The Jig is up Itunes! Us Government training materials say all music downloads are illegal.

[Kurska]

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/26/1956201/US-Fed-Gov-Says-All-Music-Downloads-Are-Theft


""Nearly all US government employees and contractors are subject to mandatory annual information security briefings. This year the official briefing flatly states that all downloaded music is stolen. The occasionally breathless tone of the briefing and the various minor errors contained therein are funny but the real eye-opener is a 'secure the building' exercise where employees stumble across security problems and resolve them. According to the material, the correct response to an employee who is downloading music is to shout 'That's stealing!' No mention is made of more-free licenses, public domain works, or any other legitimate download. If this were a single agency or department that had made a mistake in their training material it might not be so shocking. But this is a government-wide training package that's being absorbed by hundreds of thousands of federal employees, both civilian and military. If you see a co-worker downloading music, they're stealing. Period. Who woulda thunk it? Somebody should mirror this. Who wants to bet that copies will become hard to find if clued-in technogeeks take notice and start making noise?""

Original source http://iase.disa.mil/eta/iaav7-3/iaa/index.html

[ddeclue]

1. Are you series? This is hugh!1111

:rofl:

[Kurska]

2. According to the material, the correct response to an employee who is downloading music is to shout

Remember, just say no kids.

[tularetom]

3. Technically you're stealing from the taxpayers if you download during working hours

and at a government owned computer.

As a taxpayer I guess I should be outraged but I don't really give a shit.

[Hugabear]

4. It would be funny if courts weren't awarding ridiculous fines for downloading songs

There have been a few cases where judges have awarded rather exorbitant penalties for individuals caught downloading a couple of songs illegally. There have even been cases where grandparents have been held liable for songs they didn't even download.

Also, contrary to popular belief, there is NO 'fair-use' clause. Many people mistakenly believe that you can use up to 30 seconds of copyrighted music before you have to start paying. I used to believe this myself, because I'd always been told that. But that's not the case. People have been penalized for using a mere two notes of copyrighted music.

[Occulus]

5. "contrary to popular belief, there is NO 'fair-use' clause."

Orly?

One of the rights accorded to the owner of copyright is the right to reproduce or to authorize others to reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords. This right is subject to certain limitations found in sections 107 through 118 of the copyright law (title 17, U. S. Code). One of the more important limitations is the doctrine of “fair use.” The doctrine of fair use has developed through a substantial number of court decisions over the years and has been codified in section 107 of the copyright law.

Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair:

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
2. The nature of the copyrighted work
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work

[Hugabear]

6. My bad - there is a 'fair use' clause, but it's not what people think

Like I said, many people think that 'fair use' allows you to use a portion of copyrighted material. It really depends on the case, but there is no guaranteed 'fair use' for people to use copyrighted stuff.

http://www.ivanhoffman.com/fairusemusic.html

<snip>
In Bridgeport Music, Inc. et. al. vs. Dimension Films et. al., the Court found that the use of 3 notes, lasting 2 seconds, from a sound recording called “Get Off Your Ass and Jam” (“Get Off” in the opinion) in the track called “100 Miles and Runnin” (“100 Miles” in the opinion) contained in the sound track of a motion picture called “I Got the Hook Up” (“Hook Up” in the opinion) was not fair use.
<snip>