Copy CD music

[kevininstructor]

What is the name of your state? Oregon

Working in a state agency employees want to copy purchased music CD to their hard disk and listen to this music. Can music purchased in a reputable store be copied to a persons hard disk for personal enjoyment and not for profit of any type?

This topic needs to be addressed for my agency so we fully comply with state, federal and international law.

Notes:
We are disallowing music downloaded from the Internet e.g Kaaza

Thanks for taking the time to read/reply

 

[hexeliebe]

Yes.

 

[kevininstructor]

Thanks for the information. One last question, should I be looking under USC Title 17 for verbage?

Thanks once again for the quick reply!

 

[hexeliebe]

As long as you copy only those cds that you own to your own computer and not another, you are perfectly safe. It's the same process as if you owned the LP and transferred it to tape to play in your car.

However, if you put it on the network or give it to someone else to copy to their harddrive, then you fall under copyright restrictions.

 

[kevininstructor]

Thanks once again!

 

[divgradcurl]

should I be looking under USC Title 17 for verbage?

You won't find specific verbage allowing this in 17 USC. 17 USC 107 (Fair Use) is probably the closest. If your boss is giving you a hard time, point him or her to RIAA v. Diamond, 29 F. Supp. 2d 624 (1998), where the court found that copying digital music to a hard drive was cool.

Hexeliebe is right, though -- you can only copy YOUR CD's, not anyone elses, to your computer, without violating copyright.

 

[kevininstructor]

Thanks for the reference!!!