History of bootlegging Essay Example for Free

History of bootleg Essay1. Background on Bootlegging It has been said that at its palpable level melody belongs to every unrivalled. To claim ownership over harmony has been the subject of much analysis since music, after(prenominal) all, is available to apiece individual through our sense of understanding. Maintaining control or possession of our music is non as clear cut as meting out our rights to our land or property. To listen to a striving someone else has written, for instance, does non necessarily constitute stealing or trespassing on someone elses property. The best way to ensure our right and title over our musical creations is to get a procure over the skipper piece. Yet it is not uncommon for a listener or a music lover or fan to record a favorite song or a specially memorable concert attended. People record songs, concerts, and videos and keep such(prenominal) enters for personal use, or take shape copies hence to give to their friends. Songs and vid eos argon also easily downloaded from the Internet. Fans also record different 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 arrangements ar distributed and sold for profit without the artisan and the record companys consent. Generally, procure violations involving musical creations may be distinguished into three different types 1) professional counterfeit written texts ( wildcat duplication of sound and art work) 2) professional marauder transcriptions (unauthorized duplication of the sound, but with sea captain art work, usually sold as greatest hits compilations 3) bootleg recordings (unauthorized recording of reside performances)Bootlegging, as it was traditionally defined, involves the nonlegal distribution or production of liquor and another(prenominal) passing taxed goods In the 1920s, the United States had a Prohibition against alcohol, thus people resorte d to bootlegging, or buying 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 winding in bootlegging. In the music industry, music bootlegging involves the taking and trading of unauthorized live recordings of live musical per conditions either from concert or studio outtakes.Bootleg music albums atomic number 18 recordings transferred from tape to vinyl group or CD. They become a bootleg product when a bootlegger undertakes to create an artifact or when a non-commercial recording is transformed into a commercial product in the form of an LP or a CD. Bootleg recordings atomic number 18 usually done without the artists consent however, making 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 persona l use. However, the sale of such a recording is deemed illegal.The problems with bootlegging is that it pr tied(p)ts 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 genuine works of authorship . The U. S. has passed significant procure 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 relation shall have power to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for restrict times to authors and inventors the goop right to their respective writings and discoveries. The State thus allows Congress to pass copyright l aws to protect an artists rights to his or her musical creations. The U. S. Copyright operate was amended in 1976 so that it now covers hot technological advancements and extended the term of protection to cover the life of the author plus 70 to a greater extent years.Copyright laws allow the author, artist, or whoever holds the copyright to a creation to sue those who infringe on their copyrights for damages. The plaintiff has to prove infringement of copyright by a) proving ownership of the copyright and b) copying by the infringer-defendant. In respectfulness with its Constitutional mandate of protecting original works of authorship, the Congress has passed several laws concerning music copyright infringement, plagiarism and bootlegging. Some of the relevant laws will be discussed in this section. The Audio Home Recording 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 f or non-commercial purposes, and in such cases, no copyright 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 proceeds split among the featured artists and the record company, or between the songwriters and music publishers, depending on the circumstances. medicamental artists or musicians thus attain 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 Performan ces and Phonograms Treaty.In accordance with these internationalist agreements, the U. S.Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which makes it a crime to a crime to besiege anti-piracy measures built into many of todays 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 order laid down by the U. S. Supreme Court, infringers still find a way of getting just about copyright laws by invoking the fair use doctrine. The U.S. Code provides that the public is entitled to the fair use of secure material. Fair use is a privilege to use copyrighted material in a middling manner without consent, notwithstanding the copyright monopoly granted to the owner. A copyrighted original creation may be reproduced for purposes of criticism, news reporting, comment, teaching, scholarship and research.The Code further provides that in that location 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 nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes ) the nature of the copyrighted work itself 3) the equipoise and substantiality of the copyrighted work actually used without authority 4) the potential economic 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 readily available through the Internet. As music is downloaded courtesy of digital engine room, 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 identical copies of digital music files, most commonly 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 modify 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 convert these files into compressed formats. Digital file reproduction devices, like CD p floors, in turn allow consumers to write these files into a CD and in effect create their own albums a nd compilations of copyrighted creations. Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks have also allowed increased music dissemination, as well as file share-out, as introduced by the infamous Napster software company.P2P networks basically offer users to access the hard drives of other users anywhere in the initiation 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 tenfold individual computers instead of accessing just 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 mer ely passages from an instrument, in effect it allows not just users but even musicians and DJs to create, layer, stretch forth 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 europium and countries such as Japan. Five major recording companies in the U. S. use copy-protected CDs BMG Entertainment, Universal 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. The 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 balance 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 th e copyright to take note of and the back tooth line earning revenues through royalties by limiting the number of copies consumers make of copyrighted musical creations.