COPYING CDS

---

One of the easiest and most common ways for people to increase their music collections is also the most anonymous: borrow a CD from a friend and copy it on your computer. Because most computers come with CD burners, and nearly every office-supply store sells blank CDs, empty CD cases, and precut blank CD cover labels, all you need to do is use a popular CD burner such as Easy Media Creator (http://www.roxio.com) or Nero (http://www.nero.com). Making a copy of a CD has never been easier.

Of course, no matter how many friends you may have, you probably don’t have access to all the CDs you want to copy. Many people turn to another music source: the public library. Besides offering books and magazines, many libraries also offer records, CDs, and videotapes. For example, the Phoenix Public Library’s online card catalog (http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org) lists several thousand CDs available for checkout, including some of the latest music, such as Outkast’s 2004 Grammy winner, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (see Figure 9-1).

Figure 9-1: The libraries in most large cities allow you to check out popular music CDs.

Most libraries in large cities allow CDs to be reserved online, or to be shipped from one branch to another, effectively letting users borrow any CD from any library in the city. Today’s libraries not only carry classics of jazz, opera, and classical music, but are surprisingly well stocked with popular music, as well.

Of course, borrowing and copying CDs does take time and patience. Many libraries don’t acquire a CD until it’s several months old, and sometimes you have to wait until someone else returns the CD you want. Despite these obstacles, borrowing from libraries is one of the most anonymous and risk-safe ways for people to increase their CD collections, although not without violating copyright in most cases.

Note

Note Libraries rarely used to keep records of their patrons’ loans, but the USA Patriot Act changed all that in 2001 (http://www.libraryprivacy.org); library records of their patrons’ borrowing habits are now open to the FBI upon request. After seeing the FBI’s warnings on DVDs for many years (and on CDs more recently), many people are understandably nervous.

---