Having a bit of a clear out at home and amongst the detritus are several boxes of CDs, perhaps 500 maybe more.
All my existing collection are ripped to a main NAS (which has a mirror drive back up) and I have two other back ups, one of which is in a different building, and the other on a high capacity portable device. Paranoid huh.
So we used to discuss on here back in the dark ages that if you ripped a CD you were supposed to keep the original (and definitely not sell it) but I wonder where we are now with this.
I seem to be keeping them for nostalgic purposes only. I guess a few of them would be very hard to replace but surely not the main part. Is it time to give them to a charity shop? Life would be way too short to try to sell them.
I think that from a legal point of view you are not entitled to keep the rips if you sell or pass on the CDs to anyone else. I’m less clear re disposing, saydestructively, other than you have no proof of ownership (nor do you if you download and don’t keep receipts, or indeed proof that you bought not stole the CD…)
I’m sure there are many people with ripped collections no longer having the original vinyl or CD - and whether those are now in the hands of someone else is probably best unknown.
Regarding backups, as you can keep multiple backups of entire ripped collections, each in a very small box, that could be kept in completely different premises, I am not sure that It is relevant to consider CDs as the ultimate backup - e.g. they could still readily be destroyed in a fire.
Personally, I can not imagine ever getting rid of my cd collection, no matter whether I’ve ripped and stored them in multiple places. It has taken me many years to collect them and I’ve enjoyed doing so and remember the joy it brought to me when I eventually found a disc that I’d been searching for, for ages.
If you can find a space for them, hang on to them…
When the NAS and other backups fail and your current technology is superceded by next decade’s offering and CD’s have a revival (like vinyl) you might regret disposing of them.
On the other hand, it would be great to be able to follow your legal battle with the Performing Rights Association ( or whatever) if you SOLD the CDs and continued to enjoy your illegal rips. Nobody here would shop you … honestly
Irish law may be different to UK law. But I think in either case you buy a licence to play the music when you buy the CD and the licence travels with the CD. I don’t know about Irish law, but UK law implementing the relevant directive made it lawful for the owner of a CD to make a copy of the music for private use, but this was struck down by the ECJ because, it was argued, the UK had made no attempt to recognise the requirement to compensate the copyright owner.
But in any case I think legally you should keep the CDs or delete the rips, but if it’s for private use I really doubt that anyone is ever going to bring a prosecution against a private citizen.
Best
David
Looks like I’m keeping them. I guess I was wondering if somebody else could benefit from them by me donating them to a charity. Seems a shame to gather dust under the bed!
It does of course depend to a large extent on what the CDs are. Paper Lace Greatest Hits or Singalong a Max might be better off tucked up under the bed where they can do no harm to anyone’s ears…