[X4U] Re: Any legal restrictions on CD songs as gift loaded on iPod

[Stroller]

[CONTINUED]


The principle of "fair use" is that someone who has bought music has  
an implicit "licence" to listen to it, and the media that the music  
is recorded on is irrelevant. It is reasonable for you to record a CD  
to tape so that you can listen to it in the cassette-player in your  
car (I only buy cars second-hand & none of them yet have had a CD- 
player!); you can't be at home listening to your CD and the copy of  
it at the same time, so only one copy is in use. Likewise if a book  
is not available in braille it would be reasonable for you to buy a  
copy of the printed version and have someone transcribe it for you.  
We consider that "fair" and the law considers it "fair use". Canada  
has quite liberal fair use laws, and I can only think that that's  
where Kate lives if she works in publishing & says that Mr  
Richardson's original suggestion falls under "fair use" - almost  
anywhere else it would be illegal (but as Craig so eloquently says  
"damages are $0").

The 20th century was a great era for people who sold music & books &  
magazines & films, but I don't see how we can turn back the tide of  
digital copying. But frankly I think it'll take the best part of a  
revolution or a collapse of civilisation for the law to reflect this  
- in the UK copying a dirty picture from the internet to your hard- 
drive can be construed as "making pornography" and I can only hope  
that a gradual evolution of legislation will start to see some sense  
in this matter. Frankly I think prosecution and laws against non- 
commercial "abuse" of such intangibles as "intellectual property" is  
stupid; artists should get on with making their money by charging  
more for gigs, or selling limited edition CDs on green-vinyl or  
whatever. Already one UK ticket-vendor has started selling tickets to  
a performance by auction (eBay??), allowing the market to determine  
the value of being there in person and enjoying the music and I'm  
sure this is a better business-model in the MP3 age.

Ironically, when I was driving home this evening there was a "news"  
article on the radio about selling iPods with music already loaded -  
it seemed like a bit of obvious astro-turfing by the recording  
industry to me, who are surely more interested in people who might  
sell iPods on eBay stuffed with many gigabytes of music. Yet the  
radio station interviewed people in the street who professed  
ignorance: "I bought this music & thought it was mine to do what I  
like with". *sighs*

> I don't think there would be any question about legality if the  
> original CD and backup went along with the iPod (at least in my mind).

Indeed. That would surely fall under any state's Fair Use exemptions.

Stroller.