What is the precise basis in halacha that a purchased (not rented) CD cannot be copied (for a friend)?
If you mean without even a t’nai, that’s a tough one. Throughout the years, the gedolei hador have protected the publishers of seforim from infringement of their “copyrights”. I don’t know the firm basis for that either. There’s a teshuva from R’ Moshe prohibiting copying a recorded shiur (which is being sold), and I don’t know the firm basis for that either. I don’t think there’s any gemara that discusses “intellectual rights”. The reason that music producers had to start with the t’nai and now the rental is because some poskim were in fact matir copying, because the source for the issur is so fuzzy. Of course, the way the yetzer hora works, many people followed the minority opinion permitting copying.
DY, this was discussed by so many poskim that have said a person can many a copy for themselves.
If they said it even when the producer specifically is makpid, and has this new rental agreement, then I stand corrected, although I don’t understand why I’m wrong.
There was an interview a few years ago in Mispacha magazine in which one Jewish music personality said that he is even makpid on one copy, and claimed that R’ Elyashiv backed his right to do so. I don’t understand how in today’s day, when most people listen on mp3 players, he can reasonably expect people to only listen to the actual CD. I called his distributor (Aderet) to clarify, and the answer I got was “most producers allow one copy”. Before I got the chance to follow up, the phone was hung up.