Hi John and list. I'm going to comment on several messages that I've seen on this topic.
First, John, I wonder if your direct boss is the owner of the station. If he is, the station may get into trouble if publishers find out he is allowing material sent to the station is being copied. This material is specificly for the use of the station. In fact, I'm not sure if the owner of the CD actually owns the music. With software, you are licensed to use the software. You don't own the copy you use, you just have a license for it. I'm not blaming you for copying the CD's. Just be aware that the station could be in legal trouble if investigated. As for using VCR's or tape recorders, this has been a debate that the publishers of material have had with people for years. I don't know the legal wording, but I believe that courts have ruled that so long as you use the material you obtain from over the air, you have the right to use it for your own private use. This also holds for albums you buy. If you decide to make a compilation CD for a friend, technicly you're breaking the law. I'm guilty of doing this myself. I'm not getting anything for what I do either, but that doesn't make what I do legal. As for recording material over a computer, there has been a product cease production precisely because of this, and it made many blind people mad. XM had a great device called a PCR. You'd hook the antenna to it, run a cable from it to either the line in jack of your sound card or stereo, and hook it up to your computer with a USB cable. The software that came with it displayed the channel you were on, as well as the title and artist of the song being played. Unfortunately, someone figured out how to convert the audio into labeled mp3 files. I say unfortunately, because the RIAA learned about this and threated to sue XM. The product no longer was made. I did get lucky and purchased one of these. It's not the most accessible piece of equipment with a screen reader, but you can view the title of the song that is being played, as well as easily switch channels by entering their number. Now for my comments on BARD, which I'll call NLS. First, it's not true that you have to buy a player to listen to NLS books. Your local library can provide you with a free player to play this content. It not only plays NLS content, but mp3 files, as well as some other standard audio file formats. It's true that you can't play things like books from Audible, but you can't beat the price of either the player or the books you can download. It's true that the books are in a protected form, but I personally don't have a problem with this. Finally, we could have limitless arguments on what publishers should get for their work, how they protect it, and ways to circumvent these protection schemes. In short, if someone copy protects something, someone will find a way to crack it. As for NLS, I think it's sad that it's limited to U.S. citizens, but I understand why. Have a good day, and don't work too hard. Kevin Minor kmi...@windstream.net To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: pc-audio-unsubscr...@pc-audio.org
