Slashdot Mirror
What is Proof of Music Ownership?
scottsk asks: "What is proof of music ownership? I can't find a good answer anywhere. Let's assume some random person is hauled into court allegedly for having music that he has not legitimately bought. What must that person produce to prove the music was purchased legitimately? Is producing an original commercially sold CD with the music acceptable, or is some further proof of purchase needed (cash register receipt, cancelled check, etc.)? What if a person has digitized a commercial cassette, like digitizing a photo? Must the person carry the cassette around forever, or is just the cassette insert sufficient? (What about an LP record that has been digitized?)" Now, what happens if you've lost all of your property in a fire, but still had an off-site digital backup of your legally purchased music somewhere? Does the loss of the original property invalidate the legality of the backups?
Maybe they do a judgement call similar to know if the dog has really eaten the homework?
Honestly, I think that the RIAA would try to put a some spin on it (like that you're not allowed to use backups from another person's license or some shit). I don't think this would stop them.
Anyways, to answer the rest of your question: I'd guess you'd need the reciept; how else are they to know that you're the one who bought the cassette or that you didn't buy it after you were charged?
Earn a % of cash back from Newegg, Tiger Direct, Walmart.com, and more: http://www.mrrebates.com?refid=458505
Even a copyright registration in your name is not conclusive proof of ownership, as George Harrison found out the hard way. Bright Tunes Music successfully sued Harrison and his publisher for subconsciously copying "He's So Fine" by Ronald Mack into "My Sweet Lord". Google1 | Google2 | Inevitability
The law doesn't say what constitutes proof of ownership, that's what the jury is for, so a good lawyer is probably going to get you a lot further than any object or piece of paper you can produce.
Rip your cd's to ogg. While that doesn't guarantee that you haven't violated copyright, it's unlikely that a large collection of music files in a minority format were all acquired through file sharing.
Loose lips lose spit.
"because you don't own them."
Not quite. You do own the music in question, as far as you are the owner to any particular physical media they are incarnated on. The title is to the media. The legal construct of copyright is quite separate to the ownership of the incarnations, and the title to the copyright quite separate from them too. Despite the wishes of some lobbyists.
The simplest evidence of this is the border condition when the copyright of a certain work you own lapses. When it lapses, the restrictions on what you could do with that piece of your property are gone. Suddenly you can copy it, sell it, charge for showing it, control access to your copy of it, etc. Yet you dont suddenly 'recieve' the property, there is no eminent domain done, etc, and it becomes obvious that you always did own the contents.
Copyright is not a property right. It's a monopoly right to control the reproduction of a particular piece of property. The finished copies are the full property of whoever purchases and possesses them, and the limitations of copyright are restrictions to what the owner can do with that property, not an exception to their ownership.
So to answer the original question; you dont need to prove anything. If you own the physical media containing the incarnation in question, then you own the incarnation. Any legal issues arise from the particular method by which you obtained the copy in question.
Not necessarily. First off, the BSA is a private entity and has no more jurisdition over you than I do (at least until my plan for world domination gets a little further along ;)). If they show up and "offer" to perform an audit, you are well within your rights to call security or the police to escort them out. You are also well within your rights to prosecute them for tresspassing if they come back. THEY HAVE NO AUTHORITY OVER ANYTHING UNLESS YOU GIVE IT TO THEM.
Here's how my experience with the BSA worked:
BSA: Hi! We're here to help you perform a compliance audit on your software licensing.
Me (knowing full well this is a trick on their part): Get out of my building, off our property, and don't ever come back.
BSA: Why are you being hostile?
Me (dialing 911): Yes, I have some trespassers here. Can you come get them please?
911: We're sending officers now.,
Me (hanging up): I know how you people work. You come in here for your friendly little audit and then you magically seem to find all kinds of issues. Then you negotiate a "settlement" with the software makers at 1.5X the full retail price. It's blackmail and I don't like it. That means I don't like you, either. Now, I've called the police and they'll be here in a few minutes. You can leave now, or leave when they get here.
BSA: But we don't understand why you won't let us do an audit? What are you afraid of?
Me: I'm not afraid, but I don't take lightly to thugs showing up unannounced in my shop and disrupting my employees either. Blackmail is usually a mafia tactic. Do they know what you guys are up to?
BSA (to policeman): Hey! You can't thow us out. We have a right to be here.
Policeman: Sorry, but this is private property. You've been asked to leave. Now I'm telling you to leave. If you come back, and we get another phone call, we will arrest you and you will go to jail.
BSA (on the way out the door): You'll be hearing from us.
What ensued then was a series of nasty, threatening letters which I forwarded to our legal department, who got a good laugh out of them, before sending them off the state AG. The letters tried to imply that they are some sort of legal "software police" (as in an actual law enforcement entitity). That was the last we ever heard of the BSA.
HDGary secures my bank