Is copyright infringement stealing?

[Buttercup]

So when i give my daughter a CD for Christmas she is not allowed to have it because she did not pay for it?

Did you pay for it? Of course it's ok to give it to her as a present.

Copyrights are meant to protect the artist who made the song. Can you imagine if you were Barry Manilow and only one person bought your song and distributed it online so now one million people listen to it? Would you be angry if you were Barry Manilow?

 

[McBell]

Did you pay for it? Of course it's ok to give it to her as a present.

Let me try it this way:
If I receive a song as a gift, am I in violation of copyright infringement?
What if I give that song to someone else?
Does this mean that all the old cassette tapes I sold in my yard sale violated copyright infringment?

Copyrights are meant to protect the artist who made the song. Can you imagine if you were Barry Manilow and only one person bought your song and distributed it online so now one million people listen to it? Would you be angry if you were Barry Manilow?

Actually i woud be quite thrilled that all those people were listening to my songs.

 

[Buttercup]

Let me try it this way:
If I receive a song as a gift, am I in violation of copyright infringement?
What if I give that song to someone else?
Does this mean that all the old cassette tapes I sold in my yard sale violated copyright infringment?

From how I understand it...if the song you receive was paid for,....it is not copyright infringement. If you pass it on to others then it is. Of course it's very hard to prosecute and has been going on forever. I don't know about yard sale items.

Actually i woud be quite thrilled that all those people were listening to my songs.

Haaaa, yeah if you were being paid for it. How would you support yourself if only one person paid for your song?

 

[Kungfuzed]

I've been copying music my whole life. I never had money for music. I started long before I knew what a computer was, using a clock radio and a tape recorder. I moved on to making copies of friends tapes and sharing mine. For me file sharing is a dream come true. Now I've got broadband and more money and can do the same with movies. If the movie is really good I might even go out and buy it. Most songs and movies are crap and get deleted right after I watch them. I'm so glad I can preview them this way instead of being forced to shell out money beforehand.

 

[McBell]

From how I understand it...if the song you receive was paid for,....it is not copyright infringement. If you pass it on to others then it is. Of course it's very hard to prosecute and has been going on forever. I don't know about yard sale items.

So it is ok when my brother buys a cd and rips it to the computer and then gives it to me via email, right?

 

[Ryan2065]

So it is ok when my brother buys a cd and rips it to the computer and then gives it to me via email, right?

If you sell the cd you sell the rights you had to those songs. If you give the cd away you also give away the rights to those songs. You only are allowed to have the rights to a song... You are allowed 1 "copy" of the rights... You give away the rights, you aren't allowed to keep the songs. You sell the rights and you arent allowed to keep the songs. Its the way the industry works.

 

[Pah]

If I download a copyrighted song or movie from a file sharing network have I stolen something? Should it be illegal?

Yes. you are stealing intellectual property

 

[doppelganger]

So when i give my daughter a CD for Christmas she is not allowed to have it because she did not pay for it?

You pay for your personal use of it. So you can make copies, but you can't give them away to other people and you certainly can't sell them. You can give away or sell your one license to the work. So giving it as a gift is okay. Selling it to a used CD place is okay (though you can't make a copy, keep it and sell the original without infringing). There's no realistic way to police all of it, but the penalties are enormous, so if you're the unlucky one they decide to make an example of . . . the likelihood is slight but the damage can be severe.

 

[Kungfuzed]

Do I have the right to make a backup copy? I paid a lot of money for a CD and don't want it to get scratched or stolen when I keep it in my car to listen to. It's better just to keep CD-Rs in the car. Can I burn several CDs into MP3s and put them all on one disk to use in my MP3 CD player? If I decide to give away or sell the origional CDs do I need to destroy my backup copies? What if I just lend out the CDs for a week or so?

 

[McBell]

Sounds like if your CD is stolen you are supposed to destroy your backup copy.
Which is the reason I use the backup copy and keep the original in safe keeping.
However, does this mean if the backup copy is stolen, that I am in violation of copyright infringement?

