Byte Rights: Breakin' the Law

Posted 10/12/2009 at 7:15am | by Quinn Norton

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I often get questions in email, or at conferences or parties, about points of IP law. I try to explain that I Am Not A Lawyer or that, dang, this is a party, but most people’s questions about what’s illegal are easy to answer (ripping DVDs: yes; ripping audio CDs: no; drunkenly singing “Happy Birthday” through a bullhorn at a wedding: yes; making a mashup song: depends what state you’re in). But I’ve realized that’s not really what people are asking me, because there’s a big difference between telling you what’s illegal and telling you what not to do.

Unlike much of law, copyright law requires that the rights holder go to the trouble of suing. If they don’t want to, you can claim their masterwork as your own and do a rendition in armpit farts on national TV, make a mint selling the recording, and never have a spot of trouble with the authorities.

This is understandably confusing for most people. We like to think of our laws as moral, vital to a functional society. Current copyright law, like all unreasonable law, undermines this. The normal ways people use computers these days involves enough copyright violations that all the lawyers ever born couldn’t pursue them all.

Almost nothing you do in your own home is ever going to be findable by the RIAA or the MPAA, which don’t have the time and energy to care anyway. The unspeakable truth is, for the most part, no one cares if you break the law. This is not an answer lawyers can give you, but I can. Give songs to friends, Xerox library books, do terrible mashups of the Top 40—no one is coming for you. The good news is that most of us are more sensible and moral than the law. We can tell what’s harmful, and won’t do it, though we all get confused in the grey zones.

The real answer to your copyright questions is, ignore the law when it doesn’t matter, and obey it when it does. But how can you tell? You can’t! Isn’t this fun?

Quinn Norton writes about copyright for Wired News and other publications. Her work has ranged from legal journalism to the inner life of pirate organizations.