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It frustrates me to no end that in this age of the iPod and a number of other portable audio devices that it is still technically illegal for a person who buys a CD to rip that music to his computer and then transfer that music to his iPod (or other portable device) to listen to the music on the go. I'm not talking about a person who distributes that music to half a million of his closest friends using a peer sharing network or some other illegal distribution channel. I am talking about a person who simply wishes to listen to the music on that CD on a device that is more convenient to him or which is his preferred device for listening to that music.
I had an opportunity to speak to a music publisher not too long ago about this and he told me that the industry tends to overlook these infringements of copyright and generally will not prosecute our hypothetical consumer, provided his infringement of copyright is limited to ripping the music for his sole and personal use.
I raised the possibility that the license conditions for the use of CDs be amended to permit ripping music from a CD to a computer or personal device for personal use and the response was that this would be possible if the copyright holders were entitled to collect a tax of sorts for every portable device sold that is capable of playing this music. I was referred to a system which I believe operates in certain European countries where this practice has been adopted. I have a difficulty with this approach because this tax (or charge or levy) is basically a penalty which is payable because consumers might pirate music.
I have a difficulty with this approach because on the one hand users who have no desire to pirate music are effectively branded pirates and made to pay a virtual admission of guilt fine and, on the other hand, amending their license terms to allow for this form of personal use is not going to open the door to a form of piracy that wasn't there in the first place, it simply legitimises a common practice among otherwise law abiding users.
Tobias spoke about this form of personal use in his article "Things you should know about copyright law" and made the point that allowing for this sort of personal use would violate one of the 3 prongs of the test of copyright law. That may be but I believe that if this is the effect of a measure to bring otherwise law abiding users in from the cold then perhaps the test needs to be revisited.
tags: johannesburg south africa policy-law copyright music copyright-infringement personal-use music-license content-licensing copyright-holder pirates
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