Redbook Keeps Surprising

Hi Dave,

Hopefully LP2CD will provide the more specific reference you requested (which I am not in a position to readily do), but I see it this way: If the CD is ripped and the copy is given away or sold (either case being clearly illegal as stated in the RIAA reference you provided), one user has an original that has been paid for and another user has a copy that has not been paid for (from the perspective of the copyright holder, at least). The same holds true if it is the original and not the copy that is given away or sold. Why should it make any difference which user has the copy and which user has the original?

Best regards,
-- Al

bsmith 6-26-2016 5:15 pm
someone explain to me why cd’s sound better to me than the file of that cd.

If the software used for ripping (and the settings of that software that were used) assures that the file is a bit-perfect copy, and if playback in both cases uses identical hardware (i.e., the CD and the ripped file are played back from the same computer or other device), one possibility is that the difference is due to differences in computer-generated electrical noise that is riding on the signal provided to the DAC (whether that DAC is internal or external to the computer), resulting in differences in jitter.

Of course if the rip is not done in a manner that assures bit-perfect quality, or if the playback hardware is different in the two cases, anything is possible.

Regarding the copyright law issues that have been discussed, LP2CD has provided outstanding answers IMO. With regard to the bicycle analogy, another way to look at it is that both the new bike and the one that is given away (and used by someone else) have been purchased and paid for. That is not the case, of course, when a CD is ripped and then given away.

Regards,
-- Al

... consider this scenario; I buy a disc from a regular retail source, pay the prescribed market price, listen to it, don't rip it or save it in any way and then grow tired of it, and give it to a friend/donating it; is that a violation of copyright law as well? ... can I assume the same would apply to (after my death and therefore no longer using my discs) giving it all to my son or if he does not want it, to a music library as a donation?

Cleeds is correct.  Simply put, copyright law imposes restrictions on copying.  If there is no copying, there is no violation.

Regards,
-- Al