@ oregonpapa et al.
I presume that you realize that ripping and then reselling, even donating, the physical CD is a flagrant violation of the fair-use provisions of the copyright law. You MUST have physical possession of the original CD, LP, DVD whatever, or you must delete it from your system. (A purchased download is, of course, a different matter.) Everyone knows all that, I presume, but georgelifi is absolutely correct. Ripping CDs and ripping-off the artist is NOT in *YOUR* best interest, either. Not only is it simply unethical (but I guess you can live with that...), it has over the years had a notably adverse effect on musicians and music production in general, especially on those with limited audiences and distribution. It also necessarily keeps prices higher. Lastly, when one disposes of the CD, one disposes of the frequently worthwhile "liner notes" and artwork as well.
I'm not saying I've never purchased a "used" CD, but when I do, it is never sold by anyone again. Moreover, I'll often make an effort to buy CDs directly from the musicians themselves whenever possible. I guess I think of it as noblesse oblige. In any case, if folks in these parts can lay down ridiculous money for cabling and other exotic gear, at the very least they can reasonably support the musicians and others without whom the rest is for naught.
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@jafreeman, jon2020 et al.
From our "friends" at RIAA:
"Copying CDs
It’s okay to copy music onto special Audio CD-R’s, mini-discs, and digital tapes (because royalties have been paid on them) – but not for commercial purposes.
Beyond that, there’s no legal “right” to copy the copyrighted music on a CD onto a CD-R. However, burning a copy of CD onto a CD-R, or transferring a copy onto your computer hard drive or your portable music player, won’t usually raise concerns so long as:
• The copy is made from an authorized original CD that you legitimately own.
• The copy is just for your personal use. It’s not a personal use – in fact, it’s illegal – to give away the copy or lend it to others for copying.
• The owners of copyrighted music have the right to use protection technology to allow or prevent copying.
• Remember, it’s never okay to sell or make commercial use of a copy that you make."
In other words, the original, physical CD (or whatever) is your license to possess a copyrighted work in whatever format you, personally, may have transferred it to. You must continue to own the original CD. If you haven't the original CD, you've no license to possess a copy of the work no matter the form or format. And you most certainly can not legally or ethically transfer a copyrighted CD to someone else for them to make copy. It's pretty straightforward and only fair to the musicians.
Doing what I do, LP to CD transcription and remastering, requires that I have a high awareness of the copyright laws involved. Mostly, I work for the person or label who owns the copyright on the original recording. But If I do a transfer for an individual, I, and any reputable transfer service, will be adamant that my customer owns the LP personally and that they will not give up possession of it. It's their license to own the CD transfer *FOR THEIR PERSONAL USE ONLY*.
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@jon2020
Understand, first of all, I'm not an attorney and copyright law is often ridiculously stupid and complex. The legal rule of thumb, however, is that there are NO commercial recordings that are in the public domain, not even the old Edison cylinders which are still protected by sundry state laws. The only copyright-free recordings are the ones you make yourself of PD material.
But almost certainly, a situation such you describe would be so de minimus as to not merit concern. Problems start when one obtains a recording, rips it by whatever means, and then turns around and deliberately disposes of the original paid-for recording, one's license. Occasional, accidental loss of a CD, meh. Wholesale disposal of or especially deliberately reselling of ripped CDs, not so meh. And putting the ripped track up on the web to share, oh Lordy! Ask YouTube's legal dept. about the fun they've had!
Oh, and BTW, I'm of the school that believes that Redbook CDs can, at least in theory, perfectly reproduce a sound recording in the range of human hearing. The problems that occur are peripheral to the format itself, i. e. in the recording technique, ADC, mixing/mastering, DAC and playback equipment. For listening, higher sample rates and word lengths are generally silly and wasteful.
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One more time, and let's see if I can make this clear. One can do what one wants with the original recording. One can play it (but not in public), resell it, give it away, throw it away or rip it *for one's own personal use*. The one thing one can not do is keep the ripped copy of a CD or a track and then dispose of the original, or vice versa. It's neither legal or ethical to make copies of a CD, Redbook or otherwise (think "Enhanced" CDs), and sell them or give them away. Likewise. it's neither legal or ethical to make any kind of a copy of a recording and then sell or give away the original. Possession of the original is one's license for "fair-use" of the copy. If one doesn't have the original, one can't have a copy, no matter how one came by it.
It's not at all like selling or giving away a used bicycle. You haven't duplicated the bike. If one starts exactly duplicating the bike, and potentially violating associated patents and trademarks, and then giving away or selling the duplicates of the bike, you'll then have a similar situation, and a potential legal problem. It's the same with recordings. It is absolutely illegal and unethical to give away that burned duplicate of a CD. Playing the duplicate in your car makes no difference. You don't own the music on that duplicate CD to give away. The Grateful Dead can do what they want, but most people in the music industry aren't in the position or of the disposition to be so generous.
Copyright law can be bizarrely complex, and highly lawyered. But the basics are pretty straightforward, and fair to all.
BTW, whether or not a ripped copy of a CD sounds better/different/worse than the original will certainly have much to do with the format it's ripped to and then what hardware is used for playback. An mp3, especially at a low bit rate, played through some cheap USB arrangement won't sound nearly as good as a WAV file that is an exact duplicate of the original and then played through a high-end system.
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*Sigh*
As I've already noted, copyright law gets weedy and complex, fast. I'm not a lawyer and others seem willing to wade into it deeper. More power to them. In short, if one disposes of a commercial CD in such a manner that some else can own it and copy it, then one should also delete any copies of that CD one has made for themselves, IF FOR NO OTHER REASON THAN IT IS FAIR TO THE MUSICIANS et al. The musicians deserve to be paid and make a living rather than being ripped, ahem, off. Likewise, don't be giving away (or selling!) copies. Simple. And if I've managed to guilt-trip someone, good.
Someone suggested giving the original CDs to the library. Fine, do so, but you still have to delete your rips. And it's a good bet that the library will not circulate the donated CDs. If they accept them at all, they'll sell them. Libraries are a whole different world of copyright. E. g. much of the time, libraries have to pay *substantially more* than the retail price of a book for circulation to make up in part the potential loss of sales of that book. Think about it a bit and it makes sense. One of the unfortunate consequences of the internet, and digital technology, is people these days seem to think everything ought to be free. Didn't work that way so much with LPs.
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Thank you dgarretson, and exactly. As I have said repeatedly, one can dispose of the original recording however one sees fit. One mustn't, however, retain, or worse sell or give away, *copies* of copyrighted recordings. Retailers, or libraries, or others selling "preowned" CDs operate under the assumption that copyright restrictions on copying have been observed. The reality, of course, may be less than perfectly compliant, but that doesn't mean that one shouldn't try. And certainly one shouldn't congratulate one's self for shorting the composer/performer/musician/et al.
BTW, if anyone is interested in how to effectively and cost-efficiently shelve 1000's of Redbook or otherwise CDs, I have some good suggestions (I think...) based on my own experience.
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