P2P & Torrents - Legal question

[Pixelpeep]

2 Scenarios i would like to put forward and have someone explain what law is being broken by me in each case.

1 - The damaged CD.

I buy an album from say tesco - i have paid for the rights to listen to each one of those tracks, forever. (as long as i don't play them to an audience)
This CD gets scratched from laying around on the floor of my car. It's the media thats damaged and i can no longer use it.
So, i find the same album on a torrent somewhere, download it, burn it and then i have all those tracks again.

Now having already paid for the right to listen to that album - what law have i broken ?

2 - Failed recording on Sky+

I set a series link on Homeland season 2 - if this had recorded ok, it would remain on my box indefinitely for watching when ever i choose. Now, an episode of Homeland fails due to a 'technical fault' so i go and find the same episode on a torrent, download, and watch.

I pay a subscription to sky to cover the rights on the material i view - so i have paid to watch homeland - what law have i broken by downloading it from a different source?


I understand that the people that are sharing them havent paid to distribute them, but if the people downloading them have paid that right already through other mediums, what is the issue?

[Pixelpeep]

mmm-five said:

You haven't broken a law, you've just infringed on copyright.

You wouldn't be arrested by the police for doing so (they concentrate mainly on the other end of the 'piracy' spectrum - i.e. distribution), but you may be sued and taken to court by the copyright holder.

how if i have already paid on both counts to listen / view the material ?

[Pixelpeep]

mmm-five said:

You've paid for the right to listen to the music ON THE CD, or to watch the programme ON SKY.

You've not been granted rights to do these things any other way, so you are in effect infringing.

When you insert a music CD itunes can automatically rip the cd and include it on your play list and then sync with your iphone/ipod - surely if this is infringing a copyright, apple of all people (given the fact that they also SELL music) wouldn't include this functionality or even have a warning informing the consumer that they may be infringing a copyright ?

[Pixelpeep]

mmm-five said:

Apple are not responsible for policing anything.

Otherwise they'd be responsible for allowing someone to search for kiddy-porn using Safari.

The UK is one of the few countries where the 'fair use' doctrine has not been applied to media in the digital age. However, they're not actively prosecuting home users either.

to make that analogy correct you would need to include a button on safari that when clicked searches for the term 'kiddy porn' or automatically searches for it as soon as you load it up.

we are talking about a specific function on itunes that serves no other purpose than to copy copyrighted material for use on another device - it even goes off and finds the artwork !

its not a side effect or a 'might be used for illegal stuff' its the ONLY thing it does.