It is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into their computer?

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/28/AR2007122800693.html

Download Uproar: Record Industry Goes After Personal Use

By Marc Fisher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 30, 2007; Page M05

Despite more than 20,000 lawsuits filed against music fans in the years since they started finding free tunes online rather than buying CDs from record companies, the recording industry has utterly failed to halt the decline of the record album or the rise of digital music sharing.

Still, hardly a month goes by without a news release from the industry's lobby, the Recording Industry Association of America, touting a new wave of letters to college students and others demanding a settlement payment and threatening a legal battle.

Now, in an unusual case in which an Arizona recipient of an RIAA letter has fought back in court rather than write a check to avoid hefty legal fees, the industry is taking its argument against music sharing one step further: In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.

The industry's lawyer in the case, Ira Schwartz, argues in a brief filed earlier this month that the MP3 files Howell made on his computer from legally bought CDs are "unauthorized copies" of copyrighted recordings.

[Snarkturian Clone]

1. Soon they'll be

suing people who sing in the shower.

[zorahopkins]

3. Just Make Sure That

Just make sure that anything you sing in the shower is in the public domain.

It's OK to whistle the tune "L'Habanera" from "Carmen".

It's not OK to whistle "Yellow Submarine".

They are watching and listening.

It's worse than you think.

[Boojatta]

2. If Apple will turn its iPod division into a separate corporation, then

perhaps we can sell short a lot of shares in that separate corporation and then use the courts to bring about its bankruptcy.

[psychmommy]

4. oops!

i guess it is not ok to rip songs from my cds and put them on my mp3 player. then it is not worth it for my to but a whole cd when i can buy individual songs. this hurts the artists in the end.

[Feron]

5. As I said earlier, he was sharing songs on Kazaa.

Which is undeniably illegal even if IIRC he just wanted to share music between computers.

Ripping CDs and converting music you own is still fair use however.

Slashdot discussion on the subject from last month: http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/07/12/11/0436215.shtml

[madrchsod]

7. they are asserting that if you have mp3 files

on the hard drive it is illegal if you also have any file sharing program even if the mp3`s are not in those file sharing program. so if i want to share any data file other than mp3`s with someone and have stored mp3`s i`m breaking their law.

[Junkdrawer]

6. Here's the industry's official position:

It’s okay to copy music onto an analog cassette, but not for commercial purposes.

It’s also okay to copy music onto special Audio CD-R’s, mini-discs, and digital tapes (because royalties have been paid on them) – but, again, not for commercial purposes.

Beyond that, there’s no legal "right" to copy the copyrighted music on a CD onto a CD-R. However, burning a copy of CD onto a CD-R, or transferring a copy onto your computer hard drive or your portable music player, won’t usually raise concerns so long as:

The copy is made from an authorized original CD that you legitimately own

The copy is just for your personal use. It’s not a personal use – in fact, it’s illegal – to give away the copy or lend it to others for copying.

·The owners of copyrighted music have the right to use protection technology to allow or prevent copying.
Remember, it’s never okay to sell or make commercial use of a copy that you make.

http://www.musicunited.org/2_thelaw.html#5

So what they're explicitly saying is that IPods and MP3 players are illegal, but we'll look the other way if we feel like it.