legal to copy music CD's to HD?

This may sound like a stupid question...but is it fully legal to copy a music CD that I own onto my hard drive? I tend to say obviously it is...but thought I'd ask around on the full details. Basically...what's the music industries policy on that? I copied it over using WMP 9.0 MP3. It's just more convienent then finding the CD and switching just to listen to one song I like.

How about burning a CD then? Could I burn CD's for my car and keep the originals in my house? Technically speaking only 1 would get played back at a time...so I thought that was legal?

It's only illegal if you share it, like if you copy the cd give it to friends (or others) or if you have a p2p program and share it like that.

if you own the cd do whatever you want with it, except distribute it, like Sanyote said

Everything you want to do is legal. How else would Ipods be so popular?

Everything you want to do is legal.

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Oh good...I can call that hot 15yr old girl up...

I just wanted to learn the specific details on music laws. Obviously that statement is completely wrong since sharing music(or d/l it) is illegal. Ipods are popular because of all the people that illegally d/l music and can put it on. However, that doesn't mean it's legal.

Ipod was designed to hold legit copies of songs copies from a CD or downloaded off itunes.

You can make backup copies (including on a HDD) for your own personal use, but you can't sell or give copies away (in other words, no distribution). Make sure you have the original CD, so you can prove ownership if questioned.

As long you copy music for your own personal use it legal, and doesn't matter how many copies or on what you store them.

Ipods weren't design to hold legit copies of songs, they were design to hold music, some artist aren't popular and share their music on p2p networks which is legal aswell

I download a CD from Itunes, copy it onto my iPod and then burn it to CDRW so that I can copy it to my Xbox HD. All is legal!!!

Ipods weren't design to hold legit copies of songs, they were design to hold music, some artist aren't popular and share their music on p2p networks which is legal aswell

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That doesn't make sense That's like saying a VCR wasn't designed to play recorded movies...it was made to play movies?! Well obviously it plays illegal copies of any kind of music, but that wasn't it's intent of the maker. At least not the "official" intent..although obviously they saw that with the countless millions of file sharers it would be a good business.

theMonster said:

I download a CD from Itunes, copy it onto my iPod and then burn it to CDRW so that I can copy it to my Xbox HD. All is legal!!!

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The songs on the xbox must sound horrible! lossy AAC, to Wave, To MP3!

/me <3's flac

SavageBasher said:

The songs on the xbox must sound horrible! lossy AAC, to Wave, To MP3!

/me <3's flac

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Nope, sounds fine AAC doesn't covert to WAV via ITunes it converts to .ACD and AAC and ACD is not very lossy at all compared to WAV, WMA and MP3, nor does the X-box convert to MP3 it converts to WMA.

geek2005 said:

That doesn't make sense That's like saying a VCR wasn't designed to play recorded movies...it was made to play movies?! Well obviously it plays illegal copies of any kind of music, but that wasn't it's intent of the maker. At least not the "official" intent..although obviously they saw that with the countless millions of file sharers it would be a good business.

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Unfortunately, you've chosen a bad example. It is technically illegal to record a TV show from the TV without having the permission of the broadcaster.

So my Tivo is illegal? Sounds wierd.

Oddly enough, yeah most likely. The weird thing is people usually just don't give a rats about whether people tape TV shows or not

Lunar_Lamp said:

Unfortunately, you've chosen a bad example. It is technically illegal to record a TV show from the TV without having the permission of the broadcaster.

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Technally not true, the Betamax VCR lawsuit of 1984 set the allowances for recording shows from TV to your VCR.

Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc. 464 U.S. 417 (1984) (Docket Number: 81-1687), also known as the "Betamax case", was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States which ruled that the making of individual copies of complete television shows for personal use does not constitute copyright infringement, but is fair use. The Court also ruled that the manufacturers of home video recording devices, such as Betamax or VCRs, cannot be liable for infringement. The case was a boon to the home video market as it created a legal safe haven for the technology, which also significantly benefited the entertainment industry through the sale of pre-recorded movies.

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EDIT:The TIVO falls into the same kind of catagory as a VCR. This is also the reason why it is perfectly legal to make copies of purchaced CD's for your MP3 player or computer. As long as you are not sharing it with anyone else you are within your fair use rights. (Unless its something like a game that spells out in the EULA that you can not make a backup copy)

meionm said:

As long you copy music for your own personal use it legal, and doesn't matter how many copies or on what you store them.

Ipods weren't design to hold legit copies of songs, they were design to hold music, some artist aren't popular and share their music on p2p networks which is legal aswell

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As meionm said as long you dont distribute it for income, or anything in that manner its legal

As I understand it, you're actually allowed to distribute copyrighted music with one restriction: All the copies (including the original) must stay within the same household.
I'm pretty sure that's how it works in the US. I've heard that in Canada, while it's illegal to copy a CD and give the copy to a friend, you can legally let your friend borrow your CD and make a copy, then give the original back. I'm not sure if it's still true, though.

As for TV, it depends on whether or not it's free content. Content only available through paid services is under the same restriction as copyrighted music. Free content can be distributed unless it explicitly states that it cannot be (e.g. copyrighted or under NDA). Even that can be blurred, as a sports game that states that you cannot rebroadcast it without permission can be rebroadcast over a secure personal WiFi LAN. (Does anyone know why they prevent rebroadcasting? It's not as if they will lose money if it's rebroadcast. It's already free.) I don't know how it'll work if the LAN is not encrypted, though. For instance, someone can set it up to rebroadcast a football game over WiFi at a party so everyone with a laptop can view it, without having to string cables everywhere and install a HDTV adapter in each laptop. In such a situation, encryption is often disabled as it offers little security (everyone at the party knows what the key is!) and is a cause of trouble. (WEP64, WEP128, WPA TKIP, WPA AES, which one do I use? Passphrase or hex strings?)
I believe that it must be legal because it's legal to play copyrighted music at a party, even though playing it could be considered broadcasting in that case.

Technically speaking, under section 117 of the United States Copyright Act, a backup copy of any cd is permittable given that you own the original cd (that you are ripping from) and that the backup will remain in your possession for as long as you have the original or if for some reason the program requires a backup to run (anyone know what program does this?) So is it fully 100% legal to do backups? No, you see that the company's contract supercedes the copyright act, therefore if your ToS for the program or music states that you can not make a back up for any reason (Sierra is a big proponent for this) then you will be violating that ToS if you do rip and back up the cd contents and subject to legal action.

If laws like these were enforced, chances are we wouldn't be able to drive the way we do on the American highway. I mean it may sound random, but in America, the usual speed limit is 55, but people easily drive 70 most of the time. Take our tendecy to record different mediums and compare it to the way Americans drive on the highway, if both were enforced, there wouldn't be enough people to enforce it, and even if there were, there would be a lot of people in trouble. Truth is, the law is there for those who make it dangerous for everybody else, like the erratic driver or the music/movie bootlegger who is obviously impacting the entertainment industries

The law is there and yes for the most part they will not go after the people (they can't there are too many of them and they can't spend their time looking for everyone who does ripping/burning) however, that still does not make it technically illegal, which is what the original poster asked about.