Quote:
Originally Posted by RickyMaveety
But the post was about it being illegal to rip a CD you own to Mp3. Is that the case in Germany?? Even when I do buy a CD, I immediately rip it to Mp3 so that I've got a backup of it.
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It is. Okay, it is a bit more complicated then that.
It is legal to make private copies of media you own (a couple of requirements, but they are not important ATM). So, not long ago I was allowed to copy every CD I have, share it with my family and play it in whatever player I had. But - and that is a big but - this law got "supplemented". In fact, you still have to right to make private copies (the government was very solid about that) - provided, that you dont
a) circumvent any copy-protection mechanism (and nominally every CD you can buy is copy-protected), no matter how stupid (okay, I may prevent copy-right-mechanisms by using photo-mechanic copying, e.g. Xeroxing)
b) break any licensing or similar (and I guess iTunes gives you the license to burn a CD - but not to rip it afterwards, so it is illegal)
c) use "obviosly illegal originals" (e.g. downloaded music, files shared with friends, etc)
d) etc
It gets more complicated, but I'm stopping here.
So - playing a DVD on a non-licensed player is illegal. Ripping a normal CD is illegal (though the copy-protection is worthless and most software wouldn't even tell you about the protection), but ripping an "old CD without that pro-forma protection" is legal.
And - I am sure about that - burning a CD from MP3 (you bought) and then ripping that CD (in order to circumvent DRM or similar) is illegal.
