[rescue] Legality of what to do with CD's after ripping

[Earl D. Baugh Jr.]

Geoff,

Actually the question of this still isn't clear.  I asked them, and  
did some research and don't have a definitive answer for here in the  
US....
but was willing to try it for the portion of the collection (a little  
less than 1/2 ) to give it a shot.
BTW, In Germany, (see below posting I have found ) having to maintain  
the originals does not seem to be the case.
Haven't found similar applicable case law for the US though...

Additionally, as of 2005 (http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/ 
6277.cfm) MGM admits that ripping (during MGM vs Grokster)
that ripping as legal.   So that's not a question.  It's also not a  
question that I purchased the CDs legally, and they received the fees
for that purchase.  It's also not a question that I am retaining  
ownership thru the encoding process.

The legal and ethical question is, what are you allowed  to do with  
the CDs after that point.  If they're stolen, or destroyed in a fire,
do you lose any rights to the ripped copies?  The original inspiration  
for even looking into this was an article in Newsweek... people
in small apartments, lofts, etc, in NYC have serious space concerns.   
Purchasing storage space to hold the original media isn't always
a $$ option for folks.  So, is the ethical and legal correct thing to  
do is just throw them out??

What do other folks on the list do with old forms of media when  
storage starts to become an issue?

Bill, if you're uncomfortable with this thread, please feel free to  
kill it.

Earl


> I recently had a conversation with a lawyer (living in Germany and  
> discussing german copyright laws) who told me as follows:
>
> A digital copy's legitimacy solely depends upon the circumstances  
> under which that particular digital copy (in this case: a CD rip)  
> has been created.
>
> If you live in a country whose copyright laws grant a general right  
> to a private copy and you legally obtain such a copy (e.g. by doing  
> the rip yourself from a bought or borrowed original CD, not by  
> downloading from some obscure web sources), it legally does not  
> matter what happens with the original source afterwards.
>
> Basically this means that in Germany, you are allowed to e.g. buy a  
> CD, rip it to your PC in any format you like as a personal, non- 
> commercial copy and then sell the original afterwards while keeping  
> the copy for personal use. This is possible because there seems to  
> be a gray zone in the german copyright law system - it might be  
> totally different in e.g. Canada, Australia or the US of A.