Can we copy cds/DVDs from the library or from a friend?

[Strider]

BayCityRickL:

When I attended Immaculate Conception Parish in Elmhurst, Illinois, the pastor used to photocopy materials for our bible study group that was clearly labeled as copyright material.

I think if you’re a pastor or have a Ph.D., then photocopying is OK.

But if you only have a masters degree, you can get away with paying half-price.

Of course pastors, PhD’s and even CEO’s have to pay royalties & licensing fees.
The answer to the original post is NO! you cannot copy CD’s /DVD/s from the library or a friend.

 

[All4lifetoo]

BayCityRickL:

An interesting point is whether the content of these forums is considered copyright material?

I’m sure that there is someone who would say you can’t copy and use something they submitted to a forum.

Anything that anyone writes or creates is the property of that person. Copyright law formalizes that ownership and protects the commercial interests of the owner in his property. There are certain legal requirements that must be met for this formal protection to be enforceable. One of those requirements is the notification of copyright ownership. No one here complies with this notice requirement ie. Copyright by My Name 2004. All rights reserved. So while the author of material posted in the forums is the owner of the material, it is likely that he has no legal protection of his commercial rights in the material.

Additionally, I would question the commercial value of anything posted here. There is not financial value of posting something on the forum so what is there to protect?

 

[Veronica_Anne]

Thanks for asking.

It’s both immoral and possibly illegal to steal a work product that a person or an organization produces for sale unless you make a copy for your OWN use, ONLY of that work product that you’d already paid for .

Even if you never intend to buy it. Actually, ESPECIALLY if you never intend to buy it. Either way, it’s stealing.

Any rationalization that is used to prove to yourself or others that copying something that is the work product of someone else without their permission to not pay for it is STEALING. Pure and simple.

Having said that… if you need to corroborate that with civil law (as if morality and following God’s OWN law to not steal isn’t enough)…here’s a few resources for copyright law.

Have a blast.

Go to this one, first. It’ll save you LOTS of time!
the Government
copyright.gov/

**the Copyright Website **
benedict.com/
Welcome to the Copyright Website! The Internet’s first and premiere Copyright Registration and Information Resource. Launched in 1995, the Copyright Website strives to lubricate the machinations of information delivery. As spice is to Dune, information is to the Web; the spice must flow. Or, if you prefer another metaphor, take the red pill and I’ll show you just how deep the rabbit hole goes…

ivanhoffman.com/
IVAN HOFFMAN, B.A., J.D.
Attorney at Law
Internet and Intellectual Property Law
Lawyering With Integrity SM
Proactive, Forward-Looking Legal Advice

the Library of Congress’s mini-site
loc.gov/law/glin/

---

copyright 2004 Veronica Anne
All rights reserved

 

[whosebob]

JMJ + OBT​

Dear all,

I realize this thread has been dormant for some time now, but I didn’t stumble across it until this evening and I wanted to toss in an observation or two.

I will have to dig up the relevant court decisions, etc. but . . .

Actually, it is not illegal to make a copy of a tape cassette or a music CD and give it to a friend, or vice versa. It would be illegal to sell your friend such a copy, but it is perfectly legal to give it to him freely, or for him to give you such a copy freely. The same goes for VHS tapes of TV programs and ones you purchase in a store. It is not the case for rented tapes, if I remember correctly – illegal to copy them for personal use or to give a friend a copy. The same restriction probably applies to media borrowed from a public library.

These same perfectly legal activities are understood to be illegal if done on a large scale, thought I’m not sure how the courts actually define that.

Now, publicly “sharing” the same CDs, movies, etc. via the Internet has indeed been found to be illegal – though such decisions are well known to be muddy given the courts previous rulings regarding sharing physical copies with friends.

Also, the DMCA – Digital Millenium Copyright Act – has complicated the issue. It makes it illegal to deliberately break or circumvent a digital copyright protection system, present say on a DVD. In fact, that’s why it is illegal to “burn” copies of DVDs you buy at the store to share with friends. Believe it or not, it’s not the sharing of the physical copy that’s illegal, it’s the breaking of the encryption on the disc, necessary before “ripping and burning” it, that is expressly illegal.

I will have to find legal references to back all of this up, but I promise I’m not fibbin’.

