Thread: Spin-off: Legality of purchasing music for students

Another thread here talks about making CDs for students, so I am curious IS IT LEGAL to have a student pay you $1 for you to download a song (say on ITunes) and burn a CD with that song on it. In essense, this would be reselling the song.

While you may not be profiting from the sale, is this legal to do?

Technically no.
Because you'd have it for your use on your computer and then she'd also have it for her use on her computer.
Despite that intentions may be different, legally it would no different than if you downloaded it for yourself and then shared it with her for $1.

I think the question is that if I download the song twice and give one copy away, or buy my own copy of the full CD and download a copy for the student, is it illegal? If a student comes to your house and uses your computer and her credit card to download (because she doesn't have Internet access at home), as long as you do not keep a copy of the music, I wouldn't expect that to be illegal, any more than it would be to go to the library and buy your music downloads through their computers.

I suspect it would be very difficult to prosecute these situations when your computer is essentially being the "middle man" and you're not in possession of anything you didn't buy yourself, but it may have to do with local laws and vendor licensing. Who knows, though? If the recording industry had their way, it would be illegal to rip your own purchased CDs to your own MP3 player, so maybe they would go after you.

I guess what frustrates me is why is this even an issue? Not to piggyback off Deborah's "Self Discovery" thread, but isn't the problem students who have slug-level initiative when it comes to buying necessary class materials? Who can't figure out how to get online these days? Don't have a computer at home? Then go to the public library, look up Dahlal's or Lucy's or Rashid's or Maqam's or HMC's telephone number, and call them on the phone when you get back home. This isn't rocket science, and if you can't afford a whole CD, then maybe you're in the wrong hobby. Get with the doggone program!

No, it was not in the cases where I checked (iTunes and emusic, a while ago). At least then, the purchased license (which is what the download boils down to) was for the purchaser only and not transferable.

I am completely in favor of artists receiving compensation for their efforts and legal music ownership, but this is why people hate the RIAA. They don't realize that to consumers, this policy is the equivalent of saying you can't buy a CD in a store for someone else. Studies have shown that the majority of music consumers WANT to respect musicians and WANT to do what's legal, but it's insulting that they assume everyone is a greedy, criminal-minded neanderthal. Gee, if only they could figure out a way to charge you per ear, per listen to songs...

Oh, well, this just bolsters the argument that teachers should get out of the business of helping the lame walk. Maybe if a student asks if you can get music for her, you should say, "Sure, bring me your computer and your credit card."

BTW, Amazon claims their downloads can be legally transferred between computers, but I don't know if that applies to full ownership transfer, too.

Originally Posted by AnnaTX

Another thread here talks about making CDs for students, so I am curious IS IT LEGAL to have a student pay you $1 for you to download a song (say on ITunes) and burn a CD with that song on it. In essense, this would be reselling the song.

While you may not be profiting from the sale, is this legal to do?

As far as I understand, it is legal if you do not keep a copy of the song. The purchase is for one copy of the song only, so you have to treat it like a physical item. If she has it, you can not.

Originally Posted by mahsati

As far as I understand, it is legal if you do not keep a copy of the song. The purchase is for one copy of the song only, so you have to treat it like a physical item. If she has it, you can not.

I have not checked into the issue in a while, but last time I did, that was not the case (no matter how much sense it would make to me). You could not treat a digital download like a traditional CD, you could not transfer the license.

on another note- what are the chances of a music company saying "you have paid for this music too many times, stop it!"

I do not support the "do it if you can get away with it" stance in general, but if you are trying to do the *ethically* right thing & pay for the music, I am more than happy to bend the rules.

Originally Posted by steffib

I have not checked into the issue in a while, but last time I did, that was not the case (no matter how much sense it would make to me). You could not treat a digital download like a traditional CD, you could not transfer the license.

That's too bad. I know that I have purchased with an agreement to treat it like a book before (as it was explained in the"what does this legal stuff mean" section), but it has been a while and different companies may have different rules.

Sounds as if things changed - HALLELUJAH!!!! <happy dance>

I recall that I was completely frustrated: I wanted to do the right thing, I wanted to follow the law, I wanted to support the artists, I wanted to get those who wouldn't download to get the music - and there was no way I could find to do that!!!!!! My personal choice was to break the law and stick to my ethics by buying multiple copies of the music and burning CDs because I knew that some of the people I danced with would not download the music. (It's a whole separate chapter talking about people not listening to that.)

Does anyone know what practice recognized workshop instructors follow when they provide a cd of songs used to workshop participants? I've taken with Morocco and Astryd, both who provide cds and who both believe in compensating artists.