legality of copying music?

Hello I have a question. On launch.com Yahoo provides free viewing of music videos. My question is if it is legal to stream the music from the music video into the computer, alter the format, and convert it to MP3 to put in my music player. I know it is impossible to track this without direct access to my harddrive.. Is this legal?

-tom

To tell if it was legal, you'd have to read (and understand) the license that Yahoo is using to distribute the Music. They may have bought the rights to broadcast it for a limited time, or the music may actually be in the public domain. When you download it you may be agreeing NOT to make copies of any kind.

Chances are it's illegal.

Daniel

Yeah, I would guess it's illegal, but then again, so is driving 60mph in a 55. Who doesn't do that? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Yes, and a suprisingly large number of people lie, cheat and hurt people too.

Most people actually strive to do 60 in a 55. I once argued with a cop that everyone drove over 55. He offered to let me sit with him and watch the radar. Very few were driving significantly over the limit, and many were below it.

Choose your role models wisely.

Daniel

I would almost say legal.

It is legal to make copies of broadcast TV and Radio for private use and to give to friends (not sale).

wwglen

If you agree to a license agreement you are bound by contract law and breaking the contract is a civil penalty.

If not, I believe it is permitted under the Audio Home Recording Rights Act of 1992, but I could be wrong... IANAL.

The reason this sort of thing if confusing is because the laws are goofy and contradictory...

It used to be legal for you to record things for the purpose of listening or viewing them later. But once it's in a digital format it's no longer so simple. The DMCA preserves your right to time shift and backup, but you're not allowed to hack the file format to do it. And anything you do to the file, including just transcoding it, even if no hacking or use of DeCss or anything else, is considered circumvention and against the law.

As long as you do not distribute this converted file I would consider it within the spirit of the law, but not necessarily the letter of the law. but then IANAL

Sounds kind of complicated to me. Sometimes these things are much more complex than the lawyers thought when they wrote 'NO COPYS' into the EULA. Depending on what you use to download it your machine may make a complete copy in your browser cache -- which is often not mentioned in EULAs that forbid copying. Further, your OS may make a copy for your SWAP file -- which also probably would be forbidden by a technical reading of most EULAs.

My silly point here is that often the EULA is written so poorly that there may be no way to download the protected material without violating it in the process. Beware.

I think it is OK if you don't distrubute it. Just build my HTPC(Home Theater PC) it runs Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and works well with my Theater 550 tuner card. So far, my wife has 32 shows in the que to record then burn on DVD (We are heading to Turkey for two years and she wants her shows to take with her)

It is perfectly legal to do so as long as I don't make 1,000 copies and sell them for money. That makes sense, for home use only. Since you are paying for your internet fees, I would think the same law applies...home use only.

Can downloading be tracked? -- sometimes; really shouldn't be too hard, actually.

Is it legal to copy the download? -- probably not -- if you don't own a recording, copying it is illegal. Making more than one copy is probably illegal, if you own it or not.

Remember, not all artists are like U2 or the Eagles and charge $150 a seat for a concert. Not all artists are stinkin' rich. Copying something you didn't buy is theft and takes moeny out of their pockets.

My two cents worth? Let your conscience be your guide.

Check out www.magnatune.com for lots of music you can download legally for free. This is one of my favorite sites on the whole web. There's tons of free music on the web, most of it awful. But almost everything on Magnatune that I've downloaded has been good. They are very selective about what they distribute.