Copying CD's and DVD's

[a-train]

My business partner owns a record label and knows a lot about these laws. Copying music and even giving the copies to friends and family is not against the law. In fact, professionally made CDs can be manufactured with unlicensed content as long as they are marked 'promotional use only' and not sold, but given away. Record companies do it all the time without the consent of the license owners.

The worst part about it all is the fact that the artists who create most of our music get nothing. Seriously. Nothing. The record companies make all the money. This is why most artists did not complain about Napster. Only those who owned their own labels were worried about it.

I hate to break it to you, but if you thought that buying a CD rather than accepting a copy was helping a starving artist, its just not true. The money you spent went to record companies and distributors who raped the artist.

If you really want to support musicians, go to their live shows and buy their products directly from them at the show (especially independent artists). Or go to their direct website if they actually own and operate it. Radiohead, for example, is now independent and they actually own their site.

-a-train

[kona0197]

My business partner owns a record label and knows a lot about these laws. Copying music and even giving the copies to friends and family is not against the law. In fact, professionally made CDs can be manufactured with unlicensed content as long as they are marked 'promotional use only' and not sold, but given away. Record companies do it all the time without the consent of the license owners.

The worst part about it all is the fact that the artists who create most of our music get nothing. Seriously. Nothing. The record companies make all the money. This is why most artists did not complain about Napster. Only those who owned their own labels were worried about it.

I hate to break it to you, but if you thought that buying a CD rather than accepting a copy was helping a starving artist, its just not true. The money you spent went to record companies and distributors who raped the artist.

If you really want to support musicians, go to their live shows and buy their products directly from them at the show (especially independent artists). Or go to their direct website if they actually own and operate it. Radiohead, for example, is now independent and they actually own their site.

-a-train

My thoughts exactly.

[Elgama]

My business partner owns a record label and knows a lot about these laws. Copying music and even giving the copies to friends and family is not against the law. In fact, professionally made CDs can be manufactured with unlicensed content as long as they are marked 'promotional use only' and not sold, but given away. Record companies do it all the time without the consent of the license owners.

The worst part about it all is the fact that the artists who create most of our music get nothing. Seriously. Nothing. The record companies make all the money. This is why most artists did not complain about Napster. Only those who owned their own labels were worried about it.

I hate to break it to you, but if you thought that buying a CD rather than accepting a copy was helping a starving artist, its just not true. The money you spent went to record companies and distributors who raped the artist.

If you really want to support musicians, go to their live shows and buy their products directly from them at the show (especially independent artists). Or go to their direct website if they actually own and operate it. Radiohead, for example, is now independent and they actually own their site.

-a-train

YouTube - Don't Download This Song - Weird Al Yankovic

for some reason I am humming this lol

-Charley

[Fiannan]

True, but after the cost of flying there, it's still cheaper at Walmart. Although I do remember working with someone who's friend used to go to China once a year and shop for the latest items, and pay 1/4 the price.

One fourth? Your friend was not skilled at bargaining -- you have to go all psychopathic when bargaining there (and it's loads of fun).

Besides, you can eat dogs in China -- can't order that at Walmart. And then there's all the culture there.

[a-train]

One day I will wake up to the glorious news: 'Walmart files Chapter 11'.

It happens to the best of them.

-a-train

[DigitalShadow]

Intellectual property is a morally complicated issue. On one hand you have the creators who need to be compensated for their troubles, on the other hand you have the consumers shelling out rediculous prices to the labels who control the property. Along comes the internet and easy mechanisms to share content and the RIAA and MPAA think the sky is falling, not because they fear losses to piracy, but because they see their role of controlling and distributing content fading into history. They use wisely chosen words like "pirate" and "stealing" to attempt to sway the public to their side making copying a CD or DVD an absolute moral wrong rather than the gray area it is in reality.

Let me give you an example. I am not all that interested in music. I enjoy it, but I've bought maybe 5 CD's in my lifetime (all when I was in my teens) and mostly just listen to the radio in the car if I want music. If I had access to one million songs, would the labels then have a loss of one million dollars? No, I wasn't going to by those songs anyway, but now I have a little extra enjoyment in my life and there is no victim. I say this because I literally do have access to over a million songs at the moment. I am a senior programmer for a digital music distributer and we have nearly 10 TB of music (yes TB, not GB ). I am allowed to "test" whatever content I please, and many times this is necessary since the labels tend to give us crappy data.

I'm not saying it is always or even sometimes right to copy content, I'm also not saying it's always wrong. I think that we are going to have to completely change the way our society handles intellectual property in the future, I don't claim to know how, but I do know the current system is crumbling before our eyes (from an insider's opinion).

[Latter Days Guy]

This is an interesting topic, what about people who download TV programmes? I downloaded the entire 2nd series of Jericho and have started to download the latest episodes of Battlestar Galactica, now these programmes have been aired in the US but probably will not be aired in the UK for a while. Would you say that this is morally wrong?

