OT: learn from my mistake

The essential difference is that when you buy a used book (or a used CD, for that matter) or check one out from the library, you are not creating a new instance of that book. When you rip the CD, you are creating a new instance, which is what you are not allowed to do (outside of certain exceptions) according to copyright law, just as if you photocopied the book.

As far as downloading single songs, you can do that inexpensively from several sites, and occasionally from a performer's website (which is sometimes the best option, if you are attempting to get the most money to the performer).

One can make various moral and ethical arguments about what one thinks is appropriate, but in legal terms, when you create the new instance you're violating copyright law, unless the use happens to fall into one of the very few (and much narrower than many think) exceptions.

Best wishes, Ericka

Not all is available at iTunes and I don't have iTunes on my computer. It messes with several of my other programs. I belong to a much cheaper, much better online download service

and songs are about ten cents and whole albums are sometimes 99 cents. I believe 99 cents for an online download is ridiculously expensive unless it's the only way I can get the song, and then I use which my husband uses as an advertisement on his website.

Victoria

Call out the cops. I ripped "Gyspy" OST from the library! LOL. I am not saying I never pay for music, I definitely do. It is not always available online as a single song. It is getting better and easier to make requests of the download service, but I don't feel a squinch of guilt when I rip CD music from the library of soundtracks or score music. If I resold it, that would be different. Maybe I'm in denial, but I do think making copies and selling them is the issue not the copying. I make copies of every design I stitch. I've seen designers say you are only allowed to stitch the design once! What a frigging load of shit that is.

Victoria

I download a lot of music but it's not "music" in the generally accepted sense, it's "sheet music". See

You're in denial. You're only allowed to make copies of things that you own and for your own use.

Elizabeth

Oh Brat, life is so complex and so interesting and there are so many other things we could talk about other than my occasional rip of a soundtrack I get from the library.

If I was shooting meth saying it was okay, THAT is a denial to get up in dithers about. Of the myriad topics up for interesting dialog, can't we get into those? I prefer those.

I mean, Mark has been playing solitaire on his computer for ten hours straight! Gimme something to dig into for pete's sake. Victoria

The iPods are pretty neat and the notion of owning an iPhone (not for the phoneness of it, but for the other geeky attributes) gives me palpitations! However, the technology involved is hardly more stable than that in the cheaper players around and I couldn't possibly justify paying all that money for something that will, ultimately, break down or become obsolete in a dreadfully short span of time.

Here in Oz, we get access to the technology vendors of south-east Asia and so my mp3 player is a dear little brandless 3" touchscreen unit that plays mp3s, FM radio, stores videos, ebooks, audiobooks, text files and videos (in straight .avi format without any need for conversion). I was very lucky and got it from ebay for AUS$25.

When I'm gardening, it parks in my Bottomless Pit (bra) and I can listen to audiobooks or the radio. Not only that, but I recently acquired a pair of nifty little noise-reduction ear-bud earphones for around $5. They totally lock out all other sound. Not only that, but they have little ladybugs on the earpieces and look kinda phunky in the garden setting... ;-D

Oooh! I love iTunes! I spent weeks and weeks ripping all my CDs to mp3 and then adding them to a massive iTunes database. Soon, I'll be ripping all my lifetime's collection of vinyl LPs to iTunes as well. I *love* the way it stores the music, the search function, the copying and conversion functions: just everything about it.

I'm lucky, I guess, in that I doubt Beethoven is going to be bringing out a 'Greatest Hits' album in the foreseeable future. My music collection is pretty much static. It'll be really nice, though, to have access again to my old seventies collection of Redgum and The Bushwackers and so on.

You want to talk about something else, you know the rules.

I'm certainly not the one who went on for screens about why ripping is ok.

Elizabeth

Okay, changing subject...Hmmm, oatmeal or cream of wheat? Television or silence? Reading or writing? I'm locked up!

I'm in football spectacular land and the Packers are losing!

How about go to my blog and see if there's anything you can find wrong with my views? I love to be critiqued. Truly, I actually want people to question me. I posted a short video of my Precious Teacher saying mantras to animals as he loved them and hugged the goats.

Victoria

I found a 4GB version of this one in silver for only a few dollars more than this model. I plan on ordering it as soon as my December bills are paid, assuming there's anything left over. lol

Nyssa, soon to be listening to her tunes in MP3 At River's End

Wow far more jazzy than mine, but as I said, I've had it quite awhile.

Oatmeal - the Irish kind that takes forever to cook.

Silence over television unless it's good television and I have knitting to do.

Reading over writing, which is part of why I'm not at a research institution.

Elizabeth

Irish oatmeal in my home made waffle recipe. Cream of Wheat only with lots of butter and sugar, so...not. Oh glorious silence!

50/50 reading/writing. I like both.

Hmmm, what else... Victoria

I agree......but I would have my Mother's English porridge....probably identical to the one you remember. LOL

The TV downstairs never comes on until 5pm. DH has his on all hours of the day and night!! I enjoy peace and my thoughts!

Gill

Oatmeal, every time. My father called cream of wheat "hot snow".

Silence or music.

Reading. Don't write much these days.

Pat > >

Scottish steel cut oats. With a sprinkle of dark brown sugar, and just a float of table cream. And if you really want to face the day, a pot of Scottish Breakfast tea with that, and some sturdy whole grain bread with orange marmalade. ( I almost never have time to do this. Maybe I will do it tomorrow)

Usually I like silence. But for the last month or two I have needed background noise. This is a waste of televison, so I am listening to radio or audiobooks.

I love writing stuff with the fountain pen I bought myself in Calgary this summer. It is a lovely pink Waterman pen, which about a month ago reached the point where the nib understands the way my hand moves, so it flows over the paper with total ease. (until that point, we had a battle, with lots of scratches instead of lines)

Dawne

Do it in the crockpot! I cook it overnight and leave toppings out (nuts, dried fruit, brown sugar, etc.) and the family can just dish up as they get up and out in the morning. Works like a charm, and very tasty.

Best wishes, Ericka

But is never as good as Scottish porridge with a dash of salt !

There is a way round long cooking - take a wide neck Thermos - put the pin oats in and add boiling water (I suppose you could use milk) and put the top on. Leave until morning.