CD Music Online

So I bought a music cd. Is it legal for me to upload it so other torrent users may download it?

Its my cd. I can do what ever I want with it right? Its the same thing as giving my friend the cd in person. Anothor question: What are the legal and illegal ways to download free music?

Public Comments

1. Yes it is illegal. No, you don't own the music. You can legally download music from sites that sell music and occasionally from sites operated by the bands and record companies. It is not the same as giving another the CD in person as you no longer have the CD once you give it to someone else. If you made a copy of the CD, you must destroy your copy once you give the CD away. "It's my book, I paid for it, I should be able to make copies of it and sell them" - Same thing. Sorry you don't see that as stealing.
2. > I can do what ever I want with it right? sure ,the physical cd - resell it, give it away, make a christmas ornament. The music on it is the intellectual property of others though, and I think you know that in principle even if you don't like it. The difference between uploading and giving it away, is that when you give it away, you have not made a new copy, and you don't have a copy any longer. That is an important distinction in Intellectual Property law, not just for music but for books or photos or anything else. > What are the legal and illegal ways to download free music? Legal: from sites which have licensed the right to do so from the IP owner of the music. Illegal: Everything else. Although some specifics are up froo debate, these are the general principles.
3. go for it, but when the RIAA sues you for millions don't come crying to me.
4. Of course not. It's a copyright work. YOu have the right to listen to it; you don't own the content.
5. You own the CD, but you do not own the contents of it. You are actually only LICENSING the music on it. You can give it to a friend, as long as you do not keep any copies of it. If you provide it for torrent download, you have taken the one copy you have and made many copies of it, and the artist or publisher that owns the music gets nothing from it. There are lots of illegal ways to download music. But legally, you will have to find a site that the artists have given approval for them to provide the songs as a free download. Download.com is one such site (http://music.download.com/). There are not a lot of mainstream artists on there, but there is still some very good "unknown" artists.