Music, video, and other forms of piracy

[Bill Mattocks]

I think it might be instructive to look to an authority on your rights when you purchase a music CD:

http://www.riaa.com/physicalpiracy.php?content_selector=piracy_online_the_law

Copying CDs

• It’s okay to copy music onto an analog cassette, but not for commercial purposes.
• It’s also okay to copy music onto special Audio CD-R’s, mini-discs, and digital tapes (because royalties have been paid on them) – but, again, not for commercial purposes.
• Beyond that, there’s no legal "right" to copy the copyrighted music on a CD onto a CD-R. However, burning a copy of CD onto a CD-R, or transferring a copy onto your computer hard drive or your portable music player, won’t usually raise concerns so long as:
  • The copy is made from an authorized original CD that you legitimately own
  • The copy is just for your personal use. It’s not a personal use – in fact, it’s illegal – to give away the copy or lend it to others for copying.
• The owners of copyrighted music have the right to use protection technology to allow or prevent copying.
• Remember, it’s never okay to sell or make commercial use of a copy that you make.

Are there occasionally exceptions to these rules? Sure. A "garage" or unsigned band might want you to download its own music; but, bands that own their own music are free to make it available legally by licensing it. And, remember that there are lots of authorized sites where music can be downloaded for free. Better to be safe than sorry – don’t assume that downloading or burning is legal just because technology makes it easy to do so.

In other words, there are two issues here. Make a copy of a music CD for your personal use? Sure, no problem. Just don't give, sell, or trade it anyone. Make it for YOU and you only, of music that YOU bought.

However if the company that made the CD has placed encryption on it to prevent copying and you apply technology to break that encryption, then that's not allowed - not because you're copying music you own, but because the maker placed a copyright restriction on making copies and you circumvented it. It's not the music part, it's the breaking encryption part.

At least that's how I read it. Not saying I agree with it, but when discussing the evils of what is allowed and not allowed, it is good to actually know what is allowed and what is not allowed, not use rumor and hearsay.

I'm not a lawyer, but I think this is correct. If not, please enlighten me.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Bill, that is my understanding of it. You can make a copy for personal use (ie transfer to ipod, or backup) but not to sell, lease, trade, share, etc.

This is why dj's often show up with stacks of original cd's and often won't play the home-burn cd you hand them.

 

[crushing]

I did some searching, but couldn't find a current EULA from Sony. Here are a few of the restrictions from a 3,000 word EULA from five years ago.

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2005/11/now-legalese-rootkit-sony-bmgs-eula


[*]If your house gets burgled, you have to delete all your music from your laptop when you get home. That's because the EULA says that your rights to any copies terminate as soon as you no longer possess the original CD.

[*]You can't keep your music on any computers at work. The EULA only gives you the right to put copies on a "personal home computer system owned by you."

[*]If you move out of the country, you have to delete all your music. The EULA specifically forbids "export" outside the country where you reside.

[*]You must install any and all updates, or else lose the music on your computer. The EULA immediately terminates if you fail to install any update. No more holding out on those hobble-ware downgrades masquerading as updates.

[*]Sony-BMG can install and use backdoors in the copy protection software or media player to "enforce their rights" against you, at any time, without notice. And Sony-BMG disclaims any liability if this "self help" crashes your computer, exposes you to security risks, or any other harm.

[*]The EULA says Sony-BMG will never be liable to you for more than $5.00. That's right, no matter what happens, you can't even get back what you paid for the CD.

[*]If you file for bankruptcy, you have to delete all the music on your computer. Seriously.

[*]You have no right to transfer the music on your computer, even along with the original CD.

[*]Forget about using the music as a soundtrack for your latest family photo slideshow, or mash-ups, or sampling. The EULA forbids changing, altering, or make derivative works from the music on your computer.

 

[Muawijhe]

[*]Sony-BMG can install and use backdoors in the copy protection software or media player to "enforce their rights" against you, at any time, without notice. And Sony-BMG disclaims any liability if this "self help" crashes your computer, exposes you to security risks, or any other harm.
[*]Forget about using the music as a soundtrack for your latest family photo slideshow, or mash-ups, or sampling. The EULA forbids changing, altering, or make derivative works from the music on your computer.

Interesting read.

On the two points I quoted, the first I remember came into issue about 5 years ago when I was working for a large media retail company. We had an impressive recall of the latest CDs by some top 20 artists because the encryption software on the CD, though fine for any CD player, caused system crashes and other bad things when put into a PC.

The second, I've heard that, but hard for them to enforce. Just don't hang out with some Sony reps when showing your vacation videos, I guess. However, I wonder what that means for all of those YouTube clips with music to them. I know I've heard rumours a few years ago of a lot of lawsuits from people posting videos with music on there, from full songs to snippets to whatever.

 

[5-0 Kenpo]

A lot of juries think that music piracy is wrong.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40030700/ns/technology_and_science-security/?GT1=43001

What do you think about the award given by the jury to the RIAA?

 

[Cryozombie]

Ok, well, I'm gonna jump in here with a few thoughts. Many of these ideas have been brought up, and discussed, and people have chimed in on them, but I'm going to toss this out there anyhow. It might be a long read and I hope I can make it make sense.

One of the things about these kinds of discussions I find... troublesome... is that people are willing to accept the answer "Well, it's illegal, thats the way it is, so you have to deal with it. It doesn't have to make sense, and you dont have to understand it, if you do it you have commited a crime."

Ok. I get that. But in this hypothetical discussion, let us assume we understand that above point... and lets see if we can get to the WHY.

