OFF: Bootleg CD's

[Paul Mather]

On Mon, 12 Jan 1998, P Worley wrote:

> So do you see any difference between making a 'custom mix' on cassette and
> making one on a CD?  I've recorded a lot of music in various mixes on
> cassettes, for myself, for gifts, received them as gifts, etc.
> 'Everybody's doing it', which doesn't make it legal or right, but what I'm
> wondering is if there is a perceived difference in the legal or moral
> implications between doing it on  CD vs. a cassette.

There is a practical difference: with cassette you get generational and
transcriptional loss of fidelity (especially when making copies of
copies of copies, etc.).  This doesn't happen when copying CDs (if you
do it properly).  This is why the music business is more afraid of CD
[digital] copying (and, I'm sure everyone remembers the brouhaha over
DAT and the SCMS "requirement").  The Computer Science department here
at Virginia Tech has apparently already received threats from record
companies, I hear due to people making copyrighted music available
via WWW pages, and by "burning" CD-Rs.

> complete it, perfect it, and release it.  If there were 'bootleg' or
> 'pirate' (the two terms are, I think, legally similar, but have very
> different implications) CDs running around, I'd think that would only put

"Bootleg" and "pirate" are horses of a very different colour.  Bootlegs
are unsanctioned releases of material not formally released by the
artist in question, whereas pirates are deliberately fraudulent copies
of existing legitimate releases (i.e. made to look just like the real
thing).  I think the terms are legally dissimilar.  The former, at best,
merely defames the good name and standing of the artist in question (due
to low quality being associated with them), whereas the latter is fraud
and theft.  With the former, loss is debatable (and may have to be
proven), whereas with the latter it is obvious.

Mind you, what could be said of a bootleg consisting of pirated tracks
taken from several different sources?  (I.e. where the arrangement was
original, but the source not.)

Cheers,

Paul.

obCD: Jethro Tull, _Thick As A Brick_ (25th Anniversary remaster)

e-mail: paul at gromit.dlib.vt.edu

"Every iceberg is afire"        --- Sky Cries Mary