4 ms·

I'm surprised that the author had 150GB of Creative Commons audio CDs to begin with!

detaro 11y ago
Don't assume your local laws apply everywhere in the world. (Hint: they probably don't in Finland, which allows private copies)
sundvor 11y ago
Are you trying to say that the OP was not allowed to back up their own CDs? I have several boxes of space wasting CDs of my own that have all been ripped in lossless, and feel somewhat insulted by that notion. Note: I live in Australia, a somewhat less insane country for DRM than the US (AFAIK).
- JupiterMoon 11y ago
  CDs don't even have DRM in the general case. However, local laws can still forbid ripping (e.g. here in the UK where after a brief period of legality it is once again illegal to rip a CD). EDIT removed material that might have derailed things further.
  - sundvor 11y ago
    Roger that; I used the DRM term incorrectly, meaning copyright law. Most of my collection was bought in Norway, but I did the ripping a decade ago plus minus a few years in Australia. For the time being we have much better consumer protection here. I don't even use my collection now that I have Spotify Premium. The only music I've bought lately is some 24bit high bitrate stuff.
- nness 11y ago
  Also in Australia, and its not that black-and-white in my understanding: This is known as "Format Shifting" — taking one copyrighted medium and converting it to another. In Australia, you are explicitly not allowed to do this with CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays. You are only allowed to keep a digital copy if you continue to retain the original — a backup. If the original is lost or destroyed, your digital copies must be discarded. For example, you can rip a CD and put it on your iPod, or computer, as long as you continue to own the CD. The issue here is that in both cases you also control the device you are copying it to. You don't control but rather lease space on Amazon's servers — so it introduces a grey area on whether you are allowed to backup to such places and whether putting data on those servers constitutes distribution of the copyright material. Realistically, none of this is black-and-white and Amazon could flag it as infringing content and remove it just to cover themselves against DMCA complaints anyway. This is true in both Australia and the US, regardless of the differences in copyright law (Australian copyright law offers far fewer protections than the US, incidentally) because both having similar DMCA laws.
  - sundvor 11y ago
    Interesting, thanks for clarifying. Good thing I still have the originals then, as much as I'd like to dump them all.
  - sundvor 11y ago
    Saw this too late to edit my other reply; an interesting overview of what you may or may not do: http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2013/01/format-shifting-101-what-are-your-legal-rights-in-australia/ http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2013/01/format-shifting-101-wha... Also backed up by: http://copyright.com.au/about-copyright/exceptions/ http://copyright.com.au/about-copyright/exceptions/ - which states we're allowed to "space shift" music.
- hinkley 11y ago
  Two paragraphs in its plain to see he's not talking about backing up his CD,s he's talking about full copies so he can get rid of them. And then posting this fact to hacker news. Not the brightest bulb in the pack.
  - sundvor 11y ago
    I am picturing the following use case: 1) Buys music CD. 2) Rips CD to own computer. Shares with own devices [via personal cloud] for continued listening. 3) Destroys original CD. 4) Continues to listen to music which has been paid for; not sharing files with anybody else. I for one fail to see the problem here. But then again, I'm probably not the brightest bulb in the pack either.
    - hinkley 11y ago
      I have yet to meet a yo e who destroys their originals. Do you? Most people sell or gift them to someone else, which is not only outside of the letter of current copyright laws, but the spirit of those laws as well. It would be easier to download pirated copies off the internet and exactly as legal. Mine are all in a box shoved against the wall under my bed, where they don't get it the way but I can prove that I still deserve consideration under the First Sale doctrine.
Buge 11y ago
What country are you thinking of? Backing up CDs is legal in the US.

Don't assume your local laws apply everywhere in the world. (Hint: they probably don't in Finland, which allows private copies)

sundvor 11y ago

Are you trying to say that the OP was not allowed to back up their own CDs? I have several boxes of space wasting CDs of my own that have all been ripped in lossless, and feel somewhat insulted by that notion. Note: I live in Australia, a somewhat less insane country for DRM than the US (AFAIK).

JupiterMoon 11y ago
CDs don't even have DRM in the general case. However, local laws can still forbid ripping (e.g. here in the UK where after a brief period of legality it is once again illegal to rip a CD). EDIT removed material that might have derailed things further.
- sundvor 11y ago
  Roger that; I used the DRM term incorrectly, meaning copyright law. Most of my collection was bought in Norway, but I did the ripping a decade ago plus minus a few years in Australia. For the time being we have much better consumer protection here. I don't even use my collection now that I have Spotify Premium. The only music I've bought lately is some 24bit high bitrate stuff.
nness 11y ago
Also in Australia, and its not that black-and-white in my understanding: This is known as "Format Shifting" — taking one copyrighted medium and converting it to another. In Australia, you are explicitly not allowed to do this with CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays. You are only allowed to keep a digital copy if you continue to retain the original — a backup. If the original is lost or destroyed, your digital copies must be discarded. For example, you can rip a CD and put it on your iPod, or computer, as long as you continue to own the CD. The issue here is that in both cases you also control the device you are copying it to. You don't control but rather lease space on Amazon's servers — so it introduces a grey area on whether you are allowed to backup to such places and whether putting data on those servers constitutes distribution of the copyright material. Realistically, none of this is black-and-white and Amazon could flag it as infringing content and remove it just to cover themselves against DMCA complaints anyway. This is true in both Australia and the US, regardless of the differences in copyright law (Australian copyright law offers far fewer protections than the US, incidentally) because both having similar DMCA laws.
- sundvor 11y ago
  Interesting, thanks for clarifying. Good thing I still have the originals then, as much as I'd like to dump them all.
- sundvor 11y ago
  Saw this too late to edit my other reply; an interesting overview of what you may or may not do: http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2013/01/format-shifting-101-what-are-your-legal-rights-in-australia/ http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2013/01/format-shifting-101-wha... Also backed up by: http://copyright.com.au/about-copyright/exceptions/ http://copyright.com.au/about-copyright/exceptions/ - which states we're allowed to "space shift" music.
hinkley 11y ago
Two paragraphs in its plain to see he's not talking about backing up his CD,s he's talking about full copies so he can get rid of them. And then posting this fact to hacker news. Not the brightest bulb in the pack.
- sundvor 11y ago
  I am picturing the following use case: 1) Buys music CD. 2) Rips CD to own computer. Shares with own devices [via personal cloud] for continued listening. 3) Destroys original CD. 4) Continues to listen to music which has been paid for; not sharing files with anybody else. I for one fail to see the problem here. But then again, I'm probably not the brightest bulb in the pack either.
  - hinkley 11y ago
    I have yet to meet a yo e who destroys their originals. Do you? Most people sell or gift them to someone else, which is not only outside of the letter of current copyright laws, but the spirit of those laws as well. It would be easier to download pirated copies off the internet and exactly as legal. Mine are all in a box shoved against the wall under my bed, where they don't get it the way but I can prove that I still deserve consideration under the First Sale doctrine.

Buge 11y ago

What country are you thinking of? Backing up CDs is legal in the US.