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Sunday 4 November 2007

Music

I own, as in bought and paid for, several hundred music CD's. I also own a couple of hundred old fashioned, but making a comeback?, LP's and singles. I also have a few music only DVD's. Most of the LP's and 'singles' I have converted to mp3 and ogg so that I can play my music wherever I take my laptop, PDA and MP3 player. Plus I can juggle my favourite tracks and create my own CD/DVD's thereby removing the dross so many music albums have.

I am one of the few that has never downloaded any music from the Internet nor do I share my collection via this method nor with anyone else, friends or otherwise. I have never had the need to download music from the Internet as my music collection is quite expansive. Up to a couple of years ago when the music industry started suing their own customers I bought all my music. I have not purchased any music for about 3 years because of what the RIAA etc have been doing. I have not downloaded any either. Quite simply my music collecting stopped dead because of the RIAA tactics.

However, there are those within the music industry who would have me hung, drawn and quartered for what I do. They claim they lost out when people put their album collection on tapes. They claim they lose out because of those, like me, who do with their music as they deem fit. After all, my music collection was bought and paid for therefore within the realms of fair use I own that copy of it. Not the music itself as that is covered by copyrights but the fact I have bought the right to listen to it via whatever medium suits me at any given time.

Because I have bought my music collection I see nothing wrong with what I do with my music. In point of fact, it is a little known fact in this country that copying the music from one format to another is actually illegal. We have no 'fair use' law in this country but that has not stopped people from copying music from albums or 'singles' to tape and more recently CD/DVD's.

The moguls within the cartels we call the music industry are seeing that they are losing their collective grip on their cash-cow. Because of this they are thrashing about throwing lawsuit after lawsuit at their own customers in a last gasp effort to get whatever remaining cash is there from their ailing industry model. The end is nigh and they know it.

I do not, and never have, shared my music with anyone via the Internet or any other sharing method but I do change the format and move said music to different playback mechanisms. I see nothing untoward in doing this.

I know that in the U.K. we have no 'fair use' law but given that people have been using cassette tapes and video recorders for years without fear of prosecution, or persecution for that matter, I see what I, and no doubt many others, do as doing nothing wrong. If you think about this for a moment you will undoubtedly come to the conclusion it is an extension on what has always happened. Given the fact I have never shared my music collection I see nothing wrong in what I do with it.

I am a big believer that once you have paid for something you are free to do with it whatever you want to do with it and that once you have bought something it is then yours.

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