[HANASHIR:4126] Quick addendum on copying music.

[Judah Cohen <jcohen...>]

Though it's probably been mentioned before, it's worth noting that under
laws of "fair use," there are two instances where duplication of
copyrighted music is permissible:

1.  Making a personal copy of an album you already own (i.e.,
to play in your car stereo system).

2.  Making a single copy of a recording that is out of print (again, for
personal use only).

I also want to mention one other thing, just to throw a curve into present
conversation:  it is pretty commonly known (and documented in several
cultures) that "illegal" copying and distribution of copyrighted music is
a major factor in establishing an artist's popularity--and, interestingly
enough, in spurring the artist's album sales.  Major record companies
themselves encourage such wholesale "piracy" among certain sectors of the
population:  DJs, for example, often receive free copies of a label's
latest songs with the tacet expectation that the songs will be frely
sampled and distributed on the DJs mix albums.  In a way, it's like free
publicity, especially for those people who have not ben exposed to the
music or the artists before--and this seems to be a particularly pertinent
case among Jewish populations, who have little to no radio outlets or
other methods to receive samples of Jewish musical styles without
actually laying out money for what many would consider an unacceptable
risk. In other words, and here I stick my
neck
out: "illegal" copying, in certain cases, may actually be an important
part of sustaining the
Jewish
recording industry.  To try to eliminate copying, or see it as an
unabashed form of stealing is, in my opinion, unrealistic.  

Judah.

On Mon, 11 Oct
1999 BEBWH (at) aol(dot)com wrote:

> Sorry, I just downloaded AOL 5.0 and it seems to be a little trigger happy on 
> the repley/send buttons. I meant to add to Ellens' comments on teaching 
> Kavod, that there is another implication to duplicating music which is a 
> Halachic issue of Genayva, stealing. Kavod is certainly an important Middah 
> which we should be aware of all the time. However Genayva is one of the top 
> ten Lo Ta-aseh (Thou shalt Not) commandments straight from the Torah as 
> opposed to a Rabbinic ruling. There is no question that duplicating written 
> or recorded music falls into this catagory. If you look at many cassettes 
> produced by Orthodox sources (and PLEASE, this is not said to provoke any 
> value judgments or discussion as to who is or who is not) you will find that 
> many say something like " please do not play this tape on Shabbos and Yom 
> Tov, Duplication without permission is a violation of Halacha and Civil law." 
> Some us may not be comfortable with both sections of this statement but the 
> second part of it should be pretty easy to deal with. I realize this does not 
> encode the tape and prohibit the duplication but it does make people think 
> twice. I'd be curious how many of us have seen this statement and thought it 
> helps.
> 
> 

------------------------ hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org -----------------------+
Hosted by Shamash: The Jewish Internet Consortium  http://shamash.org
------------------------ hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org -----------------------=