 

[Ryan2065]

However, does this mean if the backup copy is stolen, that I am in violation of copyright infringement?

Nope... doesn't make sense that you would be =p

 

[Shadow Wolf]

The record company owns the songs, and since you are not paying for the song or cd, you have stolen it. Even if the band itself doesn't care if you download thier songs (Smile Empty Soul's frontman even told the crowd at Mayday '04 to go for it.), it's still the record companies songs.

 

[McBell]

Nope... doesn't make sense that you would be =p

Why not?
If my back up is stolen then I have contributed to the illegal distribution of copyrighted material.
Does it matter that it was not intentional?
The result is still the same.

 

[Ryan2065]

Why not?
If my back up is stolen then I have contributed to the illegal distribution of copyrighted material.
Does it matter that it was not intentional?
The result is still the same.

Do you believe what you say?

I need to take a pill that is a very controlled substance... Do you think I would be charged with distributing if someone stole it from me?

 

[McBell]

Do you believe what you say?

I need to take a pill that is a very controlled substance... Do you think I would be charged with distributing if someone stole it from me?

Fair enough.

 

[Ryan2065]

Fair enough.

Its an intent issue

 

[doppelganger]

Do I have the right to make a backup copy? I paid a lot of money for a CD and don't want it to get scratched or stolen when I keep it in my car to listen to. It's better just to keep CD-Rs in the car. Can I burn several CDs into MP3s and put them all on one disk to use in my MP3 CD player? If I decide to give away or sell the origional CDs do I need to destroy my backup copies? What if I just lend out the CDs for a week or so?

You can make copies for personal use so long as you retain ownership of the license. If you sell or give away the license, then retaining a copy for your use would be an infringment.

"Loaning" is a bit of a gray area. I'm sure you could imagine someone distributing thousands of copies of music and claiming that it was his or her intent to get them back so they were only 'loaned.' It would look and quack like an infringement if you "loaned" a copy but kept the original for your own use at the same time.

 

[Kungfuzed]

I found an interesting article on it http://www.philosophytalk.org/pastShows/WhoOwnsIdeas.htm

Lessig points out that for the founding fathers of our country, it was clear that an idea could not be owned. In particular, Thomas Jefferson wrote in a famous passage that, once articulated, ideas inscribe themselves into the thoughts of others. No one can rid themselves of an idea once they have it, and everyone can access the idea once it comes into existence. When Jefferson and others put clauses about copyright into the Constitution (Article 1), they had the protection of authors' expressions of ideas in mind to protect, not the ideas themselves. Locke, Lessig argues, held that if a resource had to necessarily be produced for exclusive use, then it's ownership should be a property right. However, this doesn't mean that exclusive property rights are upheld when the use of a resource is not exclusive by necessity. That is, Locke makes no claims about resources for which exclusivity is not a necessary condition for their ownership. Ideas fall into this category. So, Locke's theory is compatible with the understanding of ideas and copyright put forward in the Constitution.

Right now I've got a song stuck in my head that I didn't pay for. My brian copied it from the radio. I hope the RIAA doesn't come confiscate my brain.

 

[spacemonkey]

Yes, file sharing is copyright infringement and therefore a form of stealing, but I don't feel bad if 50 Cent can't buy a 2nd Rolls Royce because people are downloading his music for free.

 

[doppelganger]

I found an interesting article on it http://www.philosophytalk.org/pastShows/WhoOwnsIdeas.htm

Lessig has some fascinating and revolutionary ideas about what copyrights are and how they should be treated by the courts, but so far the courts haven't seen it his way. So until his ideas get into the minds of a lot of federal judges and edge out the lobbying efforts of the recording industry, it's dangerous to infringe.

Right now I've got a song stuck in my head that I didn't pay for. My brian copied it from the radio. I hope the RIAA doesn't come confiscate my brain.

I can assure you that they would if they could.