> In the USA it is forbidden to make copies of ones personal Tapes/CDs etc.
> even for personnal use. In Germany you are allowed to do so, as by buying
> the Product (e.g. Video Tape) it gets yous and you may legally
> make a back
> up and use it instead of the origial.
>
I wouldn't count on that lasting too long. Didn't HP just get their butts
kicked in court (in Germany) over that? They had to pay a bunch of money to
someone, probably the Recording Industry Association of Germany or whatever
the equiv is over there, to cover the cost of all the CDs people have ripped
off using HP's cd recorders. Here in Canada they put a tax on blank
recordable media (CDRs and RWs - there's been one on cassettes forever) last
year to pre-emptively reimburse the recording industry for all the music
being ripped off (though I don't see why the recording industry should get
any money for me burning pictures of my cats to disc). Anyway, as per your
original point, it's not actually illegal (AFAIK) in the US to make personal
copies - it's the "giving them to all your friends and also complete
strangers on Napster" part they don't approve of. :-)
Eaon
