Napster And DVD Morality Question

General Questions
#1

Okay, I admit it: I’m a Napster user.

After taking interest in the Blue Man Group, I thought about buying their album. Just to be sure, however, I got on Napster and downloaded a couple songs from their album.

After listening, I decided to go ahead and by the DVD version instead of the CD version. This leaves me with a small moral quandry:

If I had purchased the CD, I would have no problem keeping the MP3s on my hard drive; I’ve paid for the licence to listen to them and could certainly make my own MP3s of them.

However, in buying the DVD, I am unable to make MP3s of them. Do I then have the same right to have the ones I downloaded on my hard drive? When I buy a movie, this does not mean that I have the right to download music from the soundtrack. However, this is DVD Audio…

So, what do you think?

#2

Well, if it makes you feel any better, it is possible to make MP3s from DVD. Though, as someone noted in a recent thread on the subject, DVD audio may actually be of lower quality than CD audio, so your CD quality MP3s could still be considered cheating. If you were so inclined, I’d say you could go through the fairly troublesome process of DVD to MP3 conversion to assuage your conscience. Personally, I wouldn’t be that concerned as long as the MP3s you have all correspond to songs that are on the DVD. Just my two cents.

#3

My understanding was that you actually had to make the MP3s from your own CD to be legal, not just be capable of doing it. Of course, there’s no way to prove where an MP3 (or any digital copy) came from, except by having you testify under oath about it.

Of course, I could be wrong …

#4

Skott, you’ve been around for long enough to know that questions on morality don’t go in GQ. I’m closing this.