The Cellar - Copyright Violation

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Copyright Violation

Why is it legal for Circuit city to do this, but not for me? :question:

A question soon to be asked in a courtroom near you, no doubt.

"transfer must be made from an original copy of your DVD collection"

ha ha ha . . . some poor fool thought that would actually make a difference!

They actually expect people to pay $10 for one copy? :crazy:

Might as well buy another copy from the store...aaaahhhhhh, I see

Key word is transfer, not backup (or duplicate or copy). I bet there are plenty who don't know how to get a DVD video on their video capable iPod.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jebediah

Key word is transfer, not backup (or duplicate or copy).

You'd think that would be a key word. But the AAs have issued statements on both sides of that distinction.

The way I understand it is that it works like this. If you buy a "song", you can transfer that song onto any and all other media. If you transfer ownership of the original medium to someone else, you must destroy ALL copies that you made, in ALL media. So, I can buy the vinyl, copy it onto a cassette, reel-to-reel, and into my comuter, and burn a CD and put it onto my MP3 player - but if I seel the vinyl, I have to erase or destroy all the other copies I have.

This old article is all I could find, quickly, that supports my understanding.

Quote:

"It's perfectly legal for you to make copies of your own music for your own personal use," says Robin Gross, EFF's staff intellectual-property attorney. "It's called 'fair use.' It's your legal right to do so, even if the copyright holder doesn't want you to."

So if you want to take all your Radiohead albums, rip selected tracks from each of them, and burn a mix CD for your own use, there's nothing wrong with doing so.

But when you make a mix CD for someone else, or create a CD from music downloaded from a source such as Napster, things get tricky.

If you were to pass your Radiohead mix CD along to a friend, fair use becomes debatable. If listening to a track on that mix CD inspires the friend to run right out and buy a copy of Amnesiac, then you might have a case for it being a fair use of the material, according to the EFF. Not so fast, the RIAA counters; that Radiohead CD is legal only if you also hand over to your friend all the legally purchased Radiohead CDs you used to burn it.

Does anyone else think it's an odd business tactic to sue the crap out of your customer base?

Au Contraire, my guess is that the MPAA will also go this route....

as a side note......

most of the most popular p2p sites/networks target by the RIAA had a substanstial body of work *not* covered by RIAA copywrite.

Quote:

Originally Posted by headsplice

Does anyone else think it's an odd business tactic to sue the crap out of your customer base?

It works. I was just reading about this. They are getting a positive cash flow from their legal department. They file so many of these lawsuits that they have figured out the boilerplate forms and strategies to use. There's an economy of scale that their adversaries don't have. If you are sued by them, it's cheaper to settle than to defend yourself, even if you are certain to win. So most people settle. They are making money at this. In fact, as record and CD sales decline, this may be the only business model they will have left.

They're nothing but a bunch of goddamn extortionists. :mad:

If I'm a musician, how the hell is the guy who downloads my song for free my "customer base"? That's a red herring if ever I've heard one. He doesn't become my "customer base" until and unless he actually pays me for something. You know. Like a customer does.

Depends on what the return is. If 100 people know your music and 50 of them buy you've sold 50 copies. If it gets out on P2P and 500 people here it and you get 51 sales... What I'm saying is there are a lot of bands who want their stuff to be heard; a certain % will buy if they like.

huzzah for those bands. that still doesn't make the guy who downloads it for free my customer.