Quote:
Originally Posted by cc_in_oh
This sounds bizarre - it would be illegal to send my friend a meatloaf recipe from a copyrighted cookbook via phone or email, or to record myself reading a children's book to my child?
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Yes, sending that recipe is illegal. You might be able to argue that it's such a small portion of the entire work that it's OK, but I'm not sure that works when it's a stand-alone thing like a recipe.
And yes, recording yourself reading a children's book to your child is illegal. If you tried to sell that recording as an audio book, you'd probably find yourself in court.
Of course, doing any such format shifting for personal use is very unlikely to come to the notice of the copyright holders. And they are also extremely unlikely to take any legal action against you.
But the government did make such personal use format-shifting illegal. And then the record companies sued and got the regulation overturned.
So currently, in the UK, ripping CDs into iTunes or scanning paperbooks to ebooks is illegal.