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Does anyone know what is or isn’t allowed when copying music from other ppl ? I’ve heard so many different things, and am a bit confused…
If you didn’t copy it, would you have purchased music?
do you know for an absolute fact that you wouldn’t buy it in six months or in nine months or in a year or in two years if you didn’t copy it?
Joseph’s question is almost impossible to answer honestly. Certainly, once you copy from a friend, you’re not going to then pay for it…
To answer the OP’s question, it’s possibly gezeilah, definitely not the right the to do, and most poskim say assur.
If you bought the music you can copy it on all of your players but you are only allowed to use one of them at a time. If you made a copy for a friend when he is playing it you can’t. This is only for copyrighted music. As a general rule most music is copyrighted.
DY – Gezeila? How can duplicating a digital copy of something constitute as gezeila? You are not taking anything that doesn’t belong to you, you are creating a new item that didn’t exist before.
Rav Moshe calls it gezeilah.
I have the sefer Mishnas Zekhuyos Ha-Yotzer, rendered in English as Copyright in Jewish Law.
According to Rav Elyashiv, a copyright owner possesses monetary rights over his product, including the original idea, and may restrict use of his product even if he will not suffer loss.
Therefore, you’d have a problem copying such music.
It also violates US law and for extreme cases there are even criminal penalties. Some copyright violators who thought they were doing nothing wrong have had to pay heavy fines.
Besides, why not pay for the music? Most songs are just $1. Are you so lack of faith in HaShem that you think you can’t afford a dollar a song?
In some cases the copyright has expired. This varies from country to country. According to the opinion that the issur is only because of dina d’malchuta this apparently would also apply. Some poskim say that it is a derivative of hassagat gevul (@Yekke) and that the Halacha itself does give proprietary rights to intellectual property. There are a number of articles on-line about this issue.
If some music, book or software program is no longer offered for sale, you know that you would not have purchased it if you didn’t copy it, so there’s no issue of hasagas gvul. And as Avi pointed out, local copyright laws don’t provide copyrights forever. Additionally, copyright laws specifically permit copying for “fair use” even while the copyright is active.
pure stealing
I don’t know why this is even a question.
A. It violates the law in most countries in the world.
B. It is stealing from the artist, depriving him/her of income.
C. It certainly violates the principle of “that which you don’t want done to you, do not do to your fellow man.”
The Wolf
I’m not looking for a psak, but just out of curiosity, does anyone know what happenes legally and Halachically if two people contribute 50% to the purchase of music? Can they both copy for personal use as they would be allowed to as the sole purchaser?
What happens if 100 people split the purchase of a CD, MP3, book or software program? The answer should be the same as to your question. (I’m pointing out this variation as it may help clarify the issue.)
ask your LOR for a honest halachic answer. this coffeeroom is only for opinions & advice etc… Rabbis don’t hang out on the web neither do they have internet
I don’t see how that could possibly be OK.
Let’s say I bought an album. If your case is OK, could I not just as easily gift half if the album to you? I don’t see how the monetary division can somehow double the value.
MA: Lol. Plenty of Rabbis use the internet. I doubt they “hang out’ in the CR, but they have internet.
There definitely have been rabbis who were regular posters in the coffee room, Sam. (hello99 comes to mind. I believe he’s a posek with a kehila in Eretz Yisroel. There have been some less prolific here as well.)
Joseph: “If some music, book or software program is no longer offered for sale, you know that you would not have purchased it if you didn’t copy it, so there’s no issue of hasagas gvul.”
That’s what I always thought, but I was once trying to get a hold of a particular Sefer written by a former teacher of mine. It was no longer in print, so I called the author and asked him if I could photocopy it and he said no. I asked him why not since it’s no longer in print. He responded, “well, maybe I will decide to reprint it one day.” (note: the book had not been printed since the 1970’s, this conversation took place in approximately 2010 when the author a”h, who has since been nifter, was in his 70’s at least).
Even though the author was a tremendous Talmid Chacham, he was not a poseik, so I called a poseik to check if he really did have a right halachically to tell me that I couldn’t copy it. The Poseik said that he did have a right to do so.
ps: End of the story: I posted on a local email list asking if anyone had the Sefer. Someone had it and was willing to give it to me for free, which was very nice of her.
I wasn’t looking for a psak and would certainly ask before doing so, it was just something I always wondered about. Also if this happened often, it would probably shut down the whole music business. Its not uncommon for people to copy recipes for personal use from a cookbook to keep things clean. If two people shared the cost of a cookbook, can each one copy recipes for personal use?
Joseph, the difference (as I see it) is that an mp3 is a physical thing which cant be copied or shared. As far as the book, see my example above.
DY, is a penny considered as having the same value Halachically as $8?
Again, not looking for a final answer, just thought it was an interesting question.
Kapusta:”If some music, book or software program is no longer offered for sale, you know that you would not have purchased it if you didn’t copy it, so there’s no issue of hasagas gvul.”
I once read an interview of a famous Frum singer in one of the Frum magazines. He spoke about how it really bothers him that people constantly copy his music and that this has caused him a TREMENDOUS problem parnassah-wise. He also mentioned that many people apparently have no idea that it’s a problem halachically and financially because his friends and acquaintances will just mention to him casually and innocently that they copied his music.
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