The Double-Dip Mentality

[kandrathe]

User buys commodity to use it, and doesn't yield a profit from leasing it to others - legal.

Contracts, which determine the use of another's property, are leases which the Lessor(owner) enters into with the Lessee. Non-profit giving away of someone elses copyrighted works seems to abuse the rights of the creator (owner/lessor). Imagine if you had a beautiful 3 bedroom townhouse to lease, and your tenant against the provisions of the lease, sublet the two rooms to other families. Leases usually specify how many individuals can occupy an apartment and similarily, EULA's are a form of lease agreement.

User backups commodity that he bought (1 backup) - legal. User lets friends and family members use commodity that he bought - legal.

What is the purpose of a backup? Loss prevention, so "sharing" your one backup with anyone defeats the purpose of the "backup"(copy). How do I get a proof of friendship sticker? Your scheme is a bit vague and unenforcable.

User lets friends and family members use backup of the commodity that he bought (temporarily) - legal.   User lets friends and family members use backup of the commodity that he bought (not only temporarily) - illegal.

Temporarily means? This loophole would put a person in violation of the law after a due date. Say applied to video tapes, I would be in big trouble for all the over due tapes I've paid for in my lifetime.

User backups commodity more than once - legal.  User lets friends and family members use backups of the commodity that he bought (more than one backup, and not only temporarily) - illegal.  User uploads backup of the commodity he bought online, so that others can download it (for free or not) and use it for free (without control whether they are friends and whether it's temporarily) - illegal.

Friends? Temporary? The only thing new here is how you distribute the copies; to the internet making "Temporary" and "Friend" even more unenforcable.

User uploads backup of the commodity he bought online with the purpose of letting friends of his use this backup temporarily and the assurance that no strangers have access to the backup (via password-protection, member-login or other adequate methods) - legal. Notice the difference to the case of mp3-exchange with strangers.

I see huge violations with skirting the "Friends" law by creating phony "Friends" networks.

User downloads backup of others (for free or not) to use it temporarily (e.g. as a preview to test whether the purchase of the commodity is worth it) - legal. Notice however, that the act of uploading to a site where 'strangers' can download things (for free or not) is considered illegal, see above.

Shouldn't this "try before you buy" be a relationship between the owner and the prospective buyer(lessor).

User converts the commodity he bought to another format, and uses the converted backup (e.g. buys cd but has only a cassette deck in his car, thus converts the media) - legal.  User converts backups of commodities he bought to any format (e.g. wants to save space and converts the backups to lesser quality) - legal.

I would think rather that fair would be that when one buys an album, (say Beach Boys - Pet Sounds), that they have a right to own that album in any subsequent media format. By presenting your original cassette to the record store you would be able to obtain the CD format for the cost of making the CD only.

So my summarization of your former essences are:
- It might be fine to make a single backup things you bought for loss prevention. Use the copy and store the original in a safe place.
- You may not let friends of yours use these backups temporarily since "backups" are for personal loss prevention, "friend" is a nebulous concept and "temporary" is impossible to enforce.
- You may not let them use the backups permanently at all. If anyone uses your backups they are no longer backups, but merely copies.
- You may not gain profit from the usage of your backups by others. (You may not derive profit from leasing the commodity you bought to others.)
- You may utilize some authorized conversion agency(record store) to obtain a legal conversion from one format to another. To me it makes sense that you have purchased the lease to the property in whatever form that property takes.