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A question of legality...

E

EpsiIon

Platinum Member
Ok, I have this friend. He's a good friend -- very close to me.

Anyway, about ten years ago, my friend bought some cassette tapes of music. Unfortunately, he stored them in a damp place and they molded, so he had to throw them out. Now, my friend wants to know if it is legal for him to download digital forms of the music he used to own. I'm sure there's few people here up to date on obscure (or not so obscure) copyright laws. My friend will really appreciate it.

Thanks!
 
If you can't prove you own the original copy, how will they know you bought the original one?
 
regardless of whether he owned them previously it is illegal to download them now.

Plus there is no way for him to prove he owned them, but it doesn't matter anyway.
 
Ummm... ok. Have any reference material or an explanation? "No" isn't very convincing and "Yes" wouldn't be, either. Thanks, though. I.. uh... my friend appreciates the response.


Edit: Wow. A lot of responses very quickly. I"ll get to them...


[REPLY MOVED TO END OF THREAD]
 
Originally posted by: EpsiIon
Ummm... ok. Have any reference material or an explanation? "No" isn't very convincing and "Yes" wouldn't be, either. Thanks, though. I.. uh... my friend appreciates the response.
Click to expand...

read my post.
 
Originally posted by: brunswickite
if you left your TV in a damp place and it molded, so you had to throw it out, would it be legal for you to steal one?
Click to expand...

Copyright violation != Stealing

One you go to civil court for (At least now) and the other is a criminal act.
 
Originally posted by: amdfanboy
Originally posted by: brunswickite
if you left your TV in a damp place and it molded, so you had to throw it out, would it be legal for you to steal one?
Click to expand...

Copyright violation != Stealing
Click to expand...

i am just saying you could follow that logic, in his case.

you owned something, it was damaged, you have to purchase it again.
 
Originally posted by: brunswickite
Originally posted by: amdfanboy
Originally posted by: brunswickite
if you left your TV in a damp place and it molded, so you had to throw it out, would it be legal for you to steal one?
Click to expand...

Copyright violation != Stealing
Click to expand...

i am just saying you could follow that logic, in his case.

you owned something, it was damaged, you have to purchase it again.
Click to expand...

Dude, you killed my flame . Now what am I going to do tonight ? 🙁

*sigh* I guess I have to go bash Kerry in P&N
 
Originally posted by: brunswickite
if you left your TV in a damp place and it molded, so you had to throw it out, would it be legal for you to steal one?
Click to expand...

That's not the same thing at all. Fair use rights stipulate that you are allowed to make backups of your music. Imagine this: If I made backups before and THEN the tapes molded, would I lose my fair use rights? If so, why?

More valid is the point that I can't prove that I ever owned them. However, if I owned a CD, copied it, and somebody stole the original, would that make my music illegal? No. I wouldn't have a case in court, but it wouldn't be illegal. My question is about legality, not immunity.
 
If you own the CD right now, in hand, with receipt, you still CANNOT download the tracks from the internet legally.
 
Originally posted by: EpsiIon
Originally posted by: brunswickite
if you left your TV in a damp place and it molded, so you had to throw it out, would it be legal for you to steal one?
Click to expand...

That's not the same thing at all. Fair use rights stipulate that you are allowed to make backups of your music. Imagine this: If I made backups before and THEN the tapes molded, would I lose my fair use rights? If so, why?

More valid is the point that I can't prove that I ever owned them. However, if I owned a CD, copied it, and somebody stole the original, would that make my music illegal? No. I wouldn't have a case in court, but it wouldn't be illegal. My question is about legality, not immunity.
Click to expand...

i am not sure....

 
No. It's not. But nobody's going to care. The RIAA drops any suits against anyone that has even a tiny fraction of a leg to stand on.
 
Originally posted by: EpsiIon
Originally posted by: brunswickite
if you left your TV in a damp place and it molded, so you had to throw it out, would it be legal for you to steal one?
Click to expand...

That's not the same thing at all. Fair use rights stipulate that you are allowed to make backups of your music. Imagine this: If I made backups before and THEN the tapes molded, would I lose my fair use rights? If so, why?

More valid is the point that I can't prove that I ever owned them. However, if I owned a CD, copied it, and somebody stole the original, would that make my music illegal? No. I wouldn't have a case in court, but it wouldn't be illegal. My question is about legality, not immunity.
Click to expand...

You are allowed to make a backup of the copy you purchased the rights to use. You (or your friend, whatever, don't care, you is shorter, until I start typing out crap like this 😛) purchased tapes. You can make a copy of the tapes.

A copy using a different media may or may not be covered by fair use, especially since the copies you would be downloaded are increadibly superior to what you originally purchased.

So basically, I think it boils down to a big grey area. But consider who has the government by the balls. Is it the consumers that work and toil or the corporations that donate millions of dollars the usurpers in charge?
 
Originally posted by: edro13
If you own the CD right now, in hand, with receipt, you still CANNOT download the tracks from the internet legally.
Click to expand...

Oh. Interesting. I never even considered that. Do you have a link to this sort of information, or are you going to make me Google it? 🙂
 
is there anyone who can prove that he did not backup the tapes onto another tape, then when the originals were destroyed, then copy them onto the computer himself through the audio-in port from his stereo, then destroy the backups? as long as the checksum is different from any other illegal song on the net, there is no proof!
 
Originally posted by: cirthix
is there anyone who can prove that he did not backup the tapes onto another tape, then when the originals were destroyed, then copy them onto the computer himself through the audio-in port from his stereo, then destroy the backups? as long as the checksum is different from any other illegal song on the net, there is no proof!
Click to expand...

You'd probably have to pick up some pretty crappy quality mp3s to make that plausible. 😛
 
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Originally posted by: cirthix
is there anyone who can prove that he did not backup the tapes onto another tape, then when the originals were destroyed, then copy them onto the computer himself through the audio-in port from his stereo, then destroy the backups? as long as the checksum is different from any other illegal song on the net, there is no proof!
Click to expand...

You'd probably have to pick up some pretty crappy quality mp3s to make that plausible. 😛
Click to expand...

or just get really good ones and then downsize tehm a LITTLE bit
 
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