How does copyright with a single family/person using library materials work? I remember when dealing with knitting books some time ago that a person could check out a book, photocopy a pattern they liked out of it, and keep it for there own personal use indefinitely. Please correct me if that is wrong! So I was wondering if the same could be applied to music CDs or audio books? If I am making a CD mix of songs for the car and I want a song/track I don’t have, can I download it and use it? What about a whole audio CD, say for our composer study if I want to have the CD available for 12 weeks straight? What about an audio book, to long to finish in 3 weeks?
The library helps with making our budget stretch so much but I do want make sure everything is on the up and up.
The example about copying a spcific pattern from a book is because it is one short excerpt from the book, for non-comercial use and doesn’t damage the copyright owners ability to sell more books.
Excerpts of all kinds of things- writing, music, etc have long been copied for educational purposes and this often falls under the “fair use” exception to copyright laws. Also, copyright expires after a period of time. Depending on the country, the duration of copyright is typically the whole life of the creator plus fifty to a hundred years from the creator’s death, or a finite period for anonymous or corporate creations. So many of the older books an things are copyright free already.
The best source might be to ask the librarian what exactly is allowed with the specific materials you check out. You always have the option of renewing if 3 weeks isnt long enough. 🙂
In the case of a CD, each song would be considered a complete work in and of itself. So 20 or 30 seconds of a song might be reasonable fair use but not a whole song.
My local library is very home schooling friendly. We get unlimited check outs and since I have sucha great history with our local library, she allows me to recheck as often as I like. If someone comes in requesting the resource that I have,then she gives me a call. So, maybe try talking with your local library and see if they will allow you to recheck it for the duration that you need it without penalties.
Viewing 4 posts - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
The topic ‘Audio CD's at the library and copyright’ is closed to new replies.