Where would I stand, legally speaking, on this idea?
I like to consider myself pretty decent at beatgridding and warping tracks in Traktor and Ableton Live as well as ID3 tagging, normalising and key detecting. A few of my friends take advantage of my anal’ness and ask me to do all this tedious work to their collections so they don’t have to.
If I were to offer a more public service whereby I would take someones collection (they would have to FTP or send me a cd) and do all the beatgrids, cue markers, warping, key detecting, etc etc for them, would I be on dodgy ground legally?
Since I’m not actually keeping copies of the music, there’s been no ‘theft’, but it is unathorised (temporary) copying. I suppose its a similar argument to the ‘2nd hand mp3’ sales you see on ebay sometimes (someone selling their legally acquired beatport mp3s because they no longer want them). In the these days of digital media, what do we actually ‘own’? Can you actually ‘own’ (or copyright) a collection of 1’s and 0’s?
not sure but it sounds like what your doing is offering a service. the music would allready be owned supposedly by the person you would be doing this service for . therefore your not violating copyright laws. if i paid my friend to beatmap and warp my next set list he’d be working for me.all that is, is a service. and that reselling your mp3’s is an interesting question because i can go buy someones used vinyl but i can’t buy a used mp3 interesting?
The difference is not in the medium, but in the license attached to it. Whether its something physical like a piece of vinyl or more ethereal like an mp3.
By the sounds of it, your services should be legal.. after all, if you travelled to the persons house to do the beat gridding on their files, I can’t see there being an issue.
However, because it is likely to involve copying the digital data, you will need to check the license conditions attached to the download of that mp3. Beatport and other sites are legally obliged to show you the terms under which you are downloading.
That said.. given that you are not copying and redistributing the material, I would find it HIGHLY unlikely that anyone would give it a second look.
okay - so it sounds like it might be feasible… so I guess the question is what would people be willing to pay for such a service? and would there even be a demand for it?
just put in your business statement somewhere that you will only work on legally purchased files. whether you actually do or not is your choice, but this clause protects you from becoming a “partner in crime” (not a legal term ). as previously stated, the music is simply the media being worked on.
it’s kind of like a car mechanic: the cops aren’t going to bust them for working on a car that isn’t theirs, test driving it around to make sure everything is ok. the original owner has given temporary ownership to you to perform a service on their property, as long as you are not keeping it, copying it, distributing it, you’re totally fine.
Just make your terms of business meticulously clear, and keep records of everything. I’d use a separate drive for all of this so you can show you have them and then delete them.
Keep in mind that this is really murky legal waters. technically, the person sending you the songs might be violating the fair use of the data as they are copying and distributing them. I’m not a legaltician (I love making up words) but you should be okay.
Keep in mind, though, that just cause other people are offering the service doesn’t mean it’s inherently legal.
it’s perfectly legal for someone to make copies (aka “backups”) of things they own. i’d get them to mail you a cd, or have a private directory somewhere on the web that they can upload to, but not everyone can have access to. something that makes it so it’s just you and them that can access the files, and isn’t considered a popular method of illegal file sharing.
It’s perfectly legal to make copies for personal use, it is not to share it, technically. Now, I doubt he’s going to have any problems whatsoever, it’s just something he’s gotta be concerned with.
). as previously stated, the music is simply the media being worked on.