Legal Definitions - pirate recording

A pirate recording refers to an unauthorized copy of a sound recording that is protected by copyright. This means that the audio content – whether it's music, a podcast, an audiobook, or any other recorded sound – has been duplicated without the express permission of the original copyright holder. These unauthorized copies can take many forms, from physical discs to digital files shared across the internet. This term is sometimes also known as a bootleg recording.

Here are some examples to illustrate this concept:

• Imagine a street vendor selling what appear to be brand-new music CDs of a popular band's latest album for a fraction of the retail price. Upon closer inspection, the packaging might look slightly off, or the sound quality could be inferior. If these CDs were produced by copying the band's official, copyrighted album without permission from the record label or artists, they would be considered pirate recordings