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Originally Posted by PanicLord
Would you steal a car because you thought it was too expensive from the local dealer?
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No, of course not. And I've never illegally downloaded music because I thought it was too expensive to buy. I think there's a distinction between
pirated music, which is an illegal copy of an official release, and a
bootleg, which is in most cases, an audience recording of a live concert.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by PanicLord
Bootlegs are NOT a grey area. Again, a major clue is in the name. If you have not specifically and legally been given permission to obtain a copy of that copyright material then you have stolen it.
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They are a grey area, to my knowledge, and no, I am not a lawyer (nor do I play one on TV
). At the very least, there are loopholes in the law. I can walk into my local record store right now and find loads of CDs and DVDs that I know for a fact are bootlegs right out on the racks. If it's illegal, how do they get away with it? They slap an "Import" sticker on it. AFAIK, the laws in parts of Europe are different than in the US. In some countries, it's legal to record a show and sell it, provided that you pay a "royalty" to the performer. So, bootleggers simply set up a token account, thus satisfying the law, regardless if the artist collects it or not. At least it was this way- may be different now. I've noticed that many of the bootleg CD's I've seen are of concerts recorded outside of the US.
Speaking strictly as Devil's advocate, if I have made my own recording of a show, to share with my friends, it's not really much different than people who take pictures at a show and post them, or post videos of it on youtube. Provided, of course, I'm not selling the recording to make a profit.