Laws For Downloading Music - Downloading Music Legally
For most people, downloading music is as easy as opening your Web browser or a peer-to-peer file sharing software, selecting the songs you want and transferring them to an mp3 player.
But depending on what country you're in (or country you're downloading from, more commonly), the laws for downloading music vary greatly and are usually pretty fuzzy on what exactly can get you in trouble.
The most significant legal information concerning the copyright laws as digital copies of copy-written materials is the U.
S.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
The act, which passed in 1998, did a couple different things to extend the reach of copyright while limiting the liability of providers of online services for copyright infringement by users.
First, the laws for downloading music now consider producing or using technology, devices, or services created to circumvent measures that control access to copyrighted works to be a crime.
Digital Right Management tools are on software, CDs and most legally downloaded music on the Internet to prevent it from being in a way that was unintended by the provider - and to limit how much users can copy or duplicate the product.
Hackers and crackers who created and made available tools to strip the material of the DRM tools are now liable for helping to spread illegal copies of the protected material.
Secondly, the laws for downloading music heightened the penalties for copyright infringement, especially on the Internet.
There have been more than 20,000 law suits filed against creators of peer-to-peer networks, those that upload copyrighted music and even those who download it.
The act allows those found guilty of infringement can face up to three years in prison and $250,000 in fines.
Repeat offenders can be imprisoned up to six years.
Individuals have been held civilly liable for actual damages or lost profits, or for statutory damages up to $150,000 per infringed copyright.
The next target by the largest four record companies, working under the Recording Industry Association of America, is the peer-to-peer file sharing business.
U.
S.
Code forbids any person or company "to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending.
" However, the RIAA has yet to prove that peer-to-peer file sharing networks violate the code.
It's questionable whether they distribute the works rather than just pointing in the right direction, since most of these networks don't host any copyrighted material but rather index it.
"To the public" is also in question, since it has been argued that the file sharing programs are used by a limited group of people.
However, there have been successful civil cases (as opposed to criminal cases) concerning those involved in peer-to-peer network sharing, so the use of them is risky.
Generally, the laws for downloading music allow you to to purchase music and then copy it for your own use, but once you try to copy it for others (even on a small scale), you're stepping into copyright infringement territory.
But depending on what country you're in (or country you're downloading from, more commonly), the laws for downloading music vary greatly and are usually pretty fuzzy on what exactly can get you in trouble.
The most significant legal information concerning the copyright laws as digital copies of copy-written materials is the U.
S.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
The act, which passed in 1998, did a couple different things to extend the reach of copyright while limiting the liability of providers of online services for copyright infringement by users.
First, the laws for downloading music now consider producing or using technology, devices, or services created to circumvent measures that control access to copyrighted works to be a crime.
Digital Right Management tools are on software, CDs and most legally downloaded music on the Internet to prevent it from being in a way that was unintended by the provider - and to limit how much users can copy or duplicate the product.
Hackers and crackers who created and made available tools to strip the material of the DRM tools are now liable for helping to spread illegal copies of the protected material.
Secondly, the laws for downloading music heightened the penalties for copyright infringement, especially on the Internet.
There have been more than 20,000 law suits filed against creators of peer-to-peer networks, those that upload copyrighted music and even those who download it.
The act allows those found guilty of infringement can face up to three years in prison and $250,000 in fines.
Repeat offenders can be imprisoned up to six years.
Individuals have been held civilly liable for actual damages or lost profits, or for statutory damages up to $150,000 per infringed copyright.
The next target by the largest four record companies, working under the Recording Industry Association of America, is the peer-to-peer file sharing business.
U.
S.
Code forbids any person or company "to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending.
" However, the RIAA has yet to prove that peer-to-peer file sharing networks violate the code.
It's questionable whether they distribute the works rather than just pointing in the right direction, since most of these networks don't host any copyrighted material but rather index it.
"To the public" is also in question, since it has been argued that the file sharing programs are used by a limited group of people.
However, there have been successful civil cases (as opposed to criminal cases) concerning those involved in peer-to-peer network sharing, so the use of them is risky.
Generally, the laws for downloading music allow you to to purchase music and then copy it for your own use, but once you try to copy it for others (even on a small scale), you're stepping into copyright infringement territory.
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