Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Georgia
Is copying CD's that you've borrowed from the library for personal home use (after they have been returned) a violation of copyright law?
3 Answers from Attorneys
Of course it is. I am sure the library staff will be able to explain it to you (and probably have in the membership documents, website, etc).
It may be an infringement of the copyright, but see 17 U.S.C. � 1008, which provides immunity from prosecution for non-commercial reproduction of sound recordings under certain circumstances using an audio recording medium.
"No action may be brought under this title alleging infringement of copyright based on the manufacture, importation, or distribution of a digital audio recording device, a digital audio recording medium, an analog recording device, or an analog recording medium, or based on the noncommercial use by a consumer of such a device or medium for making digital musical recordings or analog musical recordings."
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/1008
The applicable definitions are at http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/1001
If done right, the royalties collected on blank digital audio recording media will be paid out to the copyright holders. See http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/chapter-10/subchapter-C.
Good luck noodling through all that. The law was enacted at a time when the perceived threat was from impending digital FM radio broadcasts that could be recorded to DAT -- digital audio tape.
Yes. You can both be sued in a civil suit and criminally prosecuted.
Related Questions & Answers
-
My friends and I run a little (4,000 users or so) free... Asked 4/23/12, 6:57 am in United States Georgia Intellectual Property