Good news on the vinyl to CD front!

The simple solution from EMI? On the label of the CD put a copyright notice identical to that on the original LP label - eg. "©1967 Parlophone".

Strikes me that this might not be a bad thing to do anyway, even with 78's. But it is a pretty neat solution - even neater than it seems in some ways, because the copyright collection agencies won't like it one bit - they can't make any money out of it!

Ok, I got a question for you all:
I bought a lot of original (Takt, Poker, etc - brought from Western Europe) cassettes between 1990 and 1996, but until 1996 here in Romania there was no copyright law (some kind of legal piracy?).
Of course, those cassettes sound worse as time goes by and I want to have those songs back in digital format, heck - I grew up with those!
Now, can I download the songs from the Internet or rip friends' CD and not be considered piracy?
On the one hand - I've already paid for that music, and it was more than a blank cassette costed.
On the other hand - I'm not quite sure the money didn't go to the record companies (but does this really need matters to me?... I paid!). I'm saying that I'm not sure because after 1996 cassettes' price really went up preeetty high.
So which one is it?

... I decided I really couldn't be bothered to get written confirmation from the Sony lawyer - I'd spoken to enough people there for them to know and be able to corroborate my request, and I know for a fact that it also exists on internal Sony e-mails.

Andrew, you need to have your contact with Sony in writing - your own.  If you haven't done so already, write down what dates you spoke to Sony, the phone number(s) used, the names of person(s) you spoke with, and what your conversation(s) covered in general.  Also note any specific agreements you reached with Sony folks over the phone.

Don't rely on internal Sony e-mails.  Your own notes will demonstrate the seriousness of your own desire to do the right thing if you are ever called to account.

The simple solution from EMI? On the label of the CD put a copyright notice identical to that on the original LP label - eg.  "©1967 Parlophone". (That's the mono release, of course, Beetle! )

Good trick - wish I'd thought of doing that.  I think I might do it from now on though.

... I decided I really couldn't be bothered to get written confirmation from the Sony lawyer - I'd spoken to enough people there for them to know and be able to corroborate my request, and I know for a fact that it also exists on internal Sony e-mails.

Andrew, you need to have your contact with Sony in writing - your own.  If you haven't done so already, write down what dates you spoke to Sony, the phone number(s) used, the names of person(s) you spoke with, and what your conversation(s) covered in general.  Also note any specific agreements you reached with Sony folks over the phone.

Don't rely on internal Sony e-mails.  Your own notes will demonstrate the seriousness of your own desire to do the right thing if you are ever called to account.

Given the nature of the phone calls I've had with all of the major record companies I have no fears or worries. I've also had a verbal apology from the head of the BPI's anti-piracy unit over the way they pursued me in the first place. I'm no longer living in fear!

The truth is, the record companies themselves really aren't interested - which is what I'd always imagined to be the case. It was only because someone at the BPI got a bee in their bonnet that I was investigated. They've spent the record companies' money chasing someone doing something the record companies aren't worried about and have all been happy to help with. Case closed...

The simple solution from EMI? On the label of the CD put a copyright notice identical to that on the original LP label - eg.  "©1967 Parlophone". (That's the mono release, of course, Beetle! )

Good trick - wish I'd thought of doing that.  I think I might do it from now on though.

The thinking was to show that the audio was still in copyright and the copyright holder is as shown based on the dates as shown. Thus making copies of the CD is in contravention of the copyright held in that recording by the record company (and not by me or my company). He wasn't worried about it appearing on packaging, just on the disc itself.

I've also switched to putting it on all transfers of copyright material, regardless of the record company involved, and suggest it's a wise move for anyone working in this field.

Ok, I got a question for you all:
I bought a lot of original (Takt, Poker, etc - brought from Western Europe) cassettes between 1990 and 1996, but until 1996 here in Romania there was no copyright law (some kind of legal piracy?).
Of course, those cassettes sound worse as time goes by and I want to have those songs back in digital format, heck - I grew up with those!
Now, can I download the songs from the Internet or rip friends' CD and not be considered piracy?
On the one hand - I've already paid for that music, and it was more than a blank cassette costed.
On the other hand - I'm not quite sure the money didn't go to the record companies (but does this really need matters to me?... I paid!). I'm saying that I'm not sure because after 1996 cassettes' price really went up preeetty high.
So which one is it?

If Romania is now a signatory to the Berne Convention on copyright - which is the standard international copyright agreement and so I'm pretty sure it is - then at a stroke I imagine all your tapes are technically illegal pirate copies. But whether they are or not (and any sane government would allow an amnesty on this rather than prosecute everyone in the country!) they still contain copyrighted material and making further copies of these is against the law.

But you raise the question of obtaining further copies of these tracks by illegal means. Just because you bought a track on one medium you don't have the right to get a second copy from any other medium. Imagine if it was - when CD came out it would have been possible to replace your entire LP collection on CD for next to nothing! No, if you want legal copies of these songs you'll have to pay for legitimate copies...

Just because you bought a track on one medium you don't have the right to get a second copy from any other medium.

Aha, that's the exact info I wanted to know! Thanks man!
I had even bought a small book with the copyright law at the time, but seems like I've lost it...

You should have made a copy of it, DJ Lyon.....

But I did have recorded some of the tapes into the computer. Of couse, not everything, but special songs (music for my soul) did make it into the... "digital world"

Oh, the copyright book!. Silly me, I though you meant the tapes

Oh, the copyright book!. Silly me, I though you meant the tapes

Irony really doesn't work very well in print! Funny - I thought that ozpeter knew that...

But I wasn't ironic at all! I realyl thought he meant the tapes, and after I posted the first time I re-read the posts and put together last phrase from my post and his post - which made better sense, so I made the second post.
I was thinking about the tapes, 'cause that's what bothers me, not the copyright book...

But I wasn't ironic at all!

I know you weren't - it was Peter who was being mildly ironic when he suggested that pehaps you should have made a copy of the book!

Even trying to explain why irony doesn't work is difficult now!!! It really is very subtle, and so easy to miss... No, I am not being ironic...

This is all Adobe's fault!!  You see, if I'd quoted what I was being ironic about, none of the confusion would have happened, but I couldn't remember the quoting system here (or was too lazy to raise my eyes fractionally to the button, ok....) as compared with there - so didn't.

I had even bought a small book with the copyright law at the time, but seems like I've lost it...

See, I can do it if I try.