Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Utah

Music from cached internet files

If you stream an mp3 file from the internet, a copy of it ends up in your Temporary Internet files folder. I like to get music from mp3.com, a website that freely and legally distributes independantly produced music. Many of the songs have a ''download'' button, but others only have a button to stream them. The files end up on my hard drive. Would it be legal to keep the cached files and put them on a CD for my personal use?


Asked on 1/31/02, 12:42 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Alvin Lundgren Alvin R. Lundgren, L.C.

Re: Music from cached internet files

It depends on the terms by which mp3.com distributes the music. While I have not visited their site, there are probably terms to which you agreed prior to being able to download. Read those terms. In a practical sense, your chances of being sued for copyright infringement for music which you download for personal use only is very small. The targets for those suits are those who download then sell bootleg copies. Notwithstanding the copyright laws and the announcements, thousands will record the Super Bowl. They will not get in trouble unless they try to sell the copies which they have made.

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Answered on 1/31/02, 10:28 am


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