"A basic guide to downloading" - legality issues.
Tue, Mar 30 2010, 3:06PM
I noticed with interest that in James Jolly's article "A basic guide to downloading", the following was mentioned:
‘I’ve a huge CD collection which I still want to listen to…’
Most people’s MP3 players contain a combination of music that they’ve ripped (ie transferred from CD to their computer’s hard-drive) and music that has been downloaded (the proportion is invariably a single-figure percentage of downloaded music). It makes sense to load your computer (especially if you are planning to take your music with you) with your favourite recordings and then supplement them with downloads as necessary. If you’ve a laptop, why not store some music there, then you’ll always have something for those unplanned-for delays when music is the only balm!
I thought it worth mentioning that there is a common misconception regarding UK copyright laws. Many people are under the impression that it is perfectly legal to copy music from one format to another, if it is for personal use only. Unless the law has changed very recently, and the Government's IPO website (link below to the FAQ) has not been updated to reflect this, the law still states that it is not legal to copy music from one source to another. In other words, you are breaking the law if, for example, you rip music from a CD on to your hard-drive, or on to your MP3 player, or you make another copy of the CD for your car stereo.
I'll admit that until recently, I was one of the many people who were under the impression that this sort of copying of music was legal, and this practice is so common place that it's not something that I imagine would rarely, if ever, result in a prosecution under the UK copyright laws. The fact that this method of copying music is suggested in a Gramophone article does not actually surprise me, considering how widespread this misconception about the copyright law is, but I thought I should mention this point as I don't believe that Gramophone would want to be suggesting that their readers should endulge in illegal activity!
Mike Summers
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy/c-other/c-other-faq/c-other-faq-type.htm
Tue, Mar 30 2010, 5:57PM
#2
RE: "A basic guide to downloading" - legality issues.
I believe it's commonly accepted that the copyright laws are somewhat out of date regarding this issue. As far as I'm aware, the reason why they have not yet been changed is because the music industry fears that by allowing people to "make copies for personal use", it will create a loop-hole in the law that can be exploited by file-sharing websites, and hence have a detrimental effect on CD/download sales.
Mike.
Wed, Mar 31 2010, 2:28PM
#3
RE: "A basic guide to downloading" - legality issues.
What is the law on copying music from concerts given on radio? I would be interested to know given that this music is often from live concerts and as yet not on CD - and probably never will be.
Wed, Mar 31 2010, 4:35PM
#4
"A basic guide to downloading" - legality issues.
What is the law on copying music from concerts given on radio? I would be interested to know given that this music is often from live concerts and as yet not on CD - and probably never will be.
I've done this a few times. Radio 3 online broadcasts at 192 kps. Which is fine for my needs. I use Total Recorder and get excellent results.
I often record plays etc from Radio 7 as well.
Remember that many BBC treasures have been preserved only thanks to home recorders.
Ooh ahh me hearties. I'll maybe need to walk the plank now I've read this article.
Wed, Mar 31 2010, 10:11PM
#5
RE: "A basic guide to downloading" - serious inaccuracies
The guide contains some useful information, but I was disappointed to find some serious errors concerning iTunes. I hope you can correct these as soon as possible!
JJ says that "Apple’s 128 KBps (and for iTunes Plus recordings 192) is starting to look rather parsimonious for classical collectors."
Actually, all music now sold on the iTunes store is encoded at 256 kbps AAC (equivalent in quality to 320 kbps MP3). This has been true for some months now: ALL music now sold on the store is in the "iTunes Plus" category (256 kbps, not 192 as stated in the article!), and NONE has "Apple’s proprietory DRM"!
As for the complaint that "the ability to search easily, given the somewhat primitive engine on offer, is a bit frustrating": not so! In the iTunes store, go to the "Store" menu at the top of the screen (next after File, Edit, View, and Controls), select "Search..." from the menu, and you get the Power Search screen. In the drop-down menu, change "All Results" to "Music". You now have separate search boxes for Artist, Composer, Song, and Album, and the option of narrowing results down by Genre (e.g. Classical). Far from being "a bit frustrating", this offers everything a classical collector is likely to want.
One other point: the article gives the impression that readers need to decide how far to compress music from CDs at the point of ripping. Those with plenty of hard drive space who want the best possible quality for home listening but also want to listen to music on the move on a smaller-capacity portable player can have the best of both worlds by ripping with the Apple Lossless Encoder and then configuring iTunes 9.1 to convert tracks automatically to 128 kbps AAC when transferring to a portable player (iPod/iPhone): for your portable device, go to Summary - Options - "Convert higher bit rate songs to 128 kbps AAC". (128 kbps AAC is likely to be ample for less than ideal listening conditions in the car, underground, street or similar.)
