ChatterBank1 min ago
Cd Copying
Not being a big fan of music downloads I like to buy real CD's.
My car has a nasty habit of failing to eject CDs, when this happens I almost always end up scratching the CD, some times its still ok, but sometimes the scratch is too deep to play later tracks.
Am I within my rights to make copys of my CDs so I can play the copy in my car and leave the origanal CD safely at home, thus if the car swallows a copy, i can just copy another from the main CD?
My car has a nasty habit of failing to eject CDs, when this happens I almost always end up scratching the CD, some times its still ok, but sometimes the scratch is too deep to play later tracks.
Am I within my rights to make copys of my CDs so I can play the copy in my car and leave the origanal CD safely at home, thus if the car swallows a copy, i can just copy another from the main CD?
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Somebody will no doubt come along and point out that it is technically against the law to make copies for personal use, but the government has plans to make personal copies legal so it's not a law that's actively enforced (if it was the police could just arrest most people wearing MP3 players and prosecute them for making personal copies for use on their MP3 player)
As Chuck has indicated, copying a CD for 'back-up' purposes (or ripping files from your own CD so that you can listen to them on an MP3 player) is technically illegal in the UK. (This country doesn't have the 'personal use' loopholes which are built into US legislation).
However UK courts are obliged to consider the concept of 'fair dealing', which has no statutory definition but examines the economic impact of any copying which is done. So it's not only extremely unlikely that anyone would ever be brought before a court for simply copying their own CD (for their own use) but even more unlikely that a court would act against the person who copied the CD.
Incidentally, if you're REALLY worried about the technicalities of copyright legislation, I hope that you wipe or destroy any videotapes or disks, upon which you've recorded TV programmes, as soon as you've watched the programme. It's only legal to make such recordings for 'time shift' purposes. Retaining the recordings afterwards is illegal!
Chris
However UK courts are obliged to consider the concept of 'fair dealing', which has no statutory definition but examines the economic impact of any copying which is done. So it's not only extremely unlikely that anyone would ever be brought before a court for simply copying their own CD (for their own use) but even more unlikely that a court would act against the person who copied the CD.
Incidentally, if you're REALLY worried about the technicalities of copyright legislation, I hope that you wipe or destroy any videotapes or disks, upon which you've recorded TV programmes, as soon as you've watched the programme. It's only legal to make such recordings for 'time shift' purposes. Retaining the recordings afterwards is illegal!
Chris
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