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French Court – Private Copying is Not a Right

Jorge Gonzalez — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 06:36:06 +0000

Says companies are allowed to put Digital Rights Management on their CDs, even if it doesn’t work on some devices.

It may be a small setback to advocates who want to broaden their rights when they copy a CD. According to 01net (Google Translated), a French court has ruled that if a company puts Digital Rights Management (DRM) on their CD and a consumer can’t play it, the company did not break any laws and cannot be held liable for damages. Naturally, proponents for DRM applauded the decision (Google Translation)

While many users of content may feel that copying is a right, the ruling seems to just reinforce what has been generally set in stone in many other countries, that, legally speaking, private copying is an exception, not a right. If a company chooses to put DRM on their CD, then they are entitled to do so.

In countries like Canada and the United States, there are systems where if one buys a blank CD, they also pay into a levy system which makes it’s way back to rights holders. Whether or not the system is fair has been a topic for debate for years. Still, there are many examples of this system reinforcing the fact that private copying is an exception under law, not technically a right.

The real battle has been fought on whether a user has a right to make a copy of, say, an album, and burn it onto an additional CD or any other device. In short, it has been a war between the “I bought it, it’s, therefore, my property, I can do whatever I want with it” perspective and, “We need to stop piracy and enforce our intellectual property rights” perspective.

This ruling, judging by the reports, doesn’t seem to be that big of a departure.

Copy Music and Movies From Any iPod to Your Computer

Chris — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:05:48 +0000

It’s easy enough to get all your music and movies onto your iPod, but have you ever tried to get them off? It’s nearly impossible, and IS impossible using iTunes. You will have to use a third party application like Podmaxx.

Podmaxx lets you copy music from ANY iPod to your computer without hassle. Not only that, but Podmaxx will also burn a CD for you. No need to fire up nero when you can just plug in an ipod and burn straight from it.

You can also copy movies from your ipod to your pc using Podmaxx, which is pretty cool. But Podmaxx takes it to another level by letting you rip DVDs straight to iPod. That’s right just throw a DVD in the drive and click one button and the movie is copied to your iPod.

If that wasn’t enough, Podmaxx also creates ringtones of your music and sends them to your phone – FREE.

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Download Podmaxx Now

Copying Own CDs Still Not Legal

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 23:47:42 +0000

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has called for outdated copyright laws to be changed and modernized. Currently it is illegal to copy music CDs and then place them in your MP3 player for listening. Making copies of CDs and DVDs does not impact the copyright holders and this law should change, so IPPR is arguing the issue.

They feel copyright issues have been steered too much by the music industry in the past and that should change. IPPR deputy directory Dr. Ian Kearns feels “it is not the music industry’s job to decide what rights consumers have that is the job of the government.”

Intellectual property laws are currently being looked at by government in Britain, but changes certainly need to be made to laws such as this that keep someone from utilizing the music they bought. Now that we are in a digital age, intellectual property laws could change to reflect personal use.

DRM has taken such a hold on the music industry that libraries and other archive systems are having a hard time making things available that before were no issue. Digital Rights Management technologies, which restrict the sharing of music or other intellectual property, are bashing attempts to preserve electronic content.

When attention is called to these matters in the US, maybe the music industry will realize there are some issues to take into account when considering DRM and other like-services. We are moving fast with technology and the laws need to move just as fast to keep up.