[Fiannan]

This is an interesting topic, what about people who download TV programmes? I downloaded the entire 2nd series of Jericho and have started to download the latest episodes of Battlestar Galactica, now these programmes have been aired in the US but probably will not be aired in the UK for a while. Would you say that this is morally wrong?

No, it is not morally wrong. Also, has anyone ever considered the markup price for CDs? Almost every CD I own I bought in Russia -- not pirates I might add but all contain the CIS label that they can only be purchased in former Soviet nations. I am not sure but I think one of the tactics that has been used to attack piracy is to sell CDs at prices people in those countries can afford. Your typical, legal, CD costs about 4 US dollars -- not sure how that translates out into real currency, like the Mexican Peso, but 4 dollars isn't much (yet the record companies must be making somehing anyway).

The internet, for better or for worse, has certainly messed up the traditional supply and demand curve for music and movies. Another poster recently posted a link to a place called Surf the Channel where you can watch TV programs but also movies on your computer -- without downloading them. I was happy because I have not been able to find the sequel to "NIghtwatch" (a cool Russian vampire movie) with either English sub titles or dubbing but they had "Daywatch" there. I was able to watch it while ironing some clothes (and it had perfect English dubbing). I guess it's a way to avoid breaking any copy right law.

[Hemidakota]

Concur...it keeps those business we enjoy alive and healthy.

[Doctor Steuss]

[...]

As a musician, I think it would really bother me if I were trying to sell CD's and people who want to buy them weren't buying them because someone copied the one they bought for $16 20 times. If I were stinking rich though, I would give it away for free. :)

I’m going to opine here a bit (sorry).

If you want to support a musician (i.e. give them some $$$), the best way is to either buy a ticket to one of their concerts of buy merchandise. Many bands don’t end up seeing any money from CD sales. The majority of the money goes to the retailers and the labels. It is an unfortunately antiquated medium. The label I’m currently signed to doesn’t even put out CDs (the music can only be downloaded).

Of the bands I’ve been in, we mostly just gave away CDs or used them in Press-packs or in order to get shows booked. There are a few bands out there that have gotten sweet deals with their contracts (Beck comes to mind), but the majority are only getting nickels and dimes from their studio recordings (if anything at all). I would link to a great Rolling Stones article from a couple of years back on the subject (a music promoter here in Vegas pointed me to it about a year ago), but unfortunately the title of the article contains an expletive.

Needless to say, when you copy a CD, you aren’t really hurting the musicians. You might be inasmuch as their recording costs aren’t being recouped by the label, but by-in-large you are hurting the label or the retailer. Radiohead even went so far as to make their last album available for download for whatever you were willing to pay for it (even if that amount was zero). Although there was a more expensive “download” (with a set price) which contained oodles of extras.

To me, copied CDs are a fantastic way to discover and share new artists. There are many artists I never would have found out about if one of my friends hadn’t copied a CD for me. And those same artists would never have received my fan loyalty of me going to their concerts and purchasing their later recordings.

At this point in time, as a musician (albeit not a successful one) I readily accept that music piracy is a fact of life. One that should not be fought against, but should be accepted and worked with to the advantage of the musicians (and not the multi-billion dollar leaching corporations). Then again, it does depend on the label (for example, Amy Mann’s label is very good to the artists and has their interests in mind more-so than appeasing some guy who owns his own island).

[VisionOfLehi]

By law, you're allowed one legal, personal copy of any type of media, as "back up." This includes VHS, CD, DVD, computer games, video games, etc.

My views, is that once I purchase something, it should be mine. I BOUGHT the item, I didn't buy or rent the item on contract.

Because of this, I have no problem sharing music I've bought with my friends, or getting music from them that they've bought. However, I have a no-download policy (will not use file share). It has to be done in person, as if I were exchanging CDs.

Another reason I don't download music from file share is that I have no idea if anyone ever purchased a legal copy of the file I'm downloading.

As for movies, I don't deal with them. I think that burning them is pretty pointless, anyway. After awhile the burned copies degrade and become pretty much useless, and who needs to have copies of so many movies? Purchase your favorites, and rent or borrow the rest. Quit being cheap.

So, for music, I think it's A-OK to let them rip it... but for movies, it should be "you can borrow this any time you want, but I don't want you to copy it." Make it a policy that if you find out they ARE copying them that they won't be allowed to borrow any more.

[kona0197]

My views, is that once I purchase something, it should be mine. I BOUGHT the item, I didn't buy or rent the item on contract.

If you use Windows you don't own that copy of Windows. You are mearly "leasing" the software from MS.

Just thought that I would add that as it's a bit ironic...

[VisionOfLehi]

How do I enter into a lease without signing anything?

[Iggy]

How do I enter into a lease without signing anything?

Did you read ALL of the fine print when you loaded that program befor you clicked on I Agree?

It is there that you will find the "Lease".