In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

IC XC NIKA

 

[baggins321]

What do you think about filesharing in regards to CHRISTIAN music specifically?

My argument is that Christian related music should NOT be copyrighted and should just automatically enter into the public domain. Any secular band that wants to sell their music for profit and greed can go ahead because what they promote is just as bad, which is drug use, sex, calling women ‘hoes’, promoting them to dress like sluts, and in some case even promoting killing people.

How is it against the laws of god and the church to share the word of god in all its forms freely with one another? Don’t you think that’s how Christ would want it? Christian artists have a higher responsibility when it comes to distributing their music, if they are truly Christian I don’t think they should be in it for profit at all.

 

[abcdefg]

If I wrote a commercial program, I would be happier to acknowledge that people all over the world were using “unlawful” copies rather than no one was using it.

 

[whosebob]

JMJ + OBT​

Dear everybody,

Earlier tonight, I received a “kick in the pants” which I needed in order to spend some time with Google.com, doing the research necessary to back up the claims in my previous post.

Here are some things I found helpful:

Digital Copyright Terminology

which led me to . . .

Home Recording

which led me to . . .

Section 1008 of Title 17 of the United States Code

quote from the link above:

"1008. Prohibition on certain infringement actions

No action may be brought under this title alleging infringement of copyright based on the manufacture, importation, or distribution of a digital audio recording device, a digital audio recording medium, an analog recording device, or an analog recording medium, or based on the noncommercial use by a consumer of such a device or medium for making digital musical recordings or analog musical recordings."

[emphasis mine]

It is important to note that a quick search on Google indicates the RIAA and MPAA have begun a “war of words” in which they now refer to almost all copying that is presently protected under “Section 1008 of Title 17 of the United States Code” as illegal piracy.

Now, federal and state courts have indeed found Napster-style sharing is illegal. But in no way can it be said that today’s laws in the U.S. define as illegal the copying of a purhased CD or audio tape or video tape for NON-COMMERCIAL purposes, e.g. backup copies, copy for a friend, personal “mix” tape or CD.

UNLESS, that is, we are dealing with media that specifically employ digital copyright protection technology, in which case the DMCA (and this has so far been upheld by the courts) makes it illegal to deliberately circumvent such technology. In other words, it wouldn’t be illegal to burn a copy of a DVD for a friend or to make oneself a backup copy, except for the fact that the copyright protection mechanism – in this case encryption – must be “broken” first, and that act is in and of itself illegal.

I hope this helps to clear things up!

In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

IC XC NIKA

 

[Windmill]

Anything against ripping your own CD’s to your own MP3 player?

Rich

 

[whosebob]

Windmill:

Anything against ripping your own CD’s to your own MP3 player?

JMJ + OBT​

Unless the specific CD’s in question have digital copyright protection embedded in them (some newer ones do), I think “Section 1008” should cover this scenario, but I am not a lawyer so . . . proceed according to the more or less informed dictates of your conscience.

 

[gomer_tree]

Interesting discussion. In general, I agree with the idea that copying music is theft. I also am not guiltless… I have a checkered past in this area, but no longer do it (maturity and better understanding do wonders for certain illicit practices!)

The one area where I part ways is this: I have a number of old tapes where I recorded a song off the radio. I always found it a bit confusing to this whole issue that one is free to copy something from TV or radio, but copying the same thing from another tape is illegal. I have a difficult time embracing that, but it is what it is.

Anyway, I wished to purchase CD copies of a lot of these old songs. This was difficult in numerous ways: (1) I only wanted the one song. I would gladly pay $1 for a single song, but I didn’t want to pay $16 for an entire CD just for that song. The market created a barrier - at least at the time - that made such a goal financially impossible to attain. In this case, I understand that it still doesn’t make it right, since there is a CD available for me to purchase. But it really was a problem that, thankfully, I think has now finally been addressed through the ability to pay for downloads of single songs. So this is probably an older issue. More importantly, (2) a few of these songs were really obscure. I mean, it was obscure to the point where no store in my area carried them, and the only copies I could find were from collectors where the copies being sold were used and would not line the artist’s pockets to begin with. The CD was, in other words, currently out of print. Yet, I was able to find the songs on Napster at the time. Maybe I’m wrong, and it’s rationalization, but I had no qualms about downloading these particular songs.

Just a couple examples where the line seemed fuzzy to me.