Right, the brief does say that placing the MP3s in a directory known to be shared with the general public is de facto copyright violation, but:
The brief also has language that states a compressed digital MP3 copy of the song (which was provided uncompressed on an audio CD) is an unauthorized copy. The distinction is critical, because if the judge confirms in his summary motion, then this *could* become case law that is referenced elsewhere.
So, a personal-use-only "copy" with the same digital bit structure as it was provided to the buyer by the copyright owner is certainly fair-use, but by creating a new bit structure MP3, it may not be.
Of course, I'm just speculating, but the industry's lawyers may be gearing up to say, in effect, the following:
You can buy an audio CD and copy it as a backup audio CD (for example, to play in your car because you know that your car CD player "eats" discs), but you may not convert it into an MP3 because that transcoding into a new media format is not authorized by the copyright holder. If you want it in MP3 (or other audio format), you must buy it that way through their authorized distribution network (iTunes, etc.).
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
EDR229 @ Dec 30th 2007 2:34PM
Right, the brief does say that placing the MP3s in a directory known to be shared with the general public is de facto copyright violation, but:
The brief also has language that states a compressed digital MP3 copy of the song (which was provided uncompressed on an audio CD) is an unauthorized copy. The distinction is critical, because if the judge confirms in his summary motion, then this *could* become case law that is referenced elsewhere.
So, a personal-use-only "copy" with the same digital bit structure as it was provided to the buyer by the copyright owner is certainly fair-use, but by creating a new bit structure MP3, it may not be.
Of course, I'm just speculating, but the industry's lawyers may be gearing up to say, in effect, the following:
You can buy an audio CD and copy it as a backup audio CD (for example, to play in your car because you know that your car CD player "eats" discs), but you may not convert it into an MP3 because that transcoding into a new media format is not authorized by the copyright holder. If you want it in MP3 (or other audio format), you must buy it that way through their authorized distribution network (iTunes, etc.).
This is dangerous... very dangerous...
Any IP attorneys want to chime in?