I have a question regarding music sharing that has me baffled and stems out of the lawsuits that have taken place over the past number of years against such notables like Napster and Limewire. I understand the root of the issue, the artist makes a product and he should be paid for it. The courts have up held this and yet people feel differently. Authors are artists too, and audio books are no cheap purchase in most instances. So much to my surprise the Duluth Public library started offering library card holders to check out audio books on line. You download the files and they evaporate after ten days unless you save them as a file elsewhere in your computer or MP3 player. What’s the difference between a library doing this and me doing it on Limewire? Is there a legal loop hole that I’ve missed somewhere?
the new york public library system has slews of audio books but
they are protected by licensing files. only a certain number of
licenses can be available for the more popular audio books there
is a wait list. downloadable audio books can only be played by players
that support the licensing (at least here).
true one can reconvert them to mp3. but that (in the U.S.) will
still count as copyright infringement. it just like photocopying an
entire book, or a signifigant section -- who here hasn't done that
with a lonely planet. illegal, but you are unlikely to be chased
by the fuzz until you start distributing it.
Well I understand your answers and it seems if nothing else the library has made a mistake telling people how to keep the files permanently albeit innocently I'm sure. The thing that is greatly different with music is you generally want to hear it over and over again. you could of course copy it as some must do but audiobooks is altogether different. What percentage of people listen to them more than once? I do have a few that I do own and listen to on occasion but on average you listen one time and that's that. AB's are not cheap and given the chance to listen to them for free over $30-$75 I would go the free route and possibly "save" the file if I liked it. It seems that it is wrong but if the library is doing it it must be OK.
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