Vote

I make copies from cd to cassette (eeewww) for a few friends, but that is it. I do not have a cd recorder and can not stand the sound of casette

There is always a way around it. Plenty clever folk out there who will find a way of defeating it as soon as any new "method" is launched. Make music cheap and most will pay.

I record a tape to listen to in the car

At the moment the issue of digital copyright protection rarely affects me. I fear, however, that if the record industry bosses and the DVD forum get their way then this issue will affect every consumer of high quality digital hardware in a very profound way. The talk of having to encrypt the digital data stream coming out of an SACD or DVD-Audio player or possibly making such a datastream unavailable above 48 / 16 resolution would very seriously hit us enthusiasts who would like to buy a basic DVD-Audio player today and upgrade it with an outboard DAC or a digital equalizer like the Z-Systems RDP-1 product. The dreadful S/PDIF digital output has given digital audio enough problems without introducing more junk onto the datastream. It is about time the consumers reminded the hardware manufacturers and record companies of a single fact. They only exist due to you, the consumer, being prepared to buy their new product. If the product they provide doesn't do what we want it to do, we will not buy and we will break all of their marketing plans. It's about time these companies remembered who was important and who put them where they are today. Start making consumer orientated products which give us maximum performance at the nest price and we will buy. If you keep looking after your own interests and then thinking about the consumer (as has happened with DVD and the regional encoding debacle) then the consumers who are able to afford your products will stay away in droves until you give us what we want. Let's all decide here and now that invasive copyright protection schemes that get in the way of maximum system performance will break ANY new product and see to it we do break it. Voting with our wallets is the only language these people understand.

Recordings never sound as good as the original medium off which they are recorded . . . which often isn't that good in itself, so never!

The only time I make copies of music is for playing tapes in my vehicle for long trips. I make several tapes at one sitting and don't repeat the process for several years.

Tapes for the car or walkman used to be important. Now, CD's or radio are usually my first choice.

I make a few CDR's every now and then, but have never had a problem in the transfer

Most of the recordings have enough flaws in them already . . . no need to add more.

20 years ago I almost never listened to classical music. Then I bought a tape recorder and visited the local library, where I could take home records to copy. The pop records invariably were scratched within weeks of purchase because of the heavy use by young people. However, I found that many classical recordings were in good shape and make excellent copies. I started listening to more and more classical. Then CD players came along and I found that playing CDs was so much more convenient that I started purchasing CDs. I now have a collection of 500 CDs of classical music that I would never have purchased if I hadn't started copying music for free from the library years ago. I think that the music industry should encourage at least a certain amount of copying. It increases interest and appreciation of what they have to offer. And not every copy is a lost sale. Many things that I copied I would not buy either then or now. To protect sales, record companies need to offer value-added extras such as colorful booklets containing pictures and information about the music and collectible memorabilia. Copy-protection schemes are just going to alienate the public.

I think all this copyright stuff is self-defeating. Theoretically, DVD offers the potential for better sound. Yet most DVDs downsample their digital output, throwing away this advantage. Anyway, what is the music industry in fear of? That we make a copy of the music (or video) for our mountain cabin or car? They claim to be hurt so badly by all that pirating; why do they never do anything that will actually prevent the LARGE-SCALE PIRATES from going on with their trade? These guys will esily crack any form of copy-protection applied. Why is it always poor old Joe Public who is being asked to cough up more money and accept less convenience in order to line the coffers of the large companies? Good thing I'm an analog addict, only buy records, and do my copying to analog tape. All this totally passes me by, and my music sounds better, too, than all that digital stuff. Than God for small mercies . . .

Mostly compilations from lp's or borrowed cd's on a Sony MDSJB-920 minidisc recorder (a great machine).

I have a CD player at home, in the car, and at work. I have no need to copy. I stopped copying when I stopped listening to cassettes.

I make dat back up copies of hard to find cd's. I also make compilation dats' of my favorite songs. Essentially, my dat machine is used the same as I once used my Nak cassette.

Used to make tapes for the car. The need is gone now that I have a CD player in the car. Even then, I find myself listening to the radio more often then not. I don't like paying an extra tax for blank material. It's like being convicted of a crime before it's commited.

I copy CDs to minidisk to listen to in a portable device.

I copy music as little as I can---my father was a musician, and every time somebody copies his CD to a tape instead of buying the original, my mother gets a few cents less of money that is helping to see three of my siblings through school. I wish some people who cheerfully build tape or MD libraries would reflect on that.

I do make some cassettes, but having purchased over a thousand recordings I don't feel any guilt, particularly as they are for my car.

These people are paranoid! Nobody I know pirates music because it's wrong. The record companies are wrong in assuming that everyone is a crook.

The only reason I ever made copies was for my car or to preserve an LP. The last time my home tape deck broke (which was 10 years ago) I did not open it to fix it. I opened the trash can instead. The best part of that is that I must listen to the radio. I'm exposed to much more new music (Portland, OR has a great jazz station), and CDs don't wear out.

I use my DAT recorder only for private recordings. I used to record radio concerts on cassette tape, but I got tired of the bad audio quality, the fuss to keep the tapes in order and to locate the music on the tapes, so I have stopped. CD, LP, and 78 orginals are much better than copies.

The way it affects audiophiles the most is simple. We would like a true high-end copy of the best available technology for personal, non-pirated use. Just as recordable CD is only slightly better than metal tapes, I suspect home-recordable DVD, SuperDisc, or whatever is doomed by the hatchet of RIAA. Rather than realize what a boon it would be to sales, we get stonewalled by a blend of paranoia and greed and plain stupidity. The pirates are going to pirate; the kids who love this stuff want cheap, not quality. Those of us willing to spend the dollars still are not allowed to enjoy serious tuneage for personal retrieval in our own "soundtracks" (to steal from Robert Baird).

I can not imagine why a consumer should worry about copy protection; if you want to make a copy, you always find a way. And if you do not want to make a copy, it does not matter.

CDs are too easily scratched to risk taking the original "on the go"; for my boom box, portable, or car, my CD burner is indispensable. The best use of a burner by far, though, is making a custom audition CD. I can now listen to my favorite audition tracks uninterrupted for maxiumum enjoyment and concentration.

Who has time to do any copying of copyrighted material. The majority of my listening would be considered background, while doing something else.

Let's put it this way. How many married people over the age of 25 spend time copying music? Very few. And they have the most purchasing power. Furthermore, how many college-educated married people over 25 buy over 20 CDs a year? Very few. Music enthusiasts will alway remain a niche market. I do not see why the music industry is so worried about copyright issues, especially in regards to MP3. I mean, really, how many married 40-somethings are going to spend 6 hours or more downloading an album's worth of songs when they do not know the quality of the material? And when will they find time to play it back?

I make tapes for the car for trips and my son makes tapes for his Walkman.

I used to make tapes for the car, but no more. Once in a blue moon, I would record a live concert on radio. It became so infrequent, that I recently sold my Nakamichi tape deck!

As a budding engineer, hobbiest recorder, and live music collector (NOT bootlegs), I am constantly making copies of copyrighted material for noncommercial purposes. I never make a profit and never plan to---it's all about the music. That's where the various associations that are digiparanoid go wrong. Bootleggers don't care if they have to go D-A-D to make a copy of an SCMS recording. The only people you hurt are the fans, who are legitimately paying for the right.

Very rarely I will transfer CDs or LPs to cassette tape for use in the car, or make mix tapes. I don't do any digital to digital recording.