History of bootlegging Essay Example for Free

History of bootlegging Essay1. Background on Bootlegging It has been tell that at its real level medical specialty belongs to everyone. To claim ownership over medicament has been the subject of much analysis since medication, after all, is available to each undivided through and through our sense of hearing. Maintaining control or possession of our music is not as clear cut as meting out our honests to our land or property. To bew be to a tenor someone else has written, for instance, does not necessarily constitute stealing or trespassing on someone elses property. The best way to mark our right and title over our musical creations is to get a right of first publication over the original piece. Yet it is not uncommon for a listener or a music lover or fan to record a favorite song or a p contrivanceicularly memorable concert attended. multitude record songs, concerts, and videos and keep such(prenominal) recordings for personal use, or make copies thereof to give to t heir friends. Songs and videos are also easily downloaded from the Internet. Fans also record disparate songs and performances, from different albums or concerts, into one CD or online play list to make their own personal collection.The problem is when such recordings are distri furthered and sold for profit without the artificer and the record companys consent. Generally, right of first publication violations involving musical creations may be distinguished into three different types 1) professional counterfeit recordings (unauthorized extra of sound and art work) 2) professional pirate recordings (unauthorized duplication of the sound, tho with original art work, usually sold as greatest hits compilations 3) bootleg recordings (unauthorized recording of live performances)Bootlegging, as it was traditionally be, involves the illegal distribution or production of liquor and other highly taxed goods In the 1920s, the United States had a Prohibition against alcohol, thus people resorted to bootlegging, or get and selling an illegal product, from bootleggers. Organized crime consisting of gangs and mobsters in Chicago and New York, such as Al Capone, were deeply involved in bootlegging. In the music industry, music bootlegging involves the taking and trading of unauthorized live recordings of live musical performers either from concert or studio out says.Bootleg music albums are recordings transferred from tape to vinyl or CD. They become a bootleg product when a bootlegger undertakes to reach an artifact or when a non-commercial recording is change into a commercial product in the form of an LP or a CD. Bootleg recordings are usually done without the artists consent however, reservation a recording of a concert is not illegal per se. Although an individual cannot legally record an officially release CD or cassette tape on to a blank tape, he or she may make an unauthorized recording of a concert and keep it for personal use. However, the sale of such a recording is deemed illegal.The problems with bootlegging is that it prevents the artist and the record company from maintaining quality control over their product , and it prevents them from collecting their royalties to their right to their music.2. Changes in Copyright Laws Copyright is defined as a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U. S. Code) to the authors of original works of authorship . The U. S. has passed significant copyright laws to protect an artists right to his or her original creations. These creations include not only musical works, but literary, dramatic, artistic and certain intellectual creations.The U. S. Constitution itself provides that the Congress shall have power to drive the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited clock to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. The State thus allows Congress to pass copyright laws to protect an artists rights to his or her musical creations. The U. S. Copyright Act was amended in 1976 so that it now covers new technological advancements and extended the bourne of protection to cover the life of the author plus 70 more years.Copyright laws allow the author, artist, or whoever holds the copyright to a creation to sue those who run afoul on their copyrights for damages. The complainant has to prove infringement of copyright by a) proving ownership of the copyright and b) copying by the infringer-defendant. In compliance with its Constitutional mandate of defend original works of authorship, the Congress has passed several laws concerning music copyright infringement, plagiarisation and bootlegging. Some of the relevant laws will be discussed in this section. The Audio Home preserve Act allows music retailers to sell all analog and digital recording formats.It also gives a consumer the right to use such recordings provided such use is for non-commercial purposes, and in such cases, no c opyright infringement lawsuit may be brought against a consumer. The consumer and retailer is also exempt from making royalty payments on digital audio recording devices and media the burden falls on U. S. manufacturers and importers only who must pay for digital audio devices designed or marketed primarily for making digital audio recordings for private use, whether or not these are incorporated in some other device.These royalty payments are administered and monitored by the U. S. Register of Copyrights and the Librarian of Congress, with the replication split between the featured artists and the record company, or between the songwriters and music publishers, depending on the circumstances. Musical artists or musicians thus receive royalties which are based on record sales and airplay during a prescribed period. The U. S. is also a signatory of both the World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty and the Performances and Phonograms Treaty.In accordance with these i nternational agreements, the U. S.Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which makes it a crime to a crime to circumvent anti-piracy measures built into many of immediatelys commercial software and even most music CDs. The Act also limits the copyright infringement liability of ISPs for transmitting information over the Internet, but requires that ISPs remove copyright infringement materials found in users web sites.Despite legislative acts and proposed bills by well meaning members of the U. S. Congress, and jurisprudence laid down by the U. S. Supreme Court, infringers still find a way of getting around copyright laws by invoking the average use doctrine. The U.S. Code provides that the public is entitled to the fair use of copyrighted material. Fair use is a privilege to use copyrighted material in a reasonable manner without consent, notwithstanding the copyright monopoly granted to the owner. A copyrighted original creation may be reproduced for purposes of cri ticism, news reporting, comment, teaching, scholarship and research.The Code further provides that there are four factors in determining whether there is fair use of a copyrighted material or not 1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial disposition or is for nonprofit educational purposes ) the nature of the copyrighted work itself 3) the proportion and substantiality of the copyrighted work actually used without authority 4) the potential scotch detriment on the value of the work caused by such unauthorized use thereof. What makes it especially difficult to enforce the copyright is that information is so quick available through the Internet. As music is downloaded courtesy of digital technology, consumers are turning to the Internet to get their music rather than going out to music stores to buy the CDs. Bootlegged albums are also easily transmitted and shared through the Internet.Digital technology allows consumer to reproduce identi cal copies of digital music files, most usually in compression formats such as MP3s. Such digital advancements not only pave the way for more widespread bootlegging, but for music piracy as well.3. Advancements in Piracy Technology File Sharing Piracy, as earlier discussed, is differentiated from bootlegging in that the former involve the unauthorized duplication of the sound, but with original art work. Piracy involves the reproduction and distribution of copies of original recordings. Advancements in digital technology have allowed music piracy to develop at an alarming rate.MP3s enable consumers to compress digitized music into smaller files, while ripping software allows them to copy music from CDs, store these on their hard drives, and then change over these files into compressed formats. Digital file reproduction devices, like CD players, in turn allow consumers to write these files into a CD and in effect create their own albums and compilations of copyrighted creations. Pe er-to-peer (P2P) networks have also allowed increased music dissemination, as well as file sharing, as introduced by the infamous Napster software company.P2P networks essentially offer users to access the hard drives of other users anywhere in the world by the installation of a piece of software. These networks allow users to search, copy and transfer music files typically through MP3 files. After Napster, subsequent P2P networks version, like KaZaA and Grokstar, which are collectively known as the FastTrack providers, allow users to access multiple individual computers instead of accessing reasonable one single, centralized database of music files.The digital audio workstation (DAW) on the other hand, allows users to indulge in sampling original music recordings, converted from analog to digital format, which users can import, cut, copy, layer and manipulate to create new musical work. Since samples may be in a bands entire song, or besides passages from an instrument, in effe ct it allows not just users but even musicians and DJs to create, layer, expand and redefine music. Recording companies have resorted to copy-protection technology to protect themselves from piracy committed through file sharing and P2P networks.Copy-protected CDs is one answer, but public backlash and concerns about the technologys effectiveness, have forced recording companies to limit use of such CDs in the U. S. and instead opted to release such CDs abroad in Europe and countries such as Japan. Five major recording companies in the U. S. use copy-protected CDs BMG Entertainment, planetary Music Group, Warner Music Group, EMI, and Sony. BMG in particular has made us of copy-protection advancements such the MediaMax CD-3 technology from SunnComm Technologies, Inc. located in Phoenix, Arizona. Through MediaMax CD-3, each song is written onto a CD twice.One format is readable by standard CD players while the other format is readable as a Windows media file playable on a computer. T he technology allows consumers of BMG records to burn each track only three times per computer. The songs in BMG albums embedded with the MediaMax CD-3 technology may also be emailed to a limited number of people. However, each person in that limited list may only listen to ten times to each song in the album. In other words, songs in such CDs are locked and wont be played even if they are downloaded from file-sharing networks if it exceeds the allowable number of times a person may listen to the track.Other developments are even more rigid. The CDS-300 developed by Macrovision, located in Santa Clara, California, allows CDs to be burnt and listened to online, but blocks other attempts to make copies or share music online. Recording companies thus are faced with a difficult balancing act. On the one hand, there is the need to respect a consumers desire to share, copy and hear songs in different ways. But on the other hand, there is the copyright to take note of and the bottom line earning revenues through royalties by limiting the number of copies consumers make of copyrighted musical creations.