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Two US States Restrict Used CD Sales
DrBenway sends us to Ars Technica for a report that Florida and Utah have placed draconian restrictions on the sale of used music CDs; Wisconsin and Rhode Island may soon follow suit. In Florida, stores have to hold on to CDs for 30 days before they can sell them — for store credit only, not cash. Quoting: "No, you won't spend any time in jail, but you'll certainly feel like a criminal once the local record shop makes copies of all of your identifying information and even collects your fingerprints. Such is the state of affairs in Florida, which now has the dubious distinction of being so anal about the sale of used music CDs that record shops there are starting to get out of the business of dealing with used content because they don't want to pay a $10,000 bond for the 'right' to treat their customers like criminals."
So, except for the only store credit part, they're making them follow the same laws that pawn shops must follow here in Colorado? That is, valid ID and fingerprints are required as well as a 30-day holding period for all items. Working in a pawn shop, I can point out that CDs, DVDs, and video games (VHS is dead) and other common but low-value items are rarely even investigated by the police. Proving the ownership of such a generic type of item is futile. Un-serialized items in general are, really. Despite the annoyance, I still fully support the restrictions pawn shops are given and we -- the honest brokers -- fully try to insure that stolen items are returned to their rightful owners or are at-least unsellable.
Courtney Love has a nice article on her take on piracy etc.
Her view on the issue is that the music industry is a huge, profiteering middleman and artists are swindled by them. She's of the opinion that for an artist, more exposure, however it comes, is a good thing and will lead to people buying more stuff.
The music industry is whining just because they're being cut out from a direct experience between an artist and the listener.
What's wrong is that groups like Brady are perpetually distributing a variety of lies and half-truths to the public for their own political purposes. Can you purchase a firearm in a gun show without a background check? Yes, you can-but only from a private person. Any dealer still has to run a check. Those who have been to gun shows, and who are familiar with how criminals operate, will tell you that the majority are not going to be relying on gun shows for the weaponry.
As for the second part of that statement, it only shows how much misinformation Brady puts out, and how little understanding there is by most people on how traces are conducted. When a dealer sells a firearm, they are required by law to keep the 4473 form on file for as long as the business remains open. When/if the business shuts down, the 4473s are sent to the ATF. If a gun is recovered from a crime, the serial numbers get sent to the ATF, who then will go through the chain of possession to the last FFL who possessed it (the dealer). That dealer will then give them the 4473, which has contact information on the purchaser (which is verified at time of sale using state-issued current identification). At that point the buyer can be tracked down, and contated to find out the disposition of the firearm. Local police do not need to keep their own sale records because such a system is already in place, and doing its job quite well. Brady would like to have records of every time any firearm is touched by a human being, with DNA records attached, and under realtime surveillance. Or just a total ban.
Other posters are correct: turning to the Brady Campaign for information on firearms is a perfectly analagous to looking to the RIAA for info on piracy.
Depending on how a fidelity recording you want to make, a usb turntable is a viable option. It even uses Audacity as it's software side, which includes good plugins for removing clicks/hiss._ Hi_Fi/G7S9C4H6?page=1
http://www.ion-audio.com/ittusb.php
Alternatively, you can buy a nice sound card something with a 24-bit 96khz input and use a turntable with appropriate cabling to connect to the jack.
http://www.smarthouse.com.au/How_Stuff_Works/Real
This site goes over some options.
They admitted guilt after being confronted by the police. But they didn't have a list of what they stole from me. I didn't have a list of what I owned either. I knew what I owned and when looking at the list of items they sold could see it was mine. That being said, according to the Pawn Shop - I could have looked at a list and just claimed it all as mine.
I had no proof that what they sold was all "my collection" and not someone elses. I suppose if I would have hired a lawyer I may have had them returned. In the criminal case the Crown (Canada's DA) paid for all that.
I haven't bought a CD in four years, and I'm older than God. If I'm not buying them, I can't imagine who is.
When I pay for music, I buy the CD. I just can't envisage paying money for an ephemeral lossy digital file (hard drives crash more often than houses burn down). Now, I haven't actually listened to a CD in a couple of years, but at least for now, that's the way to buy.
And when I like something that's released by a RIAA member (plug: RIAA Radar), I buy the CD used; so this sucks.
sic transit gloria mundi
Yes, you can still get DVDs for authoring which are 3.95GB or 4.7GB but embody the format used in pressed masters (allowing CSS) instead of that DVD-R stuff. There's a fair explanation about it here.
Most of the stuff on