Ripping and rights

(Image used under creative commons license 2.0, from flickr member DaveHolmes)

Library Journal's Norman Oder posted a great little summary of an article by Marc Caro of the Chicago Tribune.

Some highlights:
-"The fine for [ripping CDs belonging to a library] is $250,000 per copyrighted work."
-The students interviewed for the article said they didn't feel CD ripping was a crime:

• "If they got really strict on it, I probably wouldn't do it, but since there aren't strong repercussions, then I'll probably do it occasionally..."


• "As long as you're not reselling it, then I don't [ripping CDs is a crime]....I mean, you can listen to anything on YouTube."

-While "[CD] sales plummet in the retail world, CDs are thriving in libraries, though no one can say whether the ease of ripping them is a factor."
-"There's this smug sense of 'I'm not hurting anybody....Well, you are hurting somebody. You are hurting musicians in the group who are struggling to pay bills because no one's willing to pay the piper."

Caro's article includes a poll, but the results won't surprise you. Please read the original articles (hyperlinked above). They're really informative, and present great arguments.