Sat, Apr 3 2010, 3:25PM
#6
RE: "A basic guide to downloading" - legality issues.
I believe it's commonly accepted that the copyright laws are somewhat out of date regarding this issue. As far as I'm aware, the reason why they have not yet been changed is because the music industry fears that by allowing people to "make copies for personal use", it will create a loop-hole in the law that can be exploited by file-sharing websites, and hence have a detrimental effect on CD/download sales.
At the same time the music industry will not prosecute anyone for copying a CD they own for their personal use because the outcome is by no means certain. The law on copyright as it stands could conflict with various aspects of human rights legislation, how much any seller can dictate what you do with something you have legally purchased. Any case would last a very long time and make a lot of money for lawyers at the expense of everyone else with no guarantee of success.
So we are left with this ridiculous situation with a bad law that many people ignore and no-one prepared to change anything and antagonise a lobby of rich and influential companies who want to preserve their income without updating their business models.
Obviously it may be difficult for organisations like "The Gramophone" to actively encourage people to break the law, but I see nothing wrong with recognising the obvious, that copying is going on. It would also be nice if they, along with anyone else with an interest in the area, would mount a campaign to actually sort out the mess.
(computer)mike
Mon, Apr 5 2010, 12:16PM
#7
RE: "A basic guide to downloading" - legality issues.
Most people’s MP3 players contain a combination of music that they’ve ripped (ie transferred from CD to their computer’s hard-drive) and music that has been downloaded (the proportion is invariably a single-figure percentage of downloaded music)
Mr Jolly should avoid words like "invariably" :-) My mp3 player contains about 99% downloaded music (courtesy of several years of a very advantageously priced 'foundation' subscription to eMusic).
Mon, Apr 5 2010, 7:37PM
#8
RE: Home
Obviously it may be difficult for organisations like "The Gramophone" to actively encourage people to break the law
Oh I dunno, its sister magazine What Hi-Fi Sound & Vision hasn't been backward in coming forward in this respect. Whilst it's clearly still illegal in the UK to make copies (by the letter of the law), I'm fairly sure the editor of WHFS&V interviewed the head of the music industry's legal body a while back, who stated that no-one would be prosecuted for doing so (which is lucky, sitting as I am on 100gig of ripped music).
Tue, Apr 6 2010, 1:33AM
#9
RE: "A basic guide to downloading" - legality issues.
Here's a slightly different scenario. I can go to Emusic and download, say, the BIS Holmboe symphony series. Alternatively the CDs have been ripped by an enthusiast and made available for free on a well known fileshare site. Now I downloaded the symphonies from Emusic but how can I prove that? My subscription expired so I have no record of what music I downloaded from them. Alternatively, how can the authorities prove that someone who downloaded the symphonies from the fileshare site did not download them legally from Emusic?
Thoughts?
Tue, Apr 6 2010, 10:00AM
#10
RE: Home
Spiderjon, I'm delighted to hear that you've mined the eMusic store liberally – I have too! I used the word 'invariably' because I read somewhere recently about the proportion of ripped versus downloaded music (not to mention simply stolen), and the word would seem to be accurate in reflecting the make-up of most people's music on their iPods/MP3 players.
Tue, Apr 6 2010, 12:59PM
#11
RE: Home RE: Home
Spiderjon, I'm delighted to hear that you've mined the eMusic store liberally – I have too! I used the word 'invariably' because I read somewhere recently about the proportion of ripped versus downloaded music (not to mention simply stolen), and the word would seem to be accurate in reflecting the make-up of most people's music on their iPods/MP3 players.
Thanks for the reply James.
It's pedantic I know, but "invariably" means "without variation or exception", so if there may be just one instance of something's not being the case, the addition of a simple "almost" is to be recommended :-)
Off to squander this month's eMusic credits on something frivolous like Schnittke.
LOL!! It actually is true!
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy/c-other/c-other-faq/c-other-faq-type/c-other-faq-type-mp3.htm
No, this is not legal under UK law. There is no exception to copyright for the purpose of private copying. Permission would be needed from the copyright owner.
There are number of legal download websites available to the public that allow you to download music onto your MP3 player.
Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy... Get a life you copyright organisations... In the Netherlands a company was fined, because an employee was listening to an I-pod while cleaning a shop. The music was "production-enhancing" so they should have paid the Dutch copyright organisation an extra annual (!) fee.
Russian mob is what comes in to my mind...
Rolf