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Replying To:
DMCA (none / 0) (#6)
by Anonymous User on Tue Sep 16, 2003 at 06:56:50 PM PDT

The DMCA was about the technolgy of copyright protection. All the folk are doing is copying the already ripped MP3s. You are confusing the DMCA with the NET (No Electronic Theft) Act from 1997 that made it a criminal offense to download more than a nominal amount of copyrighted material. Nominal, according to the act, is $1000 retail value willfully copied in any 180 day period for non-commercial purposes. If you sell it to someone, you can be busted for just trying, but if you just are using it and not charging, you can have up to $1000 worth every six months. That's the law! Clearly the Congress never intended to criminalize every kid who comes along and copies a track off a CD or downloads one from the internet. A few Congressmen and a Senator are proposing to hold some hearings to grill the RIAA in regard to their present practice. The RIAA is backing down fairly fast, it seems, and claiming that they are only pursuing those with thousands of titles for downloading. We shall see. The musicians and singers have been popularized via the public airwaves and I think that very action makes the music a public commodity. The US Supreme Court decreed some years ago that off-air recording was legitimate use of copyrighted material and so merely represented a time shift in the enjoyment of the material. If it has been broadcast, it is in the public domain. At least if you can prove you ripped it off the airwaves. It is problematical as to how to tell the difference in the source of an MP3. It will be interesting to see the outcome when someone finally takes this situation to a real court.



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