How do I copy/burn mp3 music from my PC onto CDs

weegie.geek

marleyboy wrote: »

When you buy your "copy" of Windows it comes on a disk, you install it onto your system, this involves decompressing and converting the data in accordance with the computer, in effect, were conversion illegal as suggested, it would become "illegal" to install your windows disk onto your computer.

Hardly the same, since with the windows installation, that's what you're MEANT to do with it. If there are licensing terms that require you NOT to rip the CD then you're specifically NOT meant to do that.

Using something in the way it's intended is not the same as breaking licensing terms.

It's not converting data that's the problem, it's converting specific data.

All digital data from Software to Music, can be converted, manipulated, mixed, compiled or edited, so long as it is exclusively for the owners convenience and not given out, it becomes illegal only when its reproduced format is passed on.

Imagine a CD player becoming an illegal device, just because it reconverts the digital data, so that it can be played via your amplifier through to your speakers.

Again, intended use and prohibited use are different things, I'm not sure why you're using these unrelated examples...

I have an enormous Vynil collection, which I have subsequently converted to MP3, literally thousands of albums or 12 inches that took me Months to convert, all to make it more convenient for me to listen to them, as well as protecting them from being scratched and clearing my room of clutter by storing the albums up in the loft. Perfectly legal.

Morally fine. You've paid for them, you should be able to listen to them however you like. People in this thread seem to think it's not legal however, and there is plenty of evidence to back them up.

Whether they're right or not, I don't particularly care. I rip CDs, I store DVDs on my fileserver to be streamed across my network for ease of use. I don't remember the last time I actually watched a film off a DVD.

As legal as the old Maxell cassette tapes I used to tape compilations of my favourite tracks from my original vinyl 12 Inch records and albums, or making my own mix tapes with my old technics 1210 turntables. All perfectly legal to do, so long as I did not sell them on.

It wasn't legal, you were just in no danger of being prosecuted for it.

Can you imagine the uproar if someone was actually prosecuted for it? Police and courts wasting time on that while actual crimes with victims go unsolved?

So it IS illegal to rip your own CDs it seems, but I've never heard of someone being prosecuted for it.

usignuolo

Will look for the original direct.gov.uk thread - which was on someone's posting about their research into UK copyright.

As you can see from my posting above, US copyright law is different and includes recent amendment to make provision for home copying legitimately purchased digital music tracks to CD or cassette or MPs etc for personal use.

All my stuff is either supplied by the artists/record companies for downloading (via a sub to Paste in the USA) or bought from Napster who make it clear that copying to CD is permitted under their usage terms. Copying for non commercial use is also covered by section 10 amendment to the US AHRA Act in 2002.

My problem then is not actually the legality, it is the DRM protection on the Napster tracks which is preventing me from either playing them on my PC (using VLC) or copying to CD despite the fact their Ts and Cs permit it.

Following problems using the Dell supplied viewer for video, I switched to using VLC and npw listen to audio with it as well. This apparently causes a problem playing back WMA. Switch software will not convert these WMAs to MPs because they were supplied in DRM protected WMA format by Napster.

I imagine I could play them with WMP but don't really want to go back to using that if possible as it is not my media player of choice. Incidentally my Zen player will play both formats.

weegie.geek

There are tools to remove DRM, but that step would then be breaking the law. Whether you care about that or not is another question.

usignuolo

Here is the link to the blog which references direct.gov.uk

http://www.thenettle.com/blog/2007/02/is-it-legal-to-copy-your-own-cds-on-to.html

weegie.geek

Yeah, I found that but all it references is an archived version of the direct.gov.uk page which doesn't actually have that text on it. You can look at other versions of that archive but they don't appear to have it either.

marleyboy

to put it more simply for you, Uk copyright laws only apply if you intend to use it for distribution.

weegie.geek

Currently, copying a CD to a computer for use with an MP3 player is an infringement of copyright under s17 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA) – reproducing the work in any material form, including storing by electronic means.

The law seems to disagree.

marleyboy

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7176538.stm

marleyboy

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/88205/uk-consumer-group-calls-for-copyright-law-reform/

This makes for interesting reading

weegie.geek

Right now they're criminalising people for using something they've paid for in a way that's convenient to them. The law screws over consumers, it's disgusting.