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by bubblethink 1270 days ago
EULAs aren't worth the pixels they are printed on. All EULAs can be ignored until there is an established precedent ruled on by courts.
3 comments

Yes, but the concern is not a legal one, it is a practical one.

"You have been found in violation of our EULA and we have therefore permanently deleted your account. Please check our support page at <404> for more information." - Any Service, to Any User.

Now what, for Any User? Hope you're famous enough to raise a stink on Twitter to get your account back? Pay $1B in legal costs to sue them?

Except that, once there is an established precedent, it's too late to decide that you'd better not ignore it.
It's extremely unlikely that there will be any suit based on the mere act of making your own copy. All prior cases deal with distribution.
There already has been. The relevant case law is LLC v ReDigi:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Records,_LLC_v._ReDigi....

> On March 30, 2013, Judge Richard J. Sullivan ruled in favor of Capitol Records, explaining that the transfer of digital data from one storage medium to another constituted a violation of copyright, because the copy was ultimately an unauthorized reproduction, and therefore outside of the protection of the first-sale doctrine

>claimed copyright infringement against ReDigi, a service that allows resale of digital music tracks originally purchased from the iTunes Store

AKA distribution. Without distribution, the owner cannot claim damages. So making your own copy for your own use does not fall under this.

Yeah. That’s the reason for DJs there is a license for “working copy” (bastard SIAE), especially if you’re downloading digitally and copying it to usb disk. If you are playing vinyl, they can suck my tonearm!
You need to proactively write your congressman (or local country equivalent) to make personal copies of media legal. Ideally make region locking illegal, and a dozen other things I can't remember off hand, but we have all been subject too at times.