First off, I think that we can all probably be more or less in agreement that the reason for copyright laws, or anti-piracy laws, or whatever... is that they are in place to protect the intellectual property of the Owner of said material, their Music, or Movies, or Videogames, or Software programs, and ensure they make their fair profits/wages/gains from their programs, and no one else takes credit for its creation, yes?

Ok, good.

So lets examine some hypothetical scenarios. Note that none of these are for real and when I say "I do this" It is in terms of this excercise, I am not actually doing the items below.

A) I subscribe to HBO. I watch the series True Blood, which airs, Sunday Nights at 7pm. I work Sundays from 5-11. But My Cable company has provided me a DVR, or Perhaps I own a PVR. I can legally record this show, or even set my oldskool VCR to record a copy of the show, so that I can watch it later. I paid for the product. The Correct people made their money, and I have seen the show. Hooray! Everbody wins.

OR

I subscribe to HBO. I watch the series True Blood, which airs, Sunday Nights at 7pm. I work Sundays from 5-11. I decided against purchasing a DVR, because I am going to buy my own PVR. So that I can watch it later, I grab a copy off of Bittorent when I get home from work. I paid for the product. The Correct people made their money, and I have seen the show. BOO! I broke the law and can be held accountable.

Wait. Wait. I paid for it in both cases. Actually in case 2, at least 2 people paid for it, myself and the original up loader, at least. Why am I in trouble for #2, but not #1?

B) Joe Public goes into Target on release day with 50 bucks in his hand and buys a copy of the brand new "Mario Stripper" for Nintendo Wii. He takes it home plays it for a week and decides it sucks. Joe can't return opened software, so he takes it to "Gamestop" and gets a 30 dollar credit for selling a used game. Joe then Buys a copy of "DeathRace Donkeykong 2000" for his Wii for 24.00 used. I wanna play "Mario Stripper" for myself, but read in "Games Reviewd Magazine" that it only got 4.5 stars outta 10, so I say, Gotta buy it used, and pick up Joe's copy of it from Gamestop.

Now, Joe paid for his copy of the first game, and Nintendo got their fair profit. Joe paid for his copy of the second game... but Nintendo didn't get anything, because someone like Joe traded it in. And in fact, Nintendo didn't make anything off of me either, because I bought from Gamestop, the same copy Joe paid for. Nether of us broke the law, but Nintendo only made their profit from the sale of that original disk the first time it sold. We have effectively both just hurt Nintendo's profits. In fact, I can tell you IRL, not Hypothetically, for my 360, I NEVER purchase new games. With 3 exceptions, Every one of the games I own have come from Gamestop or Disc Replay. Aside from 3 titles I picked up when I purchased my system, None of the developers have made any profits off of me.

But If Joe had kept his original copy of "Mario Stripper" and I had copied it for myself from his copy... I would be breaking the law... even tho in neither of those situations Nintendo made any profit off of me, only from the initial sale to Joe.

I have like six more examples of this, but Ive been typing for like 45 minutes and this is getting long... in the end, they all demonstrate ways that the so-called "Piracy" is NOT impacting the profits of the companies/parties involved, but rather just the method or technologies involved in obtaining the product determines in a seemingly arbitrary way what is and is not illegal.

Now, none of this, BTW, is meant to excuse the people distributing illegal copies. But there is a lot of focus on people who "obtain" copies... and that's what I am looking to address.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

The MPAA, RIAA and others have tried to get chunks from the used market. They already make money off blank cd and dvd media...even if I use that blank disk to archive my own pics, they get a cut.

 

[Cryozombie]

The MPAA, RIAA and others have tried to get chunks from the used market.

Have tried, but don't. So it doesn't change my argument.

Also, on a seperate note from my above arguments I don't buy into the MPAA and RIAA as representitves of the Artists. Trent Reznor encouraged people to Pirate his music because the RIAA was suing people for it and lining their own pockets, and according to him the RIAA was not paying any portion of that out to the artists, but rather using it as a venue to earn for themselves.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

How about the RIAA bully squad has created issues for bands not affiliated with it? I recall 1 case where a band who wasn't a member tried to put their own music up on their website, and the RIAA legal squad got the site taken down, despite not having any right to do so. They saw 'download music here', and took action, despite not being legally entitled to.

Personally, I have less respect for the RIAA than I do the TSA......and that takes work.

 

[Cryozombie]

How about the RIAA bully squad has created issues for bands not affiliated with it? I recall 1 case where a band who wasn't a member tried to put their own music up on their website, and the RIAA legal squad got the site taken down, despite not having any right to do so. They saw 'download music here', and took action, despite not being legally entitled to.

Personally, I have less respect for the RIAA than I do the TSA......and that takes work.

Ive seen this on Youtube as well, where Sony Music has made Youtube "audioswap" the soundtrack for Videos they didn't actually own the rights to the music for. If I were that band, I would file a multi-million dollar lawsuit for lost wages against the RIAA. Because if they (the RIAA) can win the claim the theft of a .99 cent MP3 cost the artist $10,000.00, I think a band can argue that the loss of their site cost them millions in potential sales/record contracts.

 

[Cryozombie]

Another good example of the Above that I posted is Broadcast Television shows. Broadcast TV is free, with the programming being paid by the advertisers. DVR technology (and even old VCR technology) allows me to record the show legally, and watch it without the advertisements... but If I download the broadcast show from a torrent site, I have broken the law.

Then there is rental. If I pay a couple bucks to rent a movie from Pay-Per-Veiw and DVR it I have a legal copy of the film. If I pay a couple bucks and rent that movie from Blockbuster, Redbox or Netflix and do the same, I have broken the law.

Again... why? What is the actual difference?