Urgent! Sibling dilemma!

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Cradle

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Ok, my relationship with my sis has been a bit rocky lately… but things seem to be making a turn for the better. So, today she asked me to burn a CD for her. No problem, I can buy the songs off iTunes; so I say sure. But it turns out that I can’t get some of them from iTunes because it just doesn’t have them… and the CD would be missing quite a few… So now I don’t know what to do. And please don’t tell me that I already do know what I have to do…

I still have the song files that she needs, but they are from when I would illegally download stuff (ie. not pay; I don’t listen to those anymore and am gradually replacing my library with legal files). Using these would of course be objectively wrong. The other option is to go out and buy the singles and albums, etc. at an actual real-life store… but, and this is a big but, she wants the CD for tomorrow, and already she is asking me why I haven’t started burning it yet, so imagine what it will be like tomorrow… I can’t get to a store until Monday! Now, if I use the illegal files and burn the CD for tomorrow I would go out at a more opportune time (say, Monday) and buy the music at a store (hopefully it’s available there!), but would that matter? Anyway, she is not aware of my little dilemma… If she knew, any hope for mending our relationship goes down the drain and she will label me an extremist, etc, etc, etc. 😦

So what should I do? Should I stick to the objectively right thing (wait until I have the legal music) and lose our chance of getting back on track? Should I burn the illegal files and later buy the legal music? If I go with option two, would that put me in a state of mortal sin? Pleeeeeeease help! I need to reach a decision today as soon as possible and don’t have recourse to a priest!

Heeeeeeeelp! :eek:
 
From BC I see? Well its legal to download music in Canada eh. Unless of course it goes against your personal morals. I see no problems with downloading music.
 
Yes, downloading music is legal in Canada, but the Church requires us to obey more than just human laws. Something legal can be immoral, as we well know. (I guess I was using the term “illegal” loosely…) Isn’t getting copyrighted music without paying for it a violation of “thou shalt not steal”? I had thought so…
 
It seems to me, since it is legal to download music in Canada, and you were to reimburse the musicians as much as conviently possible by buying the songs that you could off iTunes you wouldn’t have a problem. You would be fulfilling your obligation to support the musicians. I personally like the CDs myself because the sound quality is often better than more compressed stuff, but it depends on the type of compression and the price of CDs arn’t getting any cheaper.
 
Actually, it seems to me that if you were to rip a CD with downloaded mp3s and give it to your sister, you would infact be breaking the law. See this article:

grep.law.harvard.edu/articles/03/08/22/1655233.shtml

Its not matter of fact legal advice, but it does clear up some of the fog on the matter.

Furthermore, our good ole’ Canadian government reimburses the artists themselves, which thus, in my mind, makes it moral. Just as you reimburse the artist by paying through iTunes, so do does the government reimburse by charging levys on items such as iPods.

Correct me if I’m wrong.
 
Thanks everyone for your replies.

OK, I just spent some time skimming through the Copyright Act and now my eyes hurt…

I’m sooooo confused. canadianlife’s just brought up a whole new problem, and I went to the link, but then I found this in the Copyright Act:
General
  1. (1) It is an infringement of copyright for any person to do, without the consent of the owner of the copyright, anything that by this Act only the owner of the copyright has the right to do.
(2) It is an infringement of copyright for any person to

(a) sell or rent out,

(b) distribute to such an extent as to affect prejudicially the owner
of the copyright,

(c) by way of trade distribute, expose or offer for sale or rental, or exhibit in public,

(d) possess for the purpose of doing anything referred to in paragraphs (a) to (c), or

(e) import into Canada for the purpose of doing anything referred to in paragraphs (a) to (c),

a copy of a work, sound recording or fixation of a performer’s performance or of a communication signal that the person knows or should have known infringes copyright or would infringe copyright if it had been made in Canada by the person who made it.
Click to expand...
which only talks about selling, renting, and distribution/exposure to the public. Later on it says that making copies for oneself is not an infringement (as was mentioned in the link canadianlife gave), but there is no mention of making a copy for somebody else (or at least, it’s not very clear… or maybe I don’t remember… or maybe it didn’t apply…), which of course doesn’t give any indication as to whether it is an infringement or not… :eek: Why does this have to be so difficult?!

