A few years ago I started a community on Livejournal to exchange mix CDs, largely as a way for me to find new music to listen to. Without having too many friends that listened to a big variety of music, it seemed like a good way to hear what other people liked and see if I liked any of it and it worked really well.
The format was that all participants made 5 copies of a mix CD with songs they like, preferably relatively lesser-known artists and sent them all in, they were mixed up, and each person got back 5 random discs from other participants.
While it obviously falls under the blanket category of “file-sharing,” is this something that I could actually get in trouble for? If I wasn’t a participant in the exchanges as I have been in the previous ones and instead only organized the mailings, am I still considered to be engaging in copyright violation?
And finally, the reason I’m really asking, if I were to be making money somehow from this (I hadn’t previously, all participants provided their own blank CDs and postage) would that put me in any sort of legal danger? And if so, the hypothetical “it’s not legal but nobody would ever do anything” danger, or the “the RIAA will sue you and force a multi-thousand dollar settlement” danger?