You’re saying you turned into CrankyAsAnOldMan?
I had a thought about this. I wasn’t sure how/when/where to bring it up, but this seems like as good an opportunity as ever. What if I posted a question along the lines of:
“I intend to become an amateur crime-fighter, like Batman, but the crime I intend to fight is copyright infringement on the internet. Of course, in order to do this, I need to know where the evildoers congregate, and what tools they use. Any suggestions?”
No, I don’t think you’d really be fooled by this, but I did think it was kinda creative. 
That site scares my dogs…
-Lil
That site makes the Baby Jesus cry.
Well, since I, as well as anybody else who has been awake since the Napster suit began, know perfectly well about the various software packages available to download software, you wouldn’t be suggesting that I, the legal owner of 300+ LP records who would like to listen to them someplace other than my basement, am interested in infringing anybody’s copyright, would you? Otherwise, I might take umbrage with your suggestion.
To be honest, I doubt if much that I would want to listen to is available on the net.
dropzone, take a look at some of the responses I had to my OP in this thread about MP3s, copyright, etc. and see if some of your issues are covered in there:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=62117
And for that thread, I did submit the OP in advance to manhattan for approval, which is why it was allowed to exist.
That’s not too hard to deal with. You can disable scripts, or if you’re using a dial-up connection, you can disconnect, close the windows, then reconnect. A third option is to go to the task manager (CTRL-ALT-DEL in Windows) and close your web browser (but then you lose all instances of the browser).
Yes, I know all that, but how would I find out how Bob Dole imagines Brittany Spears looks naked?
As JC perhaps breaks this into debate mode…
Are we entirely certain that a purchaser of a recording has the right to make copies of that recording for personal use?
I ask this because while listening to NPR (that bastion of liberty and goodness) a week or so ago I heard a piece on a new technology that severely degrades audio performance if music is ripped from a CD. It leaves a huge amount of hisses and pops on the audio file. Kind of like listening to a 35 year old vinyl record that had been used as a dog frisbee.
Apparently a label is using this technology (as an experiment) on select releases right now. Presumably, if the experiment works they will find fewer instances of those tracks on file-swapping services.
But what caught my attention is this: when the interviewer asked a flack from the Recording Industry Assn of America (hereafter the RIAA) about how this impacted the purchasers right to make copies of music for personal use the RIAA guy said that had always been assumed by the public but the labels had the right to deny it if they wished. In effect he was saying that users do NOT have the right to copy purchased music (or data of any sort, I suppose) but that record companies had been letting it slide as there had been no effective means of preventing it to date.
To be fair, he still said they didn’t mind home copying for personal use but felt the need to combat file-swapping was large enough to make the label involved in the experiment decide that they should restrict it.
Anyone know anything further about this?
At this fine message board, we’ve replaced the posters’ packets of Equal with peyote.
Let’s see if they can tell the difference…
Well what does this do to them?? http://www.btinternet.com/~david.st/b3ta/
The Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 states:
*Section 1008. Prohibition on certain infringement actions
No action may be brought under this title alleging infringement of copyright based on the manufacture, importation, or distribution of a digital audio recording device, a digital audio recording medium, an analog recording device, or an analog recording medium, or based on the noncommercial use by a consumer of such a device or medium for making digital musical recordings or analog musical recordings. *
However, it doesn’t say that the owner of the copyright cannot take steps to prevent one from making the copy. In fact, quite the opposite (see Section 1002).
So we find ourselves in the joyous legal position of both the copier and the copied can compete with no legal control?
Why, yes! That’s how we have ended up with an arms race between the RIAA and the software writers. It’ll be fun to watch.
Hey, remember, I’m a publishing guy. If I could make the magazines explode after they read them, I would!
I completely agree, although I’m egotistical enough to think that, were somebody to WANT to copy something I wrote AND spread it all over the world, they are welcome to. 
And I have no problem with the RIAA disagreeing with the AHRA-'76 & '92 and doing what they can, within the bounds of the law, to prevent my copying product for my own use, but said copying, if done within the limits of the same law, is protected fair use. The knee-jerk closing of my thread where that PROTECTED copying was being discussed (LPs to digital media) is what pissed me off as a violation of my free speech. But yes, my original intent of downloading copyrighted material, though I own a legal copy of it, is a gray area and I’d probably, if I were feeling reasonable, actually side with the RIAA on that issue.
Yes, ANOTHER tape to cd burner question
both covered it before. I recall another thread that really went in depth, but I couldn’t find it.
I think it would be rather difficult to implement copy-protection that would allow you to play back a digital recording through an amp and speakers and yet prevent you from piping that same sound signal into a sound-in jack and either recording the analog signal on analog media or digitizing it and saving it as a digital file.
It would be even more difficult to prevent you from setting up some excellent speakers and a pair of nice mikes and recording the actual playback.
Okay, now I’m going to pretend I’m a mod for a second:
Enough with the How-Tos already! Yes, any copy protection can be circumvented. No, analog media like LPs don’t have any so it’s not a problem. You people are going to get THIS thread locked on me, TOO!!!
Lock it…lock it!!!1
FINISH HIM!
-Jonathan “And this one time…at band camp…” Chance