So if I legally purchase music (via CD or iTunes) and then use iTunes to make a mix CD and give that CD to a friend (as a gift) is that legal?
If you possess any copies of the music you give your friend, no.
Zuh?
So if I don’t have any copies of the music then, yes?
He’s saying you must not maintain copies of your own after making and giving the mix to someone else.
More precisely if you possess any copies from the same source (original CD download, whatever) It’s perfectly legal to pay (somehow) for two copies and give one or a copy of one to a friend.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it legal to make ONE “backup” copy and keep it in a safe, offsite place (ie, a friend’s house)? I know, it’s not ethically correct, but it seems like it’d be technically legal.
Prolly not technically legal per se. But I am also pretty sure you will not be summarily executed for it. <- not legal advice!
iTunes has a generous policy that allows you to burn a given song seven times. Does that affect it, particularly since as I recall the license doesn’t specify that those seven are backups?
A backup copy of a CD generally refers to computer software. IIRC, it does not apply to music, even though the medium (a CD) is the same. Also, a backup for archival purposes means just that. It is not a working copy.
Well, whether that policy really is “generous” is matter of debate. (Also, it allows you to burn a given playlist 7 times… you can burn the same song more than 7 times as long as you change the playlist.)
But it’d be important to know exactly what the license says about the CDs you can burn. If it doesn’t say anything about the CDs having to be for your own personal use, then presumably you can give them to your friends.
I sent an E-Mail to RealRhapsody about this once. They replied that if you bought the rights to burn a song to CD from them, it was the same as if you’d bought the CD at a store. You could burn a hundred copies and give them to your friends – as long as you paid for a hundred copies, of course.
Ethically, the guiding principle is that you ought to pay for all copies that could be played at the same time.
So if you buy a CD, and then make a copy to give to a friend, that’s wrong, since the 2 of you could both be playing the song at the same time, but the musician only got paid for one.
But if you burn a copy to keep in your car (because you don’t want to expose the original CD to the sunlight, temp variations, etc. in a vehicle) and store the original in your house, that’s ethically OK, since you won’t play the car stereo CD and the original in the house at the same time.
Making an archival or backup copy on some other media is ethically OK, if it really is a backup copy that you won’t be playing.
Downloading a song, and making a copy on both your desktop and your laptop PC is ethically OK, since you’ll only be listening to one of those at a time. Forwarding the downloaded copy to 25 of your nearest & dearest friends is not, since many of them could listen to the song at the same time, but the musician only got paid one time.
If you download a song, decide you don’t like it much, and give it as a gift to someone with different musical tastes, that’s ethically OK, as long as you don’t still keep a copy for yourself.
Note: these are my feelings on what is ethically right. That may not be the same as what is legal. And the RIAA probably has a different viewpoint.
So could one start a music service via the interent where you have (one/three/ten/etc) copy of a song and only allow it to be simutainously streamed (one/three/ten/etc.) times?
Let’s actually look at the iTunes Terms of Sale:
Note the last. Making a gift is clearly noncommercial, but it’s not for your personal use. So, legally, you’re in trouble.