Is it legal to burn a CD from the library? and related ?'s

blackcauldron85 · Post by **blackcauldron85** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 3:17 pm

Is it legal to borrow a CD from the library and rip it to your computer or burn it to a CD?

Is it illegal if someone makes you a mix CD made from CDs that they own?

Is it illegal to buy an album, eventually rip it to your computer and/or make a mix CD with it, and eventually sell the album to a used CD store or an online reailer- and keep the songs on your computer and/or mix CD? (Such as wanting to go completely digital- put all your music on your mp3 player and/or computer and sell the physical CD)

MK Sharp · Post by **MK Sharp** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 6:03 pm

No. Yes. Yes.

blackcauldron85 · Post by **blackcauldron85** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 5:37 am

Thanks- I figured the last was, but I wasn't sure about the others.

Is it illegal to record off the radio? How about to rip audio from a DVD you own?

Disney Lover · Post by **Disney Lover** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 8:44 am

Technically it's illegal to make any type of copy of any song/tv show/movie. But people do it any way.

Cause technically it's illegal to put the songs from a cd that you bought onto your computer and listen to it from there. If I remember right, the industry wants to try and charge us for doing that. Same with putting it on our MP3 players.

Mr. Toad · Post by **Mr. Toad** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 10:32 am

Disney Lover wrote:Technically it's illegal to make any type of copy of any song/tv show/movie. But people do it any way.

Cause technically it's illegal to put the songs from a cd that you bought onto your computer and listen to it from there. If I remember right, the industry wants to try and charge us for doing that. Same with putting it on our MP3 players.

That is totally incorrect. You can tape any media but you can only use it for your own personal use. You cant give it to another person or make any profit off of it.

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:58 pm

Mr Toad you are correct.

blackcauldron85 · Post by **blackcauldron85** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 2:17 pm

Mr. Toad wrote: You can tape any media but you can only use it for your own personal use. You cant give it to another person or make any profit off of it.

What exactly do you mean by "any media"? Any media that you have bought and still own? Friends' media?

(Sorry for all these questions- I've read a bunch of different answers to these questions online, so I wanted to ask you all what you thought!)

SpringHeelJack · Post by **SpringHeelJack** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 5:01 pm

If you buy a CD, you can transfer it to mp3 files and upload them to your computer / iPod / whatever. You are not allowed to borrow a CD from someone, be it a friend or library, and convert it to mp3 files. If you sell a CD you own, technically you should also delete the music files from your computer if they are there.

MK Sharp · Post by **MK Sharp** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 6:16 pm

Remedial Copyright 101

Copyright is literally "the right to copy". If you own the copyright in something, you have the right to determine how, when and by whom it may be copied and on what terms.

In the case of music CDs, the record companies that own the recordings and the music publishers that control the compositions have agreed to make copies available to the public by various means (CD, broadcast radio, etc) in return for payments being received (from CD sales, revenue collected from broadcasters by performing rights associations, etc).

Copyright law varies from country to country, but there are a few basic precepts that are pretty much consistant.

What can I do with my CD?
When you purchase a CD, you do not own the copyright in the contents, so technically you cannot make copies of the CD. However, there are various fair-use exemptions in place in most countries' copyright laws.
Usually there will be a provision for format shifting, which allows you to transfer your CD to a computer or iPod or other similar device. This is allowed on the basis that you already own a copy of the content, and the copy is for your personal use only. You may not give or sell format-shifted copies away, nor may you retain the format-shifted copies if you dispose of the original CD.
So you cannot take a copy of any or all of the contents of someone else's CD; nor can they make a copy and give it to you.

Ripping audio off DVD is slightly more complex: partially because it's not a format shift in the strict sense of the term (you're changing it from a video recording to an audio recording); and partially because pretty much any software that can rip from DVDs also has to break the encryption on the DVD, which is also illegal in some countries. But the bottom line is: no, you can't do it.

Can I tape stuff off the radio/TV?
Usually there will be a provision in copyright laws for some form of time shifting of broadcasts. This will allow you to make a copy of the broadcast for later listening/viewing, as long as it is for your own personal use. The provisions on how long you may keep the recordings vary from country to country. You may not dispose of those copies to another person; nor can you make copies of your time shifted recordings (so you can't assemble a mix tape out of highlights of radio recordings).

Ultimately, if you want to legally own a copy of something, you need to buy it in some format. If you then convert it to a different format, you need to retain the original. When you have bought a copy of something, you do not have the right to make copies of it for other people.

(This information is provided as general advice only, and should not be taken as a replacement for legal advice sought from a legal professional in your country.)

blackcauldron85 · Post by **blackcauldron85** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 5:06 am

Thanks, SHJ!
That was very thorough, MK Sharp- I appreciate it!

But, you said:
pretty much any software that can rip from DVDs also has to break the encryption on the DVD, which is also illegal in some countries.

We have a program that rips audio- if it's coming through the speakers, then the program can record it. I've ripped audio of DVDs before using this, and it doesn't break the encryption at all (I played the DVD through Power DVD, and this program recorded audio). Is that technically okay?

memnv · Post by **memnv** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 6:36 pm

If you own a dvd you can copy it for personal use but not distribution or resale, so the sound track thing should be fine

blackcauldron85 · Post by **blackcauldron85** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 6:00 am

That's good to know- thanks, memnv!

memnv · Post by **memnv** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 7:33 am

I read an article the other day and they are saying that it is illegal to copy a cd to an mp3 player even if you own the cd, there is a court case going on right now about this stuff

jennydumas · Post by **jennydumas** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 9:18 pm

memnv wrote:I read an article the other day and they are saying that it is illegal to copy a cd to an mp3 player even if you own the cd, there is a court case going on right now about this stuff

But that's dumb! I just got a cd for Christmas and I wanted to rip the song from the cd to my mp3 player. That's not right that that is illegal. We bought the cd!

memnv · Post by **memnv** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 8:49 pm

jennydumas wrote:
memnv wrote:I read an article the other day and they are saying that it is illegal to copy a cd to an mp3 player even if you own the cd, there is a court case going on right now about this stuff
But that's dumb! I just got a cd for Christmas and I wanted to rip the song from the cd to my mp3 player. That's not right that that is illegal. We bought the cd!

I agree with you jenny, and I hear they are trying to change the laws, if they dont want people to copy music like this, why do they make programs for it

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Is it legal to burn a CD from the library? and related ?'s

Is it legal to burn a CD from the library? and related ?'s