? I don’t think so.
Posted by Kirk M on 02 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: BackWoods tech, The News
By now I’m sure just about everyone who reads the news have come across the suite brought against Jeffrey Howell for illegally sharing copyrighted music over the Kazaa peer-to-peer network. And if you have been following this story then you probably also know the uproar caused by that RIAA lawyer that’s handling this suite saying that just ripping a CD (that you legally own apparently) to your computer is illegal.
Well, no that’s not correct. In fact he’s just plain wrong on that one and should be heartily slapped on the wrist for saying it. Who says? The RIAA says! Right there in their rules and regulations they say it. To wit:
Copying CDs
- It’s okay to copy music onto an analog cassette, but not for commercial purposes.
- It’s also okay to copy music onto special Audio CD-R’s, mini-discs, and digital tapes (because royalties have been paid on them) – but, again, not for commercial purposes.
- Beyond that, there’s no legal "right" to copy the copyrighted music on a CD onto a CD-R. However, burning a copy of CD onto a CD-R, or transferring a copy onto your computer hard drive or your portable music player, won’t usually raise concerns so long as:
- The copy is made from an authorized original CD that you legitimately own
- The copy is just for your personal use. It’s not a personal use – in fact, it’s illegal – to give away the copy or lend it to others for copying.
- The owners of copyrighted music have the right to use protection technology to allow or prevent copying.
- Remember, it’s never okay to sell or make commercial use of a copy that you make.
Source: RIAA’s The Law
Yup! The above or various forms thereof has been tacked onto just about every form of audio media since I bought my first record way back when. For personal use only! Not too hard to understand. Now does that mean I’ve been the good little angel as far as The Law is concerned? Well…for the most part, yes…absolutely which I believe I can attribute more to my years as a sound and recording engineer back in the days when I could hear properly then to anything else of a personal nature. One can gain a very healthy respect to "Rights of Property" in that business to be sure. Doesn’t mean that The Law wasn’t violated now and again it’s just you knew how to do it without getting caught. That was called being smart. And if anyone thinks this is something new, that pirated music is getting way out of hand, think again. This has been going on ever since recorded music was invented. Cylinder to Cylinder, Vinyl to reel-to-reel, vinyl to cassette, cassette to cassette (I refuse to include 8 tracks, sorry) CDs to cassette, CDs to CDs, CDs to MP3 (or whatever format you prefer) and for whatever comes next, rest assured someone we’ll develop a way to copy it. You just didn’t attempt sell your copies on the street that’s all. You waited until you were out of site instead.
These days, sharing copied material of a musical nature on the Internet, you’re blatantly out in the open so it’s just not worth it since the RIAA’s existence and prosecutions thereof are based on a system that’s decades out of date and nearly obsolete. Unfortunately it’s a system that’s still strongly enforced despite it’s gestapo-ish way of doing business. While the medium that audio rides upon has evolved and matured over time as it should have, the RIAA is still operating on rules and regulations that were written not in stone, but in mortar. Mortar that’s been crumbling since it’s inception. There’s nothing wrong with the above quoted section of The Law, nothing whatsoever. Rip your legally owned CD’s to your heart’s content but just make sure you follow the unwritten, common sense type law called; Don’t be Stupid and take 54 of those ripped songs and stick them up on a very popular peer-to-peer music sharing network that lives in the only successful anarchy on this planet–the WWW. The music industry’s version of the secret service will be on to you in the time it takes to copy that CD onto your computer.
Oh, and for heavens sake, don’t put that copy in a shared folder whatever you do. They’ll take on another $10,000 to the fine.
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