Quote:
Originally Posted by RawAlex
You can do anything you want for your own personal benefit with the product you have purchased, in the format you have chosen. Further, because of the limited rights that do exist to create a backup or to store it in another medium for your personal use (disk to tape, or to MP3, or whatever), you have a pretty open field.
However, there is a point where your license expires. If you lose all your backups and the original fails, the original purchase didn't entitle you to free replacements for life. You bought the music in a particular format and in doing so you accepted both the benefits and limitations of that format.
Let's say you buy an album online in MP3 format. Three years from now, you have an HD crash and you lose the album. Is the MP3 site obligated to give you another copy for free?
You could always go online to a torrent site and download a new copy. There is only one problem: The person distributing it to you doesn't have the rights to do so, so in reality you are receiving stolen property, even if you have previously purchased the album. I doubt anyone will get up set, but IN THEORY, you don't have the rights to that copy.
I could go on...
As for your video issue, the problem in that model was twofold: First, your purchase price was for one copy in the format purchased. There may or may not be a manufacture guarantee on the product, but in reality you purchased something at a risk. The second issue was more of the cost of product versus what the market was willing to spent to rent it. When you are paying $75 for something and renting it out for $2, yeah, you have to rent it often just to break even.
Seperate example: I run a car rental company. I buy a car and rent it to a customer, who has an accident and totally destroys the car. Should the manufacture replace the car?
You didn't buy "rights", you bought an end product.
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Man, where do I start here?
Well, in my example of the 8 track tape.....
No, they didn't specifically exclude other mediums. The mediums didn't exist then. Further, the format is obsolete, and can be "backed up" digitally in an effort to "retain quality," and use my license. My license extends for my life by virtue of the right we grant them with exclusive rights to their content for the life of the author plus 17 years (back then) if I'm remembering correctly. Of course now, it's plus 75 years due to Disney's efforts to extend copyright law.
I think I'm on pretty solid ground with that.
As for the MP3 site being obligated, that's the merchant, with a theoretical "physical" product (the digital download) and he doesn't have a warranty to me for the "physical" product. the physical product and the license of the intellectual property are completely different things. So that example is a species argument.
And on the videotape, i still think there is an argument there. The industry wanted to cut out renting the tapes, but the supreme court decided that I had rights under the first sale doctrine to one video tape. I could rent, sell, or give it away as I chose, including the intellectual property contained in it.
So, by that virtue, one could say "Well, if the physical medium breaks, I'm entitled to repair it, to enjoy the intellectual property." At what point does "repair" extend to a violation of the copyright? fix a tear? Glue the label back on? put the tape wheels into a new plastic shell because the last one is cracked?
You see, it's a very slippery slope?
The car argument is just completely off point. No intellectual property involved in the conversation.
In your last argument, how do you know the guy doesn't have rights?