And the great "copyright debate" circle comes 'round again. I put my
two cents in about this in March of last year. :-)
Please read the full text of the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 (it is
available at
http://www.hrrc.org/ahra.html). It is an amendment to the
Copyright Act of 1976 and, in part, reads as follows:
-----------------------------------------------------------
Section 1008. Prohibition on certain infringement actions
No action may be brought under this title alleging infringement of
copyright based on the manufacture, importation, or
distribution of a digital audio recording device, a digital audio
recording medium, an analog recording device, or an analog
recording medium, or based on the noncommercial use by a consumer of
such a device or medium for making digital musical
recordings or analog musical recordings.
-----------------------------------------------------------
What this means is left as an exercise for the reader. (Hint: Lazlo is
correct.)
With regards to giving away 10,000 CD-R's of _Thriller_, I imagine Sony
would argue that by pressing up 10,000 CD-R's of something, you are
either (a) no longer engaged in a "noncommercial" enterprise, or (b) no
longer qualifying as a "consumer," and so you could be sued for
infringement of copyright in this case.
Of course, I'm not a lawyer either. But the text of this part of the
Act is exceptionally clear (compared to most legal jargon I've tried to
read). The rest of the Act speaks to "how do artists get paid then?"
and the answer is, essentially, a tax on all digital recording media and
devices.
--
Adam J Weitzman "What is is,
Individual, Inc. What is not is possible."
weitzman@individual.com - Einstuerzende
http://www.individual.com Neubauten