OK, I admit it. I'm a Bad Person(tm). I put a song on my empeg that I didn't pay for.

Working for a group of radio stations, I have easy access to a vast supply of music (the complete playlists and archives of four stations) but since my musical tastes (classical) don't match up with the radio stations, this was not a temptation until yesterday, when I blatantly stole the song "I'm Gonna Be" by the Proclaimers. I have liked this song ever since I heard it as the opening music for the movie Bennie and Joon.

Now, what I did was clearly piracy -- making a copy of the song directly from the radio station's aarchives. (The nit pickers among us could argue that since the song I copied had been converted from CD to MP2, then back to .WAV, then to .MP3 it was no longer an exact copy but I waive that rationalization).

The question is: since the artists clearly allowed (indeed wanted) the radio station to play their music over the airwaves, in essence providing their music to anybody with a radio for free, would I have been guilty of piracy had I recorded that song off the airwaves and then put it in my empeg?

tanstaafl.

It's like going over the speed limit. Who cares?

Actually it would be like a cop fixing a ticket for a friend. They're cheating the county out of fine money. But you have special privledges. So use them.

Can you honestly think of one person who would personally be affected in a negative way due to your so-called 'piracy'? Do you think someone is saying "Oh no, Doug piriated some music. What am I gonna do?!" Do you think you actually ruined someone's day? No, you made your day. Go for it.

Wrong. I worked for a radio station. Every single CD is legally still property of the record company. Just look at the stamps on them. They have the legal right to request any copy back. They are not the station's to do with what they please.

Now, being that you work for the station, you may already have certain "perks" where the record company will get you into concerts (I did) and get free CD's because you are considered to be influential in the music listening habits of others.

I know that I am not answering you question. I must admit that I myself have several songs on my Empeg player I did not pay for. I have searched all sites I would trust with my credit card detail only to find they didn't have the song(s) on any album or compilation. Primarily because they have been deleted. I eventually found some on a file share service, how wrong am I.

Attached is a picture of the last 3 CDs I bought. 2 of them have the gold stamp on them and one has a hole punched through the barcode. I don't consider this stealing. I consider it proof that the price of CDs is too high.

I am a person willing to pay for music, but I buy too much of it to consider paying $16.99 a disc. The $3-$8 I pay for promo copies on Half.com is a great price. I know the artist doesn't get paid on these discs, and I'm pretty sure the record company doesn't either. I am willing to support the artists, but not when they make 3% of the profits on a $17 CD.

The real answer to your question is that radio stations (and other broadcast media) have specific rules that they must adhere to, most of which make it unfeasible for someone to attempt to copy an entire album off the airwaves. These rules (I can't remember them all and I'm sure I'll get some of them somewhat wrong) are things like ``You cannot publish a timed playlist'', ``You can play only a few songs from any given artists during a set period of time'', ``You can only play a few songs from any given album during a smaller set period of time'', etc. Your special ability is that you are able to find and collect any given song in the station's collection without having to wait for it.

I'd argue with you semantically about your use of the term ``piracy'', as you're not actually stealing a physical item, you're infringing on someone else's rights, but that's neither here nor there.

There is nothing wrong with buying used CD's. The real fault is in whoever sold that CD to half.com. How in the world does a gold stamp prove price exceeds value?

Records aren't cost free to promote or record. Just because you are denying the artist 3% rather than 50% doesn't really make a difference. You are in no way supporting an artist. CD's are actually about the price there were when they first caught on over 10 years ago.

If you're going to deny the artist their "3%" then go to their CONCERTS.

I live near a major city, so almost every act comes through here. But if I lived on the other side of the state, I'd have to travel over at least over 2 hours to get to a show. Doesn't sound like that far of a drive, but I go to about 15 concerts a year minimum. My sister just moved very north where she'd have to travel at least 4 hours to see a show! :O

I agree though, concerts is where artists can really make some money. In fact, everyone from Depeche Mode (including Dave Gahan) don't make squat off of album sales except for the writer - Martin L. Gore. Gore writes the lyrics and music, so he gets nearly all royalties even though most people recognize Depeche Mode by seeing Dave Gahan. But when they tour... everyone gets rich.