And in case anyone’s wondering… I still haven’t made the CD, I managed to go out and buy some of the music that was needed but some of it just doesn’t want to be found and some of it I forgot to look for, and my sister is PO’d and saying that she should have known better than to count on me…

Yay.
 
Since I’m a mom, I may SOUND like a mom.

Number 1 - the items you downloaded in a less than honest manner, well, delete em all from your machine. Slowly replacing them with legally or morally purchased music is a cop-out, dump them and have them gone. Make a clean music slate.

Number 2 - Call your sister “I have available Songs A, B, D and E from your list. Songs C, F and G I do not have for you. Let’s run over to Boarders (or whatever the name of the local CD store) and buy them.”
 
I agree!

It sounds like your sis may not be happy with what you may do, either way. Sadly, you aren’t really in control of this.

Just try your best and get rid of the tempting music. 🙂
kage_ar said:
Since I’m a mom, I may SOUND like a mom.

Number 1 - the items you downloaded in a less than honest manner, well, delete em all from your machine. Slowly replacing them with legally or morally purchased music is a cop-out, dump them and have them gone. Make a clean music slate.

Number 2 - Call your sister “I have available Songs A, B, D and E from your list. Songs C, F and G I do not have for you. Let’s run over to Boarders (or whatever the name of the local CD store) and buy them.”
Click to expand...
 
Well, there is still the problem of whether making/copying a CD for my sister is legal or not…

I’m going to talk to my priest, although I don’t know how much he can help me since it’s not as if he were a lawyer… sigh
 
Sometimes, we need to sacrifice. It’s whether you will save a relationship or not to sin. There are hundred’s of ways to save a relationship.And hundreds of ways to get things done.
 
I think there is a bigger issue here than your illegal downloading music worries. Your sister sounds like a huge bully in this “relationship” and you can’t fix a relationship with somebody like that by bowing to their every demand. It’s not healthy for you. Stand up to your sister and stop allowing her to abuse you this way.

You will never have a true relationship with her unless SHE decides to change. Sometimes that’s just the way it is with people we love.
 
Look here sweetie, this isn’t complicated. Just tell her the truth.
 
Cradle said:
Ok, my relationship with my sis has been a bit rocky lately… but things seem to be making a turn for the better. So, today she asked me to burn a CD for her. No problem, I can buy the songs off iTunes; so I say sure. But it turns out that I can’t get some of them from iTunes because it just doesn’t have them… and the CD would be missing quite a few… So now I don’t know what to do. And please don’t tell me that I already do know what I have to do…

I still have the song files that she needs, but they are from when I would illegally download stuff (ie. not pay; I don’t listen to those anymore and am gradually replacing my library with legal files). Using these would of course be objectively wrong. The other option is to go out and buy the singles and albums, etc. at an actual real-life store… but, and this is a big but, she wants the CD for tomorrow, and already she is asking me why I haven’t started burning it yet, so imagine what it will be like tomorrow… I can’t get to a store until Monday! Now, if I use the illegal files and burn the CD for tomorrow I would go out at a more opportune time (say, Monday) and buy the music at a store (hopefully it’s available there!), but would that matter? Anyway, she is not aware of my little dilemma… If she knew, any hope for mending our relationship goes down the drain and she will label me an extremist, etc, etc, etc. 😦

So what should I do? Should I stick to the objectively right thing (wait until I have the legal music) and lose our chance of getting back on track? Should I burn the illegal files and later buy the legal music? If I go with option two, would that put me in a state of mortal sin? Pleeeeeeease help! I need to reach a decision today as soon as possible and don’t have recourse to a priest!

Heeeeeeeelp! :eek:
Click to expand...
Just tell her you don’t have all the songs she requested.
 
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