Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler MP3 SERVER

They could just as easily copy the CD you lend them as the MP3, so no. It isn't/shouldn't be illegal to lend it, the person doing to copying is the one breaking the law.

Now if you make a copy for your friend and give it to them, that's a different story.

To throw a little bit of extra info into this thread, under Canadian copyright laws, it is 100% legal to download mp3s, or to have them on your computer. In Canada, all blank media has a tax on it which is designed to compensate artists for their products that are copied. You are allowed to have copies of music, even if you don't own the original, as long as it is for personal use only. This law originally was designed with tapes in mind, but was recently ruled that it applied to mp3's as well.
So in Canada, downloading mp3s is totally legal, but uploading is not, as it breaks the personal use rule.

In reply to:

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The answer to all your questions is an obvious no. Movie rental stores exist legally, and they even make a profit from lending out movies.

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If I'm not mistaken... they buy bulk licenses from the movie industry don't they? It's not like they buy one copy of X-men and copy it, then lend it out. There are special contracts involved here.

I believe that is correct. Movies often (or used to) get released for the rental market before they were available retail.