Legal question
 

So music with DRM has been surfacing which is inherently annoying. "cracking" this DRM and making a digital copy is illegal however you can legally make an "analog copy" using such programs as analogwhole that basically record the music being played over the computer. Do you now own this music for personal use much like if you recorded a song off the radio with a cassette? Or do you only have rights to this music for as long as the license on the DRM'd music is valid?

Good question. I dunno. I've used Audacity to record my sound card's output before, I would be interested to see if you could legally record online radio broadcasts, etc.

if anyone is interested, google "the analog hole"

If you bought the cd you are allowed to make one analog copy for your personal use. If you record a song off the radio you can also use that one copy for your personal use, but cant sell it, trade it, or play it publicly.

So in this scenario - say you have a subscription to a music service that has DRM but you haven't purchased any of the music - only pay a monthly fee? Are these songs's you've transcoded by analog means yours forever for personal use?

yes.

this is the center of the argument of the analog hole. no one wants to admit to forever, and should something happen to your computer and the hard drive, in its entirety, were to fall into other hands, then does the license transfer to the new owner, or is he free to distribute, sell, trade or otherwise make copies of the "found" music? just trying to throw a wrench into the hole... :mrgreen: