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Here's where this gets fun, Pat.

Eddie calls Pat and says "Hey I have a gig in 3 weeks and need a guitar player. I am going to send you a CD of the stuff we will need to learn. Nothing major. It's a themed "British Invasion" party we will be playing. Some Beatles, some Stones, some Herman's Hermits, some Freddy and the Dreamers, a couple by the Moody Blues, Peter and Gordon..."

By the letter of the law as you described it, I would be breaking the law by sending you a CD with the 40 songs we need to learn for the gig.




Yeah, it DOES get interesting. If you hand me the CD at band practice its technically illegal, but if nobody is aware of the transaction there would be very little (if any) risk of prosecution.

But if you MAIL it to me, it could be a federal offense on top of the copyright infringement.

But even then IMO there's very little risk of individuals without deep pockets being targeted for prosecution (unless they were already watching you for some other reason, in which case they might use it just to get you in custody)

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Now that brings up the question... HOW do I get the music to you? By the letter of the law, am I required to go out and buy you a copy of Meet The Beatles, Help, Rubber Soul, Sgt Pepper..... and then Sticky Fingers, Get Your Ya Ya's Out.... buy a copy of every CD from which songs are plucked?




IMO, that's a moot question because these guys aren't interested in small potatoes. But a company like PGMusic is a different story, and that's why we should diligently protect their best interests


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If that is the case, every cover band in the USA is guilty because songs get passed around for learning purposes many times every day.




yep, but small potatoes don't get much attention. Even in the peer to peer prosecutions, the only people who got singled out were those who had thousands of songs on their computers for anybody to snag

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Now, let's go one further because I like to get ridiculous and look at every possible scenario.

What if the show is all MY music? Would the players I recruit have to buy my CD to learn it and play it?





if it's your music and you own all the rights to it you can distribute it any way you want. How can you steal from yourself? WHo would press charges?