Is non-profit, private tape trading illegal?
Well we do know non-profit tape collecting is in fact LEGAL (as stated with the Sony Decision) but there is nothing that says non-profit tape trading is illegal. Research shows that there has never been a supreme court decision concerning non-profit tape trading, and there are no specific laws against it. This may change if this type of case makes it to the Supreme Court without being thrown out beforehand. Also are the copyright holders willing to go that far? Probably not, it would cost a lot of time and money for something that doesn’t affect them that much. Many copyright lawyers would consider tape trading a copyright infringement, but this again would have to be debated in the courts (if it went that far). The FBI does have the power to make examples to discourage others, but to my knowledge this has yet to happen (I may be wrong though) Well that argument may go on forever, but at least we know some legal FACTS.
