off subject question about legal matters

[EricaLubarsky]

I had a question regarding the law. Im a college student in North Carolina and there is a blazing fast internet connection here where all sorts of people share files within the network. Lately the University has taken a hard stance on movie and music sharing and a few students have been turned in for being servers and one student was singled out for downloading. I dont want to get involved in all that, but I was wondering if sharing TV shows is illegal? I love the Simpsons and I download shows that are high quality have all the commercials cut out. Is this illegal?

[OutletPass]

Yep...they're all copyrighted.

[EricaLubarsky]

really? Damn. Im not big into stealing music; I buy CDs and whatnot, but I thought Television shows, since they are boradcast might be legal.

[MFFL]

Originally posted by: EricaLubarsky
really? Damn. Im not big into stealing music; I buy CDs and whatnot, but I thought Television shows, since they are boradcast might be legal.

The same logic would imply that music should be free because it is broadcast over the radio.

[EricaLubarsky]

What about private use? I thought it was legal to record tapes from the radio or record basketball games in a VHS if you didnt earn money.

[veruca salt]

...not without expressed written permission from the NBA...or whatever that spiel they give you during every NBA game is...

[Psychedelic Fuzz]

Hey OP, i've got this RIAA thing i have to deal with. Can you help me out?
[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[EricaLubarsky]

Originally posted by: veruca salt
...not without expressed written permission from the NBA...or whatever that spiel they give you during every NBA game is...

I have every nationally televised game of the Mavs on tape from last season. I guess I should be hiding underground...=)

[Psychedelic Fuzz]

You can share the bunker with me and my Inuyasha episodes[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

[OutletPass]

Erica...the whole thing about copyright law is this:

It has nothing to do with reproduction for "commercial purposes".

The owner of the copy right owns the exclusive right to ANY reproduction.

But taken literally, that's a bit absurd. Neither of us could quote from anything that's been copyrighted if there wasn't some give and take in the law. So the Courts developed the "fair use" doctrine, illustrating what you CAN DO without obtaining permission. Here's an illustration:

“quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment; quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author’s observations; use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report; reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy; reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported.”

That's not the entire law, of course, and the area of "intellectual property" is a hot one in the law due in large part to the Internet, invented, of course, by Al Gore. And, frankly, in my opinion, the law hasn't kept up with technology worth a damn (and probably never will).

But that's it in a nutshell. It's the reproduction itself that's prohibited.

Having a Mavs game on tape for your personal viewing shouldn't cause you to go to ground, but it's the "sharing" thing that you have to watch out for.

As pFuzz indicated, this whole RIAA thing is a monstrous mess. And I fear that some very bad law is about to be made when these cases hit the higher courts.

note: The DMCA is a real work of art (sarcasm intended)...worse than reading freaking tax law.

[Drbio]

Down with the Man!

[Psychedelic Fuzz]

Well, you can always take up the RIAA's amnesty offer, and fill out all the forms so they can turn around and give your information to the individual labels and artists so they can start with the suits.

Kind of a touchy subject for me really. I'm in a position where I respect the needs of artists to get paid (artists, not execs who have never so much as turned a knob in the studio) but at the same time, i listen to more music than a lot of people because I have to. Given that roughly 20% of the whole of recorded music is readily available in record stores, I run across obscure things that I need recordings of, and used to turn to file sharing to get them. I seriously doubt that Faure or Hildegard of Bingen are pissed because I downloaded some music.
It's the music industry's way of avoiding having to fix what's wrong, so here i sit, trying to come up with more ways to stick it to the Man.

[veruca salt]

damn the man!! save the empire...

sorry...what?

[Caliente]

Originally posted by: veruca salt
damn the man!! save the empire...

sorry...what?

I agree.

[Chiwas]

Is It Wrong to Share Your Music? (Discuss)
By KATIE HAFNER


ALNUT CREEK, Calif.

IT shouldn't be illegal," said 14-year-old Sonya Arndt. "It's not like I'm selling it."

"Isn't it like recording movies?" asked Korbi Blanchard, 13. "They're making a big thing out of nothing."

"It's wrong to be downloading hundreds of songs, but if you only want one or two, it's not that big a deal," said 13-year-old Kristina Lee.

