How not to get burned by ripping

That the best-selling CDs these days are blank is a telling sign.

The art of ripping (converting songs from a CD into MP3s) and burning (creating a duplicate CD copy of those MP3s) is alive and well, thanks mainly to cheap CD writers bundled with just about every PC.

Copyright law protects artists from having their work reproduced without permission, but there is room for a bit of leeway.

Consider the taped copies of your favourite CDs you've made so you can listen to them in your car.

For personal use it is generally acceptable, and that goes for making MP3 copies of your CDs as well.

It's when entrepreneurial kids burn dozens of copies of Eminem's new album and flog them in the school playground for $10 a pop that they really risk running foul of the Copyright Act.

Downloading MP3s from file sharing services like Grokster and Lime Wire similarly crosses the line.

The most popular file-sharing services (see bottom for list) are made up of massive, unauthorised peer-to-peer networks linking thousands of computers - yours too if you've joined the fun and are the community-spirited sort. Music, videos and software are traded willy nilly with little thought for the rights of the artists, who probably won't come after you with their lawyers.

Although a few Kiwi Napster users did receive a shock last year when they were greeted with a notice from Barbara Orbison Productions threatening legal action for the unlawful downloading of Roy Orbison tunes.

By the way, there are a few fair dealing provisions in the Copyright Act under which copying is considered fair game. Copying for purposes such as criticism or review, reporting current events, research or private study and for certain educational purposes is allowed.

As song-swapping over the internet continues to grow, the major music labels are seeking to spoil the fun by introducing CDs that cannot be copied - with mixed results so far.

Sony Music included encryption technology on the latest Celine Dion album, hoping to fend off rippers posting the songs to the web for all to download.

The encryption included a track on the CD that would allow the CD to be played only on conventional CD players, not computer CD drives.

The system was soon cracked when some listeners coloured around the edge of the CD with a felt-tip pen, blocking the encrypted track.

Other attempts at copyright protection have been downright obstructive. Apple Mac users buying the Celine Dion album and the soundtrack to the new Star Wars movie face having their machines lock up if they ignore warnings not to try to play the CDs on their computers.

A discussion on the perils of copyright protection

Grokster

Lime Wire

Audio Gnome

Neo Modus

WinMX

Press Play

Music Net

KaZaA

Morpheus