iPod account limit

Erica, in a world where music industry execs considering ripping CDs you own for personal use thievery, I would consider gifting DRMed music definitely illegal. That said, insane would be a kind word to describe the aforementioned exec's stance on this. *shrugs* I usually do what I want with things I own, and I don't use more than 1 iTunes account, so I think I'm good.

My question to any lawyers out there is whether it's legal to gift un-DRMed MP3s to your kids and let them "take' the music with them. Thoughts?

Sheesh. No, it's probably not legal, but who cares?!!!??
It's not like anyone would fid out and/or care.

I've ripped CDs and copied them for friends. What's different about D/L-ed music?

I have a thought:
F*** the RIAA. I sit in eager anticipation of the day when the record labels realize the RIAA is hurting them (and the customer) and just leaves them to die.

Not an attorney here, but I used to play one on TV...

I believe the gifting of non-DRM music would be entirely legal as long as only the gift recipient maintained copies on their computer, UNLESS of course the licensing agreement you clicked "yes" on when purchasing said it was for your own use only and you agreed to those terms.

Even so, a basic argument that you bought the song, downloaded it, gave a copy to your child and then deleted the copies on your machine might hold water. It's like software licensing, you can install it on however many machines you like as long as no two machines are using it at the same time.

This isn't a news site; it's a blog. Anything the editors think is of interest is fair game. And I didn't know about this account limit either.

Cheers Erica! We still like you! Really! Yeah! Oh yeah! Uh-huh!

*MWAH!* *MWAH!*

Y'know, it may be old news, but I've never heard of it. Guys, don't go hating on Erica, because some of us may not know this or never know it at all. Certainly news to me, and I've owned five ipods since the 3rd gen model.

@ EricaSucks: That was pretty uncalled for, dude.

Legal, probably not. Remember that un-DRMing is considered against the law. According to the RIAA, even ripping your own legally-purchased CDs is against the law.

Ethical and fair? Probably.

Would it stand up in court? Well... before the early October jury decision in the case of Jammie Thomas v. RIAA, I'd say it probably would. But even though it was regarding file sharing, that case set bad precedence for just about anyone who the RIAA decides to point a finger at.

Let's just say that at this point the industry is still concerned with file sharers. Stripping DRM so your child can keep listening to a legally-purchased track is not, at this time, going to get you sued.

Keep in mind that if you strip the DRM from a song, you should delete the original protected track. You should never have two copies when you only paid for one.

Since when has TUAW be populated by a bunch of nagging assholes? Seems like on every one of Erica's posts, I read comments bitching about it not being "news". Guess what? This isn't a news site morons, it's a blog. The writers can write about whatever the hell they want, and you people can just not read the articles you don't like, and more importantly not keep checking TUAW every 5 minutes about to shit your pants waiting for a new post.

Erica, these commenters have been deliberately bad in hopes that you'll put on the Catwoman suit and dispense spankings.

Yeah sure, it'd old news- but get a grip ya bunch of crybabies.

Oh, and Erica, while you're in the Catwoman suit...

What's iTunes ?