But what about artists from Europe that don't have the backing to tour the US? Or what about artists that simply CAN'T perform live (some styles can't really be done on stage and some artists are dead but want their families to be supported by their estate)? I'm not a big Enya fan, but she doesn't tour from what I hear. She is so "produced" that at best, she'd have to perform signing over a tape playback.

? I'm not a big Enya fan, but she doesn't tour....

Being an Enya fan is a great way to save money. No $50 concert tickets and you only *really* need one CD.

LOL!

Does the artist get a greater cut off of merchandise, say t-shirts and posters? If so that would also be a great way to "give back".

Lest I hurt the feelings of any any Enya fans, I will report that, even though it is not absolutely necessary, I own *two* Enya CDs, and may soon buy a third. I find it to be very nice sit-in-the-sun-and-read-a-book music. Also good for plug-in-earbuds-and-fall-asleep-on-airplane purposes.

No, Jim, I like Enya, too, and I completely agree with your statement. I laughed out loud when I read it.

The real answer to your question is that radio stations (and other broadcast media) have specific rules that they must adhere to, most of which make it unfeasible for someone to attempt to copy an entire album off the airwaves.

If there are such rules, nobody at the radio station(s) where I work knows of them. Irrelevant, in any case, because good programming practices (i.e., playlists design to capture and keep listeners) would dictate pretty much the same thing.

But the whole concept of broadcasting the music for free vs. infringing on the author's rights gets pretty fuzzy. I am obviously not infringing if I listen to his music on the radio. How 'bout if I like the song so much I sing it in the shower? Still no infringement. Maybe I like it so much that I laboriously copy down all the lyrics and write the song out on sheet music? Well... maybe that starts to infringe? Let's say I take a portable, monaural tape recorder and set the microphone next to the speaker of my clock radio and record the song the next time it plays? Yes? No? How about making a digital recording from a DAB broadcast? How about making a byte for byte identical copy from the original CD and selling it? Certainly that is an infringement. So we went from certainly no infringement to certainly yes infringement -- but where is the line?

tanstaafl.

In reply to:

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The question is: since the artists clearly allowed (indeed wanted) the radio station to play their music over the airwaves, in essence providing their music to anybody with a radio for free, would I have been guilty of piracy had I recorded that song off the airwaves and then put it in my empeg?

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Although my gut feeling is that there is something wrong with recording a song off the radio, I can't come up with a reason why it would be different than using a VCR to record a movie off TV. Since the Betamax decision declared the latter to be fair use, the former must be as well.

When I had to have a copy of that song last summer, I went ahead and paid a whopping $4.99 for a used CD.

--John

Although my gut feeling is that there is something wrong with recording a song off the radio, I can't come up with a reason why it would be different than using a VCR to record a movie off TV.

Recording a song off the radio or a TV program with a VCR are specifically protected-by-law. And the record companies and TV/Movie companies don't mind when you do it because all that stuff is still in the analog domain and any copies are obviously inferior to the original. No one ever makes money selling copies of songs taped off of the radio. The record companies are not worried about this happening because it doesn't take away any of their business.

The only reason they're upset about MP3 and DVD piracy is that copying a computer file results in no generational loss. Hence the possibility for large scale redistribution without the "inferior quality" part. That's the difference, and that's where the line is drawn. Or at least, that's where they're trying to draw it.

I rebuke their line.

If there are such rules, nobody at the radio station(s) where I work knows of them.

I swear that I've actually read these somewhere, but I'll be damned if I can find them now. I don't even remember if it's a copyright law issue or if it's an FCC regulation or what. And I've spent an hour or so looking. Dammit.

Radio stations need to purchase rights to play the music (independant of FCC license). BMI and ASCAP for example. Perhaps it is in there? I assume that most people at a radio station probably never have to know this unless they are the music director.