Borrowing can quickly turn to stealing when patrons pick up music at their local libraries.
Copying compact discs is illegal, but library employees say they generally can’t prove it’s occurring except in the most egregious cases.
“Copyright is an important issue, but it’s difficult to oversee,” said Ann Moore, Upper Arlington Library spokeswoman. “Once they take materials home, we can’t control what they do with them.”
Copying music or a book from a library CD is a form of piracy just like illegal downloads on the Internet.
except it’s completely untraceable.
oh, wait, until I put it in my computer or add it to my iTunes…
Librarians are not Agents of Companies
While I respect Copyright laws, I’m not paid by the music industry to be their agent or to protect their property. My obligation is reserved to posting the information- the implementation or interpretation of the law is up to the patron.
Being aggressive against your patrons in order to protect other people’s property isn’t something that I’m hired to do. Many patrons mis-use (I think) the information they get from my library, but that is hteir business, not mine. Far too frequently, librarians are intimidated by their teachers into being agents for record companies in an effort to protect copyright.
Actually, librarians should be advocates for getting the patrons what they need. Any transactions are between the patrons and the copyright holders, and the librarians definitely are not the copyright cops.
R. Lee Hadden (These are my own opinions!)
“… In the United States”
In Canada it is perfectly legal to copy CDs borrowed from the library onto blank CDs, or onto your ipod, thanks to the private copying levy charged on all blank media. This is actually why the large media companies, who originally lobbied so fiercely for the levy are now trying to have it eliminated.
Nope illegal in Canada also
In Canada you can make a copy of your OWN CD for personal use. This is what the levy allows. When you make a copy of the library’s CD you are violating the law. If you buy a music CD and make a backup copy using recordable media that is legal. f you buy a CD and move the files to your iPod that is legal. When you take your friend’s CD or the library’s CD and make a copy that is illegal in Canada.
Nope.
In Canada you can make a copy of a cd for your own personal use, and it doesn’t matter if it belongs to you, your friend or the library. The trick is you have to make your own personal copy. Making copies for other people is out.
Downloading songs off of the internet is also currently allowed. Uploading isn’t, however, which means that using something like bittorrent sites for downloading music is illegal.
In Finland this is legal
In Finland it is also completely legal to copy a CD for personal use or even to your closest relatives, but it is illegal to break a strong copy protection system (making movie copying illegal here, the local court gave a decision that even the most simple DVD/Blu-ray copy protection systems are considered as strong ones). Because most music CDs are without any copy protection, it is legal here.
However, we pay special taxes for every CD, DVD or such bought, even for the empty recordable discs and USB memories etc., for this right. The local music industry representatives have been debating against this right saying the libraries should have approximately one year buffer for buying new records into their collections, but that didn´t happen.
The debate is moot
Moot, because unenforceable. For example: Who is going to police people making copies of songs for a mix cd to give to their friends? Answer: Nobody!
Sad but true?
I have wondered for a long time how the border toll officers are going to monitor where people have got their music to their MP3 players. I read there´s gonna be a law that grants the toll officers to check your mp3 players, both in US and EU. As I rip a lot from my own CDs and the laws differ this much (what is legal here is illegal elsewhere), I´m gonna be busted. I´m definitely not travelling anymore with my mp3 player or any digital gadget with me, if this is true.
Well…
When you enter any country the customs people have the right to look at everything you have, whether that be your paperwork or your pc (if you watch programmes like UK Border Force (UK), Nothing to Declare (Australia), Border Patrol (New Zealand), and theres a US Border Forces show as well you’ll see what I mean). This comes under the idea that you would have phone numbers, details of the person getting you illegal work when you get in. On these shows they have found all sorts of things (mainly illegal pornography) doing this so there is certainly the opportunity to have things found.
As for cd’s in libraries as soon as computers could do it we all know thats exactly what people do with them. I wouldn’t be surprised if thats happening with dvd’s as well.
::laughs::
And this is where reality parts ways with patrons. Where I interned, a patron mentioned wanting to check something out in order to make a copy of a CD. What my boss and I both said was, “that’s illegal.” The patron then questions if it’s going to stop his ability to leave with the materials or how it would be different then getting the CD from a friend. We said “no.” Moments like this have created a situation where librarians respect copyright law in much the same way most people respect Dick Cheney. Sure, it’s a powerful social force with legal backing we should heed, lest we expose ourselves to peril, but liking it and thinking it has our whole community’s best interests at heart is another thing entirely.
Back in the pre-internet days when getting certain albums was a hit-or-miss proposition, the library was invaluable to neophyte music fans I knew in getting “new” music. Often libraries had older selections and a broader range then most of the local music stores. You could find a Beatle’s album for less then $25 and find out what the hype was about. I think YouTube fills that niche better then we can, but it’s far less private and beholden to corporate policies which may not stay fairly benign.
Also? Wasn’t there a couple of “tape taxes” already that the RIAA argued in part were lobbied for in part to off-set illegal copying like HR 2911 that came out just as the PMRC was also lobbying for those little warning labels? I think they increased in the 1990s. Yes, yes, it’s still illegal, but it’s hard to feel sorry for these schmucks and their armies of lawyers enough to want to help them.
“Electricity is really just organized lightning.” – George Carlin
Technically, yes.
Audio CD-Rs cost a little more than regular CD-Rs, and the difference is supposed to be the “tax” so they can be used for your own CD mixes. There’s more of a premium in Canada, I think–in the US, because it was a percentage levy, it turned out to be pretty nominal as CD-R prices plummeted. (If you can still buy audio CD-Rs, they’re also the only ones that will work in “audio CD recorders”–standalone recorders used only to copy CDs, which won’t copy an audio CD-R to another audio CD-R. If there are any of those still around.
I Had No Idea It Was Illegal
Yikes, i have to go delete most of my itunes