5 ms·

If you pirate something for which you’ve already bought a license, is it even pirating? If the license is for a particular set of bits then unless you are pira

If you pirate something for which you’ve already bought a license, is it even pirating? If the license is for a particular set of bits then unless you are pirating those exact bits I guess so. You licensed Lemonade.drm.mp4 so downloading Lemonade.mp3 is pirating. But then again it’s not pirating to re encode your audio files once you’ve downloaded them. So I feel more confident in saying it’s not the bits that are licensed, it’s the work itself. The act of downloading it from piratewarez.example.com feels fishy, but if you download it from musicbackups.example.com — a hypothetical site that says you should not download copies of files unless you have bought a license for them in the past — then it starts to feel like a more interesting gray area. You’ve licensed a digital copy of the work, so why is it wrong to get a copy of it from some place else? The person distributing the work is probably in hot water, but you shouldn’t be, as long as you have the receipt for the original purchase and/or a copy of the license. For me, the big one here is ebooks. If I buy a physical copy of a book then as far as I’m concerned I’ve bought the license to the work as well as that particular piece of physical media. I don’t lose sleep about pirating the ebook version as well.

deelly 4y ago
> for which you’ve already bought a license... Bought a temporary license to use/read/watch. Its not like you bought a digital file. Nope.
djhworld 4y ago
IANAL but I think the license you buy from google play or apple or whatever is not a license for the content, it's a license to access the content from the provider through a specific player/app. So getting content from musicbackups dot com or whatever would not be a transferable right or gray area. People will do it anyway though
- danbulant 4y ago
  Not sure about US, but for example in Czechia, you can download any content legally - as long as you don't share it, it's fine. Torrents do share it though, so that is a gray area. You also have a right to make a personal backup/copy of the content, again, as long as you don't share that copy (projecting for multiple people is also sharing in this context).
  - cassianoleal 4y ago
    > Torrents do share it though Torrents don't share it. You do if your torrent client is configured to do so. BitTorrent is a protocol. You use it how you use it. If you only want to use it to download stuff, you can.
  - Jorengarenar 4y ago
    >in Czechia, you can download any content legally - as long as you don't share it, it's fine. Very similar law in Poland: you can legally pirate music, books, comics, movies, images for yours own (including your family and closest friends) use. What's interesting, there is an exception for software and video games - those are always illegal.
notpushkin 4y ago
“Emulators community” have a partucularly peculiar take on that by the way. Current gen emulator developers usually say you should rip your own ROMs from the physical media instead of just downloading them from torrents (even if you have the disc/cartridge on hand). I don't think anybody's actually doing that, but discussing downloads is banned on official channels.
- P5fRxh5kUvp2th 4y ago
  It's the law in the US. You can RIP copyrighted content of physical media you own for backup purposes, but you cannot share it. This is why ripping a music CD you own is perfectly legal, but if you upload it that is not legal, nor is downloading it from someone elses upload. Some people in the emulation community do actually adhere to this, but the vast majority do not, as you noted.
  - hansvm 4y ago
    Not sure about other content, but for games (and other programs) in particular this isn't quite true in the US (Copyright Act -- Section 117). You're explicitly able to authorize another individual to do the ripping on your behalf, and they can transfer to you the result. Websites offering those for download are problematic because they usually don't verify ownership or take any steps to ensure copies are destroyed or transferred when the underlying media is transferred. Also, IANAL, but I suspect the order of events might get somebody into hot water. Although the effect on the creator would be the same, I'm not sure it's legal to (1) make a backup, (2) be authorized to make a backup by a media owner, and (3) transfer it -- as opposed to (2,1,3). I.e., hosting the content perpetually might be illegal regardless of your access controls. That isn't a problem with upload/download/sharing per se, but it does potentially make doing so more complicated.

deelly 4y ago

> for which you’ve already bought a license... Bought a temporary license to use/read/watch. Its not like you bought a digital file. Nope.

djhworld 4y ago

IANAL but I think the license you buy from google play or apple or whatever is not a license for the content, it's a license to access the content from the provider through a specific player/app. So getting content from musicbackups dot com or whatever would not be a transferable right or gray area. People will do it anyway though

danbulant 4y ago
Not sure about US, but for example in Czechia, you can download any content legally - as long as you don't share it, it's fine. Torrents do share it though, so that is a gray area. You also have a right to make a personal backup/copy of the content, again, as long as you don't share that copy (projecting for multiple people is also sharing in this context).
- cassianoleal 4y ago
  > Torrents do share it though Torrents don't share it. You do if your torrent client is configured to do so. BitTorrent is a protocol. You use it how you use it. If you only want to use it to download stuff, you can.
- Jorengarenar 4y ago
  >in Czechia, you can download any content legally - as long as you don't share it, it's fine. Very similar law in Poland: you can legally pirate music, books, comics, movies, images for yours own (including your family and closest friends) use. What's interesting, there is an exception for software and video games - those are always illegal.

notpushkin 4y ago

“Emulators community” have a partucularly peculiar take on that by the way. Current gen emulator developers usually say you should rip your own ROMs from the physical media instead of just downloading them from torrents (even if you have the disc/cartridge on hand). I don't think anybody's actually doing that, but discussing downloads is banned on official channels.

P5fRxh5kUvp2th 4y ago
It's the law in the US. You can RIP copyrighted content of physical media you own for backup purposes, but you cannot share it. This is why ripping a music CD you own is perfectly legal, but if you upload it that is not legal, nor is downloading it from someone elses upload. Some people in the emulation community do actually adhere to this, but the vast majority do not, as you noted.
- hansvm 4y ago
  Not sure about other content, but for games (and other programs) in particular this isn't quite true in the US (Copyright Act -- Section 117). You're explicitly able to authorize another individual to do the ripping on your behalf, and they can transfer to you the result. Websites offering those for download are problematic because they usually don't verify ownership or take any steps to ensure copies are destroyed or transferred when the underlying media is transferred. Also, IANAL, but I suspect the order of events might get somebody into hot water. Although the effect on the creator would be the same, I'm not sure it's legal to (1) make a backup, (2) be authorized to make a backup by a media owner, and (3) transfer it -- as opposed to (2,1,3). I.e., hosting the content perpetually might be illegal regardless of your access controls. That isn't a problem with upload/download/sharing per se, but it does potentially make doing so more complicated.