Now CD less...

So many memories..... Like the the day I bought Talk Talk's Colour of Spring and Prefab Sprout's Steve McQueen in vinyl.... I couldn't.

It's something I've been putting off for ages. Not played any vinyl for going on for a year (not since the player went back to Naim due to a fault) and not had a CD player for at least 6 or 7 years.

tbh I've just spotted a pile of another 80+ CDs on the corner of my desk at work! These are what I've purchased in the last 18 months and then ripped at work so the CDs never made it home.

Sounds like your digital files are backed-up and you have no qualms with the virtual ownership issue. Free at last!

Virtual ownership issue?

Just to clarify Joe's comment in case it didn't sink in....

Assuming you're in the UK, it's illegal to retain copies of the CD files if you no longer own the CDs.  I suspect that chances of anyone actually being done as a result of this are small, but there is, nonetheless, a risk.  Better (in my view) to have put them all into storage.

arrr... yes... I did think of that but the options were chuck them in the skip (SWMBO was moaning about the boxes of them cluttering up the under-stairs cupboard) or give them away to charity.

Ooops! To have a legal copy you need to keep the original format copied from I believe...

Just put away 75% of my CD collection - stored it in my empty Naim boxes which are already taking up too much closet space (thanks to someone for that suggestion awhile back.)  

The dust was amazing - clear indication of how little I was listening to some of it.  All on the drive, and I'm only buying new vinyl, now that I have a great way to stream TIDAL.  

Feel a bit bad, but the reality is that my CD buying has gone from 5 - 10 per month to zero and bi monthly LP. Do still pay to download hi res classical, though wish more were available above CD quality. Bit of a mystery there, as seems a strong overlap with classical music fans willing to pay for it.

In a way it's emotional, and I am by far not ready to sell off or give away my collection. But it will become a topic at some point in time in the future.

Let me know Bert if you want to sell off - assuming that you have the great music you are posting on CD

Let's hope you have a proper backup strategy in place.

Steve,

Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about it. You donated the CDs, a good thing. Also got rid of some clutter for your wife, another good thing.

And it's not like the bobbies are going to come knocking on your door, so long as you don't make a public proclamation as to what you've done.

If it says, "Do not walk on the grass," then I do not. Boxing up CDs and storing them out of sight is not difficult, and it keeps me completely legal. Retaining copies off copyrighted recordings without retaining the originals is actually the theft of intellectual property rights and definitely illegal. 

Who knows when one might be found out?

It would be very embarrassing to be caught out when it is so easy to remain legal. 

ATB from George

What's the penalty in the UK for violation of copyright law?

I used to make cassette tapes all the time from borrowed LPs and wasn't aware of the legal complications. :/

I believe the intent of the law is to protect artists' royalties to their music. If you buy a CD, record it, then move that CD on and someone else buys it, there have been two sales of the original. But the artist has only realized royalties from a single CD. They are entitled to two sales of the CD. So from a legal position, you're violating copyright laws. The artist (and associated entities) have been cheated.

Okay... I see the moral and legal issues but these CDs were all at least 10 years old. I'm not going to worry about it.

If it was a lot of Beatles, Stones, Pink Floyd, and The Who, they probably won't feel the dent

Actually, from a royalty perspective, I'm just as guilty on the other end by buying all the used LPs and CDs that I do. Except in my case, I have the physical media I'm playing on hand when the FBI knocks on my door.

Some recordings are issued for periods of eighty years. Fine that by then they are actually out of copyright, but in truth your "ten year" year point does not hold water and you are [apparently] a law breaker.

I'd like to see a Rumpole Of The Bailey episode, where Horace defends someone like you! 

It hardly matters that some some musical artists are extremely wealthy. The great majority are not better off than the average, and stealing from the not well-off is something to be ashamed of ... stealing from the rich is something not to shout about either ...

Speaking from the perspective of being a former professional musician, and considering that the one off fees for performance do not go very far ... 

I hope that makes you consider deleting the recordings that you have copied but do not have legal dispensation to listen to.

That or buying them again. No doubt that you work for a living, and would not like it if your employer told you that your month's wage was withheld because a customer had not paid his account off and that it would be you [who having done the work] would carry the can. Try to consider this from the other end of the stick.

ATB from George

So, if your neighbour's car is over 10 years old, it's ok to nick it?

Just lend the CD's to the charity.

Like putting it on a forum for example :-)

I admit I made the same mistake. I didn't think for a second I was violating the law - I'd had the CDs for years and thought it would be nice if Oxfam made some money from them. Hardly an act of wickedness, but in fact illegal.

When I finally deal with the rest of my CDs, I will put them in storage or the dumpster. And then - because sometimes the law is an ass (I assume I can quote Dickens without violating copyright?), I will donate £100 to Oxfam.

The point is that you have to keep the original, for the obvious reason that without these original discs but the copied versions, anyone could claim to have thrown them away [or given them away] when in fact they merely copied CDs belonging to the lending library or friends, or sold them on such as eBay.

The Law - in  the is case - is far from being an ass. It is there to protect the work of those who made the original recordings. The composer, the performers, and the people who actually made the recording.

Work is work, whether it is making cars in a factory, or making musical recordings ... Expecting people to work without payment at what they do for a living is theft of the most unpleasant kind.

There is no fudging this, and no person is going to be delighted to put good work in and accept that they do this and then be ripped off by thieves, and thieves are those who cannot obey the law on copyright, just as much as an employer who fails to pay his employees at the end of the week or month. 

Why is the theft of music considered acceptable, when the theft of other labour is not acceptable?

If everyone did this sort of thing, then you would be as good as justifying bonded about [slavery] for musicians ...

ATB from George

... or drape all the silvery discs together in vast curtains with tinsel, loaf around on a pink fluffy rug in a tight basque looking whimsical and pretend you are Barbarella... just a thought.