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Destroying CDs and DVDs after Copying / Copyright Law


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The gleaming platters we once cherished are going the way of all flesh. I am currently transferring mine over to hard drives... which will someday go the way of all flesh. 

 

In any case, for now, it is my intent to destroy all of these platters and dutifully recycle the shards at a local facility once they are in my hard drive. But someone recently told me that if I destroy the original platters, I lose the right to maintain the data on another media. 

 

The enforcement of such a law is impossible, of course, but that's not my question. I'm asking about the law itself. If this is truly how the law reads, then the act of discarding any archived CD / DVD would mean the legal forfeiture of the data copied. 

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It's not illegal. Think of it this way, if you were to lose the CD's in a fire would you be expected to wipe the copies from your hard drive? No, not a chance. The only issue is that if you were ever asked to prove purchase of the originals you won't have the evidence. It will never, ever happen though. 

 

Personally, I wouldn't get rid of the CD's because I don't trust the longevity of a hard drive. You're also losing the artwork and credits. 

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I entirely agree.  You do not have to destroy the original media, and I most-definitely would not do it.  (Disk drives are fragil ... :shock: click! click!  :shock: click! click! :shock: ...)

 

Am I dating myself here?  Oh well, maybe some of you remember this one:

Abort, Retry, Ignore?

 

Consider this: "you make a cassette copy of your LP, so that you can play it in the car."  Does that mean that you must now destroy your vinyl?  Of course not!

 

However, if you gave that cassette to someone else, so that this person could enjoy the music without buying a copy for himself, then, technically, you would be breaking the law.  (However, record companies always turned a fairly-kind eye to this, because it actually amounted to "free advertising" for the next ... or, other ... album(s) by that same artist.  The Grateful Dead®, of course, turned this form of fan-driven marketing into a science.)

 

The idea is that, "if someone else wants a copy, they must buy it from a legitimate source, such that royalties will be paid."  

 

However, the law  also specifically says that you  can thereafter make as many copies of "your lawfully-purchased copy" as you like.  You can use those copies to line your parakeet-cage, throw darts at it, or do any other kinky(?) thing that you please with them, provided that you do not distribute those copies in such a way as to deprive the copyright owner of royalties, or of control of "the right to make a [commercial ...] copy of" his own work.

 

You can sell, barter, or give away your copy, so long as you actually do so. Or, you can throw the damned thing into the river.

 

The law also specifically allows for "fair use," for reviews, journalism, and other incidental uses.

 

In the United States, the "go to" site is:  http://copyright.gov.  Although it is not a substitute for an intellectual-property attorney, it is a "go-to source" for practical information about questions such as, specifically, this one.

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