Music Sharing Legal by Law

[Capricornxs]

well, this was posted by Spad at NXSecure. so i stole it and am posting it here, lol, it's such a good thread though too

post this on as many boards as possible i say, give RIAA hell and give them grief to pay :P

this is by spad:

Quote:

From a comment posted on Slashdot regarding the RIAA's decision to spam 200,000 Kazaa users with threatening IMs:


Contrary to what the RIAA wants you to believe, it appears that making a copy of an audio recording may be perfectly legal in the US, even if you don't own the original recording, as long as it is for noncommercial purposes. The reason for this is the Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA).

Since 1992, the U.S. Government has collected a tax on all digital audio recorders and blank digital audio media manufactured in or imported into the US, and gives the money directly to the RIAA companies, which is distributed as royalties to recording artists, copyright owners, music publishers, and music writers:

  http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/ch10.html [cornell.edu]

In exchange for those royalties, a special exemption to the copyright law was made for the specific case of audio recordings, and as a result *ALL* noncommercial copying of musical recordings by consumers is now legal in the US, regardless of media:

  http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/1008.html [cornell.edu]

  "No action may be brought under this title alleging infringement of copyright based on the manufacture, importation, or distribution of a digital audio recording device, a digital audio recording medium, an analog recording device, or an analog recording medium, or based on the noncommercial use by a consumer of such a device or medium for making digital musical recordings or analog musical recordings."

The intent of Congress was clear when this law was passed (http://www.cni.org/Hforums/cni-copyright/1993-01/ 0018.html [cni.org]):

From House Report No. 102-873(I), September 17, 1992:

  "In the case of home taping, the [Section 1008] exemption protects all noncommercial copying by consumers of digital and analog musical recordings."

From House Report No. 102-780(I), August 4, 1992:

  "In short, the reported legislation [Section 1008] would clearly establish that consumers cannot be sued for making analog or digital audio copies for private noncommercial use."

Therefore, when you copy an MP3 the royalties have already been paid for with tax dollars in accordance with the law. If you are a musician whose recordings are publicly distributed, then you are entitled to your share of these royalties by filing a claim under Section 1006 (http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/1006.html [cornell.edu]).

Napster tried to use this law to defend their case, and the court ruled this law did not apply to them because they are a commercial company. But as a consumer it seems to me you are perfectly within your rights when you make a copy for noncommercial private use.

[~*McoreD*~]

Hell cool! Yeah I am gonna tell this to everyone!


btw, nice avator dude. awesome!

[KingCobra]

I'm already passing this on as we speak.

Thanks for the info.

EDIT - If all of us pass this to people on our email list we will go way over the 200,000 mark they did. :P

[billybob3]

LOL, I agree with KC. Lets try to beat the 200,000 mark that they had. Let's make it more then 40,000,000!

[Zone-MR]

Quote:

Originally posted by billybob3@May 10 2003, 10:33 PM
LOL, I agree with KC. Lets try to beat the 200,000 mark that they had. Let's make it more then 40,000,000!

Very interesting news, but I'm sure yet another email chain letter isnt the best way for it to become public.

[DoG]

I'm going to move this to the front page. Someone move it back if they think i'm wrong

[KingCobra]

Zone-MR Posted on May 10 2003, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Very interesting news, but I'm sure yet another email chain letter isnt the best way for it to become public.

I agree Zone-MR, but chain letters from friends to friends work better than the regular SPAM. Just think if all of those 200,000 users that received a threat letter from the RIAA sent back a copy of this letter. Plus, the RIAA sending those 200,000 letters out only became news after the fact. What if we see it on CNN about the users passing this around. You read it here first.

Just trying to help make it available as a resource for others.

[Jarod888]

rock on, i sent this to lots of my friends.

[Cyberion]

If you right... this is HUGE... Just what Kazaa wanted. However.. do not hold your breathe. This might not be true. Slashdot is a very authoritative source though.

Lets take this one in stride....

[Jessica]

yeah

i don't see where it says
"if you download it, its still legal"

Thats all been public knowledge, or at least..i thought it would be...that its totally legal for you to make backups of stuff you own, or transfer them to different media.

But.. I didn't see where it said "you can give them out for free to anyone that wants them, and thats legal too"