Digitizing music and ethics

[Learning2Crawl]

All,

I have a question to pose to the group. In the US, the music industry has been pursuing those who swap music illegally via services such as Napster. According to copyright fair use, one can digitize music CDs they own for personal usage on a work computer (for example) so that one does not have to carry numerous discs back and forth on a daily basis.

My question is this. Public libraries offer CDs to their patrons. The library purchases these discs with tax dollars, which are paid by all residents within that library's tax district. As a result, these discs are publicly-owned. As such, does that free an individual--who pays taxes into the library district and, therefore contributed to the purchase of the music--from the copyright restraints and permit the individual to digitize the music for personal use?

I ask the question because this topic came up in my church recently and was the basic of much discussion regarding what is right and what is wrong, yet no consensus was reached. So, being the curious creature that I am, I wonder what your views are on the matter.

In God's grace
-Learning2Crawl

 

[Madcoil]

In much the same way one might ask wether it is considered right/wrong to borrow home a book from the library and type it into ones computer for personal use.

 

[seebs]

Seems to me that would cross the line between borrowing a single thing, which only one person has at a time, and which you don't own, and making copies of that thing.

FWIW, I made a copy of Dark Side of the Moon from the local library, which resulted in me buying pretty much every album Pink Floyd ever made. So I don't think they should complain... But it is legally different.

There's a distinction to be drawn between the moral right the owners have to tell people not to copy their stuff, and whether there's any reason for them to do so.