Q&A: Why is it illegal to download copyrighted MP3s yet legal to acquire them other ways?
Question by bryceguy72: Why is it illegal to download copyrighted MP3s yet legal to acquire them other ways?
If a song plays on TV, you can record it with a Digital Video Recorder. That’s what DVRs are for… they are for recording movies and music, copyrighted or not. Repeat: You are allowed to record COPYRIGHTED intellectual property such as videos and music for personal use. When you record something off the air, you are making an UNLICENSED COPY. This is perfectly legal as long as it’s for personal use.
But instead of recording with a DVR, I can just route the video signal to my computer and record the music video directly to my hard drive. How is that any different? In both cases, I’m making a digital copy of the music.
So if I DVR a song from MTV, it’s legal. If I record with my hard drive, that’s also legal. But if I download that song from the internet, suddenly it’s illegal. But look… the end result is the same: In both cases, I have an unlicensed copy of a song I didn’t pay for.
It gets even worse: YouTube has tons of legal music videos put there by the music companies that make them. With a bare-bones Safari browser (no plug-ins or additional software), you can save any video to your computer for viewing off-line. Is that illegal? And you can upload the music video to your iPod. Is that illegal?
Yeah yeah, I know… I should support the artist and pay for the songs, but this question is not about what we should be doing. This question is about what is legal and illegal. Seems silly that downloading a copyrighted MP3 song for free from the internet is illegal… but downloading it from YouTube or recording it with a DVR is prefectly legal.
In both cases, you’re making an unlicensed digital copy of a copyrighted work and you’re not paying for it. Why is one way legal but the other not? Does illegal necessarily mean immoral or unethical? Seems like this is a very grey area.
Best answer:
Answer by Brandon Wettlaufer
this is another thing where the object is not illegal, but the potential activity that you would use it for is.
having a copy of most anything copyrighted that you didnt pay for. it doesnt mean that most people dont anyways. TV is subject to the same copyright that music is. stuff like a DVR, is just like limewire. limewire was used for sharing files among people, but the potential to steal music is what caused it to be shut down. the same can be applied to apples case on jailbreaking. jailbreaking isnt illegal, but you can run programs on your ipod that can be used for illegal activity.
the arguement to keep these things going (from a legal perspective) is that you can download or record uncopyrighted material, and therefore it can be used legally.
some people have ethical/moral issues with downloading or recording stuff, but ive found that a lot of people just dont like downloading MUSIC, but a lot of people are confused about what is legal and illegal. such as sharing with freinds. (if your friend buys a CD, and you rip that CD onto your computer, and give it back, thats the same as downloading that album off the internet. the only difference is that you know the person you downloaded from).
still, most people dont REALLY care.
What do you think? Answer below!
