Obama's Cheesy Gift Might Violate Copyright Law

[Vincent Ferrari]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/04/first-sale-president-obama-and-queen-england' target='_blank'>http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/0...d-queen-england</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"President Obama reportedly gave an iPod, loaded with 40 show tunes, to England's Queen Elizabeth II as a gift. Did he violate the law when he did so? You know your copyright laws are broken when there is no easy answer to this question. Traditionally, it has been the job of the "first sale" doctrine to enable gift giving -- that's the provision of copyright law that entitles the owner of a CD, book, or other copyrighted work, to give it away (or resell it, for that matter), notwithstanding the copyright owner's exclusive right of distribution. In the digital era, however, first sale has been under siege, with copyright owners (and even the Copyright Office) arguing that it has no place in a world where "ownership" has been replaced by "licenses" and hand-to-hand exchanges have been replaced by computer-mediated exchanges that necessarily make copies."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1239072283.usr18053.jpg" /></p><p>If the RIAA and their ilk wonder why people pirate stuff, they can look no further than the mirror.&nbsp; It's unlikely that President Obama would be charged with anything, obviously, but we aren't all President Obama.&nbsp; There's a very informative post from the EFF linked here, so take a look and you'll be left with the same impression I was: I have no idea if what he did was legal, or not.&nbsp; How hard does this crap really need to be?</p>

[doogald]

Oh, it would be so awesome if somebody raised copyright violations over this, because it's about time these stupid laws were clarified, once and for all.

So long as the President's Office purchased any CDs that contained this material, and set the purchases aside, I think copyright issues are moot. Rather than imagining the executive office buying these tunes via iTunes, I suspect that this is actually what they did - copied the songs from a physical CD, or set of CDs.

[Sven Johannsen]

So long as the President's Office purchased any CDs that contained this material, and set the purchases aside, I think copyright issues are moot. Rather than imagining the executive office buying these tunes via iTunes, I suspect that this is actually what they did - copied the songs from a physical CD, or set of CDs.

I would think then that he would have had to supply the original CDs as well as the 'rips' on the device. If his daughters ran across them and played them after he gave copies away, the RIAA should send their goons, er, lawyers, in and prosecute the parents as they have in the past.

[doogald]

I would think then that he would have had to supply the original CDs as well as the 'rips' on the device. If his daughters ran across them and played them after he gave copies away, the RIAA should send their goons, er, lawyers, in and prosecute the parents as they have in the past.

I would think that if the CDs were held aside (as I originally said) and provided to the UK government if they requested them, and not used for any other purpose, it should be ok.

This gift was not a personal gift from Barack Obama to the Queen, by the way; it was a gift from the office of the President to the Sovereign. I have to think that Obama's daughters do not poke around any of the offices of the executive without supervision.

[Jason Dunn]

I would think then that he would have had to supply the original CDs as well as the 'rips' on the device.

Yeah, exactly. The physical CDs would have to go with the gift for this to be on the up-and-up. This isn't hard to figure out at all: treat digital media files like they're physical objects and copyright makes sense.

If you give someone an iPod loaded up with tracks, you shouldn't keep a copy of those tracks on your computer - they belong on the iPod and they belond to that person now. Although doesn't Apple assume everyone is a thief and nuke iPods on first sync when creating a partnership? I tried to load up an iPod I gave my dad years ago with music from his own CD collection, and when he did the first sync it nuked all the music on it. That sucked.

[Sven Johannsen]

This gift was not a personal gift from Barack Obama to the Queen, by the way; it was a gift from the office of the President to the Sovereign.Oh, sorry, forgot that government entities are exempt from their own laws.