Legal Issues with Digital Music

Is it illegal?

The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) in the past couple of years has launched numerous lawsuits charging individuals (including even a young child) hundreds of thousands of dollars for copyright infringement. Most of these people, lacking resources to mount any sort of legal defence, end up settling out of court for a few thousand dollars. So how do you avoid being sued? It's simple - don't do anything illegal. Most of those sued were people that were sharing (making available for other people to download) large quantities of music. The nail that sticks up gets hit.

How do I keep it legal?

That will depend on which country you live in. In the United States, any sharing of music for which the copyright owner has not given permission is illegal (both downloading and uploading). In Canada, however, the recording industry charges a levy (a tax by another name) on all blank media to cover the costs of unauthorized reproduction. Because of this, the courts decided that it is completely legal to make a copy for one's own personal use, because, in effect, one is paying for it through the levy. That means, in Canada, I can borrow your CD and make a copy for my own use, and it's completely legal. However, you cannot make a copy for me, because that would not be for your own personal use. The carryover of this to the internet means that right now in Canada I can legally download whatever music I want, but can't legally upload it to other people.

In general, the best way to keep things legal is to do the right thing, and actually purchase your music.

For music which you're copying onto your computer from your CD, what you're doing may or may not be technically illegal, but is certainly fair and morally justified, and you're not going to get sued for it or arrested, as long as you don't then share that music with other people.

Oh, by the way...

We're not lawyers. What you read here is not legal advice. You're responsible for your own actions. Read our site at your own risk. Don't eat cheese before bed.

Anything we're missing? Let us know.

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