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Question
"If a person makes a single copy of copyrighted music and/or video for
their own personal use, and that use is solely for the purpose of listening pleasure and/or
viewing pleasure, and the person does not sell or otherwise distribute the copy, have the courts addressed
whether that is considered "fair use"? Basically I am addressing here a typical file-sharing situation where a person
make a single copy of songs or videos for their own personal listening or viewing pleasure and doesn't sell then
or distribute them freely to others. If the courts have addressed this, what was the result?"
--A viewer
Answer
A "Tech Talk" staff member responded:
No one can say why the courts haven't dealt with this issue more
extensively. However, courts treat issues mainly in response to petition.
If petitions aren't forwarded to the courts there is no reason for them get involved.
There is at least one case that touches on the matter of personal
recording. In Sony v Universal Studios (1984) the Supreme Court held
that the sale of VTR equipment did not constitute contributory
copyright infringement and thus Sony Corporation could continue,
legally, to distribute Betamax videotape recorders. Though this case
was not specifically about the home user and whether or not the home
user is infringing when she makes a recording of copyrighted
television programing the court's decision noted that such recording
may be non-infringing and protected by fair use.
However, the question you pose is somewhat different. In the case of a
typical peer-to-peer file sharing system the copy you make your copy
from would never be a lawfully acquired copy. The fact that the
copying you propose is done solely for personal use and that the
copies would not be distributed doesn't matter. Copies made from
anything other than a lawfully acquired copy can never be legal copies.
Though one might want to argue that the copy on a peer networked
computer is a personal copy, made lawfully from an original
commercially released recording, that copy is only a legal copy when
it's use is limited to only the individual who made the copy for her
own personal use. No other use (e.g. making it available to others on
a peer networked computer) of the copy would be allowable as a fair
use. The copy stored on the peer networked computer would be an
infringing copy.
Thanks for your interest in Tech Talk.
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