Somebody's just pointed me at this, I long ago ripped my entire CD collection to MP and haven't played a CD in over 5 years, looks like I'm breaking the law.

It can't be right can it?

We've discussed this on the BBS before... Anyone got links?

The RIAA would have liked to make us think that any digital rip of a CD is illegal. Their wheeling and dealing with the lawmakers regarding copyright law many years ago (the AHRA) resulted in a "tax" on audio recording media, thus allowing the RIAA to get some sugar every time you made a copy of a favorite album. But they didn't count on MP3 ripping when the AHRA was written, and there's no way to tax an MP3 rip. So the RIAA tried to make everyone believe that ripping their own CDs was illegal.

Problem is, they could never make that stick. Just because MP3's aren't covered by the AHRA doesn't mean they're illegal. They're your CD's, you can make copies of them till the cows come home. That's always been just fine. If I recall, the RIAA eventually backed off and admitted yeah, OK, it's fine for your own use. The article you link (which is from over a year ago, by the way) was just talking about codifying something that was already a standard practice.

Clearly I'm using the US-centric examples here, but similar things played out in other jurisdictions.

There's nothing quite like the AHRA in the UK, though, and without it copying is copying and is the right of the copyright holder only. In US terms, the Gowers report could be seen as the UK's research into how best to make an AHRA-equivalent.

Peter

You and how many million others, as far as I can ascertain, this "discussion document" is still under discussion. I'd love to see a test case, you've paid the copyright and it's for your own use, so it's so much a technical breach: It would be nice to have it sorted out in the open, however - can you only listen to an MP3 download on the machine that you downloaded it on? I think not!

Yeah I know it's been discussed here before but in a US context, I kind of (naively) guessed the situation was the same here, but it looks like it's not. Must say I'm amazed.

Yeah, me too.

Despite the existence of the Berne Convention, which might lead people to imagine there's basically one single worldwide copyright regime, differences are legion. Spain, for instance, apparently exempts all non-commercial copying (except of computer software) from copyright restrictions.

Peter

Just comment all your tracks with "Ripped/copied in Spain."

Copyright law will never be universal and will never truly match the spirit of what it's trying to protect. Use your own morality and if you're worried about someone coming to knock on your door, don't discuss what you're doing in public forums.

My own personal stance is that I have purchased a limited license to the music and that the format upon which it is delivered to me is irrelevant.

My understanding from the owner of a small record company of my acquaintance, is that the industry is just as frustrated as the consumer, with the inability to have clear guidelines: Maybe that doesn't include in Sony, but they've taken their own line with often embarrassing results.

I'm not worried about it from a moral or ethical viewpoint, I guess not even a "OMG I'm going to get raided" viewpoint, it's the technicalities of the situation that concern me. Maybe one day we'll get something sensible in the UK.

Which is the sensible thing. If only we could convince our own respective movie and music associations of this.