Quote:
Originally Posted by tompe
Yes, whole books seems to be an exception.
There is some debate about what "private use" means but there are court cases that have said that family and close friends are included.
Some people argue that it does not need to be close friends at all (that friends are enough) and that it can be many copies but that is not an accepted interpretation. For my example one copy to a friend is enough for my point and that is definitely legal and ethical.
And it seems absurd to me to argue that you legally and ethically give a copy to a close friend that then move away to another country or something and that would make it unethical for you to sell or give away a LP or similar.
Also in EU to be allowed to have this kind of exception in the laws you must have a tax or similar on blank media and money have to producers. And I know that there are more EU countries that have or has had this kind of tax so I assumed they also had this kind of exception in the law.
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This type of provision does make sense in the context of some sort of levy on blank media. The exclusion of whole books also makes sense in this context, unless the levy extends to hard disk space as well as blank media, an unlikely scenario. I am not surprised at the existence of this type of provision where there is a levy, and your assumption about similar "exceptions" in other countries with a levy may well be correct. What I am a little surprised about is the apparent extent of the exception. I would be surprised to see another provision extending to even close friends. Though I have been surprised before. It is a matter of where the line should be drawn.