When the record industry's campaign against digital file-sharing yielded lawsuits on Sept. 8 against 261 people - at least one as young as 12 - it struck home with students at Foothill Middle School as news events seldom do.

Almost all of the 1,100 students at the school, in this suburb 25 miles east of San Francisco, have Internet-connected computers at home. And their musical tastes, like those of teenagers before them, are strongly held - Linkin Park, 50 Cent, Good Charlotte - as are their views of right, wrong and fairness.

So Valerie Kriger, a Foothill teacher, chose music downloading as her Friday current events topic.

Later that day, two of Ms. Kriger's classes - her yearbook class, with seventh and eighth graders, and her social studies and English students, all eighth graders - spent their class time sharing their thoughts on the subject with a reporter. In all, nearly 50 students wanted to weigh in with their opinions.

And those opinions came out in a flood. Virtually everyone wanted to express some indignation at the recording industry, mixed with no small amount of confusion over the legal issues.

Theirs is a downloading culture. A few clicks of a mouse bring them not just music, but movies, games, and instant communication as well. Legality seems beside the point as they click their way through licensing agreements, impatient for the software at the other end.

Although happy to give their views, Ms. Kriger's students were decidedly more guarded when asked about their own downloading practices.

Reluctantly, more than half said they had downloaded music. Several said they did not want their parents to know. And only half of those who downloaded music said they knew that they were violating copyrights.

Sonya Arndt, an energetic eighth grader known in class for speaking out, had the most to say. The record industry is simply greedy, she said. The industry should not be going after a bunch of kids. And how were her friends supposed to afford the high cost of CD's?

Individual musicians are not necessarily suffering, either, she said. "They're not losing money, because we still buy the T-shirts and go to their concerts," Sonya said. "They're still famous."

Her friend Korbi Blanchard, a 13-year-old whom Ms. Kriger identified as one of her brightest students, chimed in. "If you're not selling it, why is it wrong?" Korbi asked. "If it's something for personal use, as long as you're not redistributing it, it should be O.K."

At the same time, many of the students are thinking harder about their downloading habits now that they know they could be singled out for what they do.

"It makes me nervous," said Korbi, whose Internet use usually involves shopping and communicating with a small circle of friends. "They're intimidating people."

Sonya, Korbi and others in the class complained about the mixed signals they get from those who are supposedly responsible for informing them what is right and wrong.

That includes the PC makers ("Why do they sell PC's with CD burners if it's illegal?" Sonya asked) and the purveyors of such programs as KaZaA, which allow the downloading to take place. ("Why isn't there a warning that says that what we're doing is illegal?" Kristina Lee asked.)

Sonya's tone veered toward anger when the subject turned to drugs. She told of a friend at the school who was using ecstasy and other drugs, her life a mess. Music downloading, Sonya said, was innocuous by comparison. "Five hours in front of a computer is five hours away from drugs," she said.

The subject moved to the class's understanding of right and wrong, which turned mostly on questions of degree. That is, if they download a little bit of music, not a lot, then it's less wrong. Or so the logic went.

Paring down volume was the strategy for Scott Perham, 13. After the news about the lawsuits, "I deleted a lot of my songs," he said. "We read the article and my mom was concerned."

Scott reduced his song collection to 700, from 900. The disclosure of such a large stash elicited a few gasps of disbelief from his classmates.

Marissa Bertucci, a seventh grader, said she thought that downloading was "sort of wrong" and that she tried to download music only if she really liked it.

Marissa's comment led others to volunteer that if they downloaded a song and liked it, they would often then buy the CD.

Ms. Kriger said that in speaking to the students earlier about downloading, she had been careful not to try to impart lessons of right and wrong, a job she cedes to parents.

Still, she said, she was struck by the students' belief that if they downloaded just a little, it was less wrong, perhaps not wrong at all.

[EricaLubarsky]

I just wish Osama Bin Laden was more into Britney Spears. If he was downloading music, they would have had him by now.

[Rod1975]

Originally posted by: veruca salt
damn the man!! save the empire...

sorry...what?

I love that movie Veruca [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[Usually Lurkin]

Originally posted by: Drbio
Down with the Man!

but doc - - you are the man

I'm so confused [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img]