commentaries

American copyright law is a complete sham, and the only greater crime is that we've been busy trying to push it onto everyone else.

I am a 63 year old man. I have bought records and 8-tracks during the sixties,cassettes in the seventies and eighties,CDs in the nineties, and download very little now. I remember buying the album "Super Session" in record form,cassette, and CD. If I was to illegally download this now I would be breaking the copyright law. At what point do I actually own this copyrighted music,or do I ever?

This would be common sense, if individuals aren't profiting from the music then how can you claim that the damages are that much more than the cost of the product. I could even understand punishing those who illegally download music at 10 times the cost of the product as a deterrent/message to other people who are thinking of doing the same thing. But once again in these cases the damages might reach $500 not millions of dollars...these laws are the perfect example of powerful special interest groups with money influencing politics to intimidate ordinary citizens.

Make it the same protection as a patent, 20 years is typical. Why is it if I hum a tune in the shower and record it, I get protection for 75+ years. Yet if I spend huge amounts of time and money developing a new way to record music, I can only get 20 years of protection. Gee I wonder why our kids would rather be entertainers than engineers?

stinamond5: Legally, neither you nor anyone else -- including the label and artist -- can ever "own" a song or any other art. What they do have is an exclusive time during which they have certain controls over the copying of their product.

I purchase a book. I can lend / give THAT book to who I want. I do NOT have the right to photocopy the book so I can keep one and lend / give the other away.