Quote:
Originally Posted by murraypaul
Although there is an interesting legal point there.
Playing an MP3 file requires copying it from the original file into RAM, which it seems under UK copyright law constitutes an act of copying[1], and if you were not licenced to make that copy, it would indeed be copyright infringement.
However, this means that an MP3 that was not sold including a licence to make such transient copies would be impossible to use, so is it reasonably to imply such permission into a sale even if it is not explicitly stated?
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The case you've quoted was for illegally copied material, where self-evidently the user does not have a licence to use the software, and hence copying it into RAM does constitute copyright infringement.
I think that any reasonable person would conclude that when you buy an MP3 file, you have a licence - either explicit or implicit - for you to make copies for the purpose of playing it. Very few people, I imagine, buy an MP3 file for the pleasure of admiring its presence in the directory listing on their disk
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