Hello Lang, Monday, December 2, 2002, you wrote: LT> But *strictly* (ie legally) speaking burning an entire CD is not LT> theft for the following reasons: (1) With one exception, copyright LT> law is civil while theft falls under criminal law. Any copyright LT> violation is statutorily not theft but open to civil remedies. The LT> one exception is criminal copyright infringement which requires a LT> certain minimum (I think it's currently $2500) but that is also LT> not theft. (2) Copyright is federal law while theft is state law LT> so there's no overlap. Bravo! Great statement. LT> Whether unauthorized burning is morally stealing, of course, is a LT> different question. Absolutely agree. Law by itself, by the way, cannot be considered as the last right argument. In the country I lived, for example, law doesn't support foreign publishers and therefor local companies can print copies of CDs "legally". However, law says that artist's royalties should be paid. Several years ago the market was full with pirated CDs which was stated as the violation of both international and local laws. Now pirates are paying royalties to the federal agency of authors' rights, which supposed to redirect the money to the artists. The CDs are called "licensed" and they are absolutely legal by the country's law. The worst thing about the situation is that majors have their branches in the country now and more or less protected by law as local publishers. But the independents are not protected at all. So here is the question: does this law make the situation with "pirated" music any good? I think, this question is rhetoric and the answer is trivial. -- Best regards, Peter Gannushkin e-mail: shkin@shkin.com URL: http://www.downtownmusic.net/