MP3 Downloading - Is it Illegal in this instance? (Little Rant)

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BlueRain

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Hello,
I’m actually a little upset. So there a few songs that I can not find anywhere to buy. Can’t find them in Amazon, not iTunes etc. But there are other ways I can get the songs. I would buy them, but I can’t find them anywhere. (If you must know, one of the songs is “Quiero Vivir La Vida Aamandote” which is a Spanish version of "I Want to Keep on Loving You"and I know part of the duo is Ana Gabriel).
Also, I want to buy the song “Hombre Religioso” (Religious Man), but both Amazon and itunes only have the option of buying the whole album, you can’t just buy that one song. I don’t understand why companies do that? 🤷 so I’m a little peeved.

what do you guys think? download them for free, although that would be illegal. Or just forget about them? there are actually more songs than this. Maybe I should wait a few more years, by that time, I’ll probably forget about them.
 
BlueRain said:
Hello,
I’m actually a little upset. So there a few songs that I can not find anywhere to buy. Can’t find them in Amazon, not iTunes etc. But there are other ways I can get the songs. I would buy them, but I can’t find them anywhere. (If you must know, one of the songs is “Quiero Vivir La Vida Aamandote” which is a Spanish version of "I Want to Keep on Loving You"and I know part of the duo is Ana Gabriel).
Also, I want to buy the song “Hombre Religioso” (Religious Man), but both Amazon and itunes only have the option of buying the whole album, you can’t just buy that one song. I don’t understand why companies do that? 🤷 so I’m a little peeved.

what do you guys think? download them for free, although that would be illegal. Or just forget about them? there are actually more songs than this. Maybe I should wait a few more years, by that time, I’ll probably forget about them.
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Actually, whether or not it’s illegal is entirely contingent upon DCMA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998) “safe harbor” provisions. YouTube just won a legal victory on this basis, for example, and downloading an mp3 for your own personal use is already legally permissible and protected from the “Betamax” case in the 1980’s: that hasn’t changed.

Sources:
eff.org/deeplinks/2010/06/youtube-wins-summary-judgment-viacom-dmca
w2.eff.org/legal/cases/betamax/
 
havana1 said:
Actually, whether or not it’s illegal is entirely contingent upon DCMA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998) “safe harbor” provisions. YouTube just won a legal victory on this basis, for example, and downloading an mp3 for your own personal use is already legally permissible and protected from the “Betamax” case in the 1980’s: that hasn’t changed.

Sources:
eff.org/deeplinks/2010/06/youtube-wins-summary-judgment-viacom-dmca
w2.eff.org/legal/cases/betamax/
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The bolded statement is false. The makers of Betamax (and in the more recent case Google/Youtube) are protected from liability of copyright infringement by the users of their technology. People who illegally download mp3 files that contain copyrighted works are in violation of the law.

That being said, I think that in the OP’s case, it is permissible to download the files that you cannot find anywhere. You have attempted to follow legal avenues and have been unable to locate the material. That being said, I would question the decision to download the file that you have found illegally just because you don’t want the whole album.
 
musicality said:
That being said, I think that in the OP’s case, it is permissible to download the files that you cannot find anywhere. You have attempted to follow legal avenues and have been unable to locate the material. That being said, I would question the decision to download the file that you have found illegally just because you don’t want the whole album.
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Thank you for your responses.
Well, the album is $9.99 and that is the only song I truly like on the album, I’ll have to consider it. I think I’ll just hope and wait that eventually they’ll let me buy that individual song.
I guess now I don’t feel so bad to get the songs I can’t find anywhere. Why do I make my life more complicated, I could just be listening to mass market music like Lady Gaga…Just Kidding 😉
 
I can empathize with you. Most of the songs that I would like to get are Japanese bonus tracks from albums I already own that are long out of print, where often the band has broken up and, in many cases, even the record label has since gone under. There is simply no available means to obtain the song where the respective copyright holders would get any money.

I defer to others on the legality of it all. I don’t pretend to understand copyright law. But it seems less clear-cut than I originally thought.
 
I am more than a little ticked off. Suddenly my MP3 player told me I couldn’t play an album b/c the license is no good. Now I’ve lost the CD but still have the cassette (so I’ve paid for it twice).

I suspect this happened b/c I bought the CD years ago, made an archival copy, lost the original, put the archival on my next PC, moved it thru a backup drive onto my next computer & then to the present one & someplace along the line it lost its license or they upgraded the DRM they use to ID legitimate copies.

Another issue:
I found a totally illegal site that offers in-copyright ebooks for download. But quite a few of the books, especially SF anthologies are ones that I owned or used to own. So my “guardian” devil is whispering, "Go ahead, you’ve already paid for it once.

Last but certainly not least, NO PRIVACY. Every time I plug in Sony, iTunes, whatever store I get content from are rifling thru my devices and hard drive to see what I have, where I got it, &c, &c.
The only wy to avoid this is to buy actual books and CDs from stores with cash but how much longer will they be available?
 
didymus said:
Last but certainly not least, NO PRIVACY. Every time I plug in Sony, iTunes, whatever store I get content from are rifling thru my devices and hard drive to see what I have, where I got it, &c, &c.
Click to expand...
Is that true? That seems a little creepy…
 
That’s one I reason I try sticking with Amazon, apparently they don’t have the DRM issue. Apparently. Who knows in the future.
 
BlueRain said:
That’s one I reason I try sticking with Amazon, apparently they don’t have the DRM issue. Apparently. Who knows in the future.
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I’ve been doing the Amazon download thing for awhile now but I’ve gone back to just ordering the CD. For one thing you don’t get the liner notes/lyrics w/the download, second more than a few times I’ve downloaded then wanted to give the CD to someone only to fine tha album is no longer available either as CD nor download.
 
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