[Dixielandjazz] Protected CD's and DVD's

[andy.ling at quantel.com]

Brian Wood wrote on 16/06/2009 16:48:59:

> Isn't this a form of theft?

The short answer is probably yes. I think the letter of the law
says you are not allowed to make copies except for limited
educational and quotation purposes. But in general people
turn a blind eye to you making copies for personal purposes.
Things like a backup, or copying to your MP3 player etc.

Making copies to give to other people is definitely not
allowed (without permission) and we should strongly
discourage that behaviour.

> I've spent 15 years writing and updating a book 
>  on jazz. Because it is now of considerable size and thus expensive what 

> with  postage and all that I supply the entire text on a CD at an 
economic 
> price, only  to find some jerk has copied an original and passing 
> the copies on to  others.

That's a real pain.

I'm not sure what the right answer is to stop this though.
The "industry" has spent millions trying to stop people copying
stuff and I am not aware of any copy protection system that has
lasted more than a few months (maybe a year) before someone breaks
it. And in most cases the protection causes hassle to the legitimate user.

For a small user like you, any protection would cost too much.

There is an argument that says getting copies out there acts as 
advertising
and in the end produces more sales. I suspect very few of the people
who have received the copies of your book would have bought it and there
is a chance someone will see it and buy it when they wouldn't have.

For high volume stuff (like the big music companies), my feeling
is, they have to make it easier and less hassle to get it legitimately
rather than copy/download illegal versions. One of the record companies
has just announced they are going to offer unrestricted access to their
full library for a monthly fee. It will be interesting to see if this
works.

And finally, we have to do our bit to spread the word to discourage
people from "stealing" from the artists.

Andy Ling



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