Zines, Mixed CDs, and Copyrights

[Mab]

Hi everyone,

Quick question...

I want to do a zine about songs that have been particularly significant in my life and why, and I thought it would be cool to include a free mixed CD with all the songs on it along with the zine. Is this copyright infringement?

[St. Joshua Norton Press]

In general, in the United States unless whatever use you are doing falls under the fair use provisions of copyright law, you can not make or distribute copies of copyrighted works. Whether or not you charge for or profit from the copies has nothing to do with it. The Copyright Office has all kinds of info on that.

I find copyright, patent and trademark law in the United States particularly odious, screwed up beyond any hope of being good, and generally harmful to society. The RIAA and MPAA are a particularly nasty set of folks, and they can afford way better lawyers than I can.

I've made mix cds and given them to friends, and not worried about it. I've never distributed one as part of a zine, but I've gotten them as part of a zine. While I hate that I have to say this, I'd say don't worry about it, not because you're in the `right' in any way but rather because you're probably not enough of a target to worry. I think that sucks, but that appears to be the way things are.

[Robert]

Unfortunately, as others have pointed out, it would almost certainly be illegal, unless you had permission from the artists involved. If it's being sold (even as a "free" gift with your zine) that puts you into the commercial category so if the RIAA finds out they're more likely to prosecute.

One alternative would be to use http://8tracks.com/ to put your mix online. It's free to use, they let you upload whatever songs you like, and they have an "online radio" license so it's all legal -- and the bands even get paid royalties.

[amandaaaa]

if you're worried, you could always just use songs that are free. lots of bands put their songs online on myspace, last.fm, purevolume, etc for people to download.