Russell McMahon wrote:
>>www.allofmp3.com
> 
> FWIW in my country it is illegal to copy for your own personal use 
> music from a CD or tape that you *OWN* to any other media (including 
> another CD / tape or an MP3 etc player). (It's most unlikely that you 
> would be prosecuted for doing this).

In Canada we have to pay a 'tax' on ALL blank recordable media (cassettes,
CDs and DVDs, soon to include Flash memory).
The levy goes to the Canadian Copyright Collective, for distribution
to Canadian artists, based on their sales popularity.
(Does anyone see the contradiction here? Those who are most popular
in the download community are those LEAST likely to benefit from the
'royalty'. And what of the foreign artists?)

The amended copyright act allows one to copy a protected work for
'personal use' but NOT for distribution, so you can borrow all the
CD's you want, and copy them with impunity, but you cannot take a CD
you own and give your friends copies. That would be 'distribution'.
But your friend can 'borrow' your original and make a copy for himself.
Insane? Of course, but that's how the idiots wrote the law.

I don't download music because there is very little out there worth
the trouble (I prefer classical), but it really galls me that 80% of
the price of a blank CD-R is now the cost of the levy, and the disk
is for DATA BACKUPS of my computer systems, not music.
Which is why I want all Canadians to know that you have official
government permission to "LOAN" your CD's to anyone you like.

Robert
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