Questions on Windows codecs and whats' legal

I am trying to find some answers and I have not been successful regarding what codecs come with Windows(Windows XP Pro and Home, Vista all versions and Win 7 all versions) and what is legal and what is not in the US. I know that people are capable of doing all kinds of things using all kinds of software but I am looking for what is 100% legal and allowed in the US. I would really appreciate it if you could provide me answers or any other places on the web that might have articles on the matter. Plus reps for helpful answers. Thanks.

1.) Are you legally allowed to create MP3s from your legally purchased retail music CDs in Windows for your own personal use?

2.) Are you legally allowed to listen to these MP3s on your Windows machine and other devices that you own?

3.) Is it true that when you buy Windows that part of the money goes to pay the codec creators and you get the rights to use these codecs?

4.) Are you legally allowed to watch DVDs on your PC with Windows?

5.) What codecs come with Windows or are legally down loadable from Microsoft?

 

1) Maybe, as long as you don't let other people listen to your creation. If you want to play the mp3 in a public place, you'll need to get permission from the creator.

2) Maybe, depending on the copyrights. E.g. you're not allowed to play DRM protected songs bought from itunes on any device other than your computer with itunes or an ipod. You cannot play it on any other mp3 player.

3) Yes. E.g. mp3, mpeg2..etc

4) Yes, if you have a leagally sourced codec without bypassing the region codes and other protection features.

5)nothing. Almost all legally downloable codec directly from Microsoft are already preloaded in your computer.

 

jackluo923, thanks for your response. I have some comments/questions to your answers below.

What do you mean by maybe? I am talking about the case where nobody would listen to the mp3 but the person who created the mp3 from the purchased CD. Also it is never going to be played in any public place. Just for the person who created it's own personal use.

I am not talking about any purchased mp3 from itunes are anywhere else. I am talking about mp3 that have been created from CDs that a person owns. What about in that case? What are the copyrights?

What do you mean when you say "legally sourced codec"?


Do you know any links that discuss this matter further? Thanks.

 

The answers to questions 1, 2 and 4 are "yes", but what does that have to do with downloading codecs? Windows can natively play CDs and DVDs without having to download a thing.

 

3. Same for some hardware if there are patents or whatever.

4. Your DVD drive has a DVD region like any other DVD player.

5. Microsoft doesn't make all the codecs. Which codecs aren't legal? There's open source stuff out there and that is legal. on the other hand there can be pirated codec software (if it isn't trial or freeware and you don't purchase a license) which would be the same as any other pirated software. That line is simple.

 

Thanks for your response Lithus. I am sorry if my question was confusing/worded improperly. I thought I had seen a codec pack that MS allows people to download off their site, so I assumed that certain codecs didn't come with Windows by default and that the user would need to download them.

Basically, I would like to know if a user is allowed legally to make mp3's of their CDs for only their own use, Listen to these Mp3s and watch DVDs. It looks like all these capabilities come with Windows and it is legal.

 

everything is legal that is for personal use and does not crack any copy protection. so you can do what you want with your cds as long as you do it for yourself, but you can't with your dvd's, as they are copy protected. watching them is licensed, so you can do that.

 

Hmm.... some DVDs don't have a copy protection and you can copy them over onto your HDD via Windows Explorer...

Don't ask me why...

 

obviously, as long as you don't break copy protection, you don't break a law. but still check the disk if it's written to not be allowed to do so.

quite often, they are not protected, if they're not from the big movie industry ones.

and here in Switzerland, so far, we are still allowed to break encodings and such for personal use *yay*

 

So Cds have no copy protection? When you rip a cd aren't you breaking copy protection?

 

some cd's do have. but official audio cds following the typical .. orange book? specs, they don't. cd's got created back in days before they thought it could be any problem.

but then came sony with its rootkit enabled cd (and before, quite some others with copy protections for cds).

interestingly, most of those protections got declared illegal around here => you can even break them.

and if you don't need to break them, it's legal anyways.

interestingly, any cd with copy protection on it, so far ripped perfectly well with any ripping program, including itunes. and they certainly don't break copy protection. copy protection on cd's was an afterthought and never really worked, as they have to be able to play on non-copyprotection-aware environments. and that, funnily, includes most pc's.

most copy protected cd's failed to run on my cdplayer. none failed to rip on the pc in legal ways

the content itself never was encrypted, it was just the disk having errors that should fail on a cdrom drive, but work on a cdplayer.


but warning, it depends on the country. in germany, it IS illegal to rip an audio cd, even while you don't break any copy protection. they created a law about digital copying cds.

 

If you bought the Audio CD and you rip it for personal use only and keep the mp3s as backup and nobody else listens to the music except you, how can that be illegal? I mean Windows Media Player lets you easily rip Audio CDs to any quality and the program is from Microsoft. I honestly don't see any problem with ripping your audio cds.

 

I think the problem is that some laws are outdated and no longer adequate with regards to the current usge by the peoplesof this world.

If you have an MP3 player and a computer - you want to listen to your CD on both... in some countries if you actually looked at the law you'd need to buy two CDs, as you have 2 copies of the MP3 - that's if you are allowed to make a personal copy in the first place...

I think in the UK copying music for personal use onto an MP3 player is theoretically illegal - yet everybody does it, and I don't think anybody was taken to yourt over it. (Provided the music comes from legal sources)

 

in germany, a digital copy of a music cd is illegal. or at least all software capable of doing it is.. or was.. no clue anymore, but they had huge issues because of it


and personally? what ever is for personal use, i do, even if illegal. i rip my dvds to my home server so i can watch it from the mediacenter. yes, it's technically illegal. but it's against my first law of why i don't do illegal stuff: illegal stuff hurts people.
this doesn't.
=> it isn't illegal in my sense.

well, actually, here in switzerland, it isn't even illegal to circumvent copy protections for personal use, so i'm save i don't do illegal stuff that hurts. companies, individuals, what ever.

 

Germany's politicians are worse than incompetent when it comes to digital "stuff"...
(and the group responsible for advising the Social Democrats in "digital issues" distanced themselves from the party too )
You can't take Germany as a serious example of sane laws regarding digial media.
(PS: I have a German ID card - and yes, I'd quite happilyhul abuse at the country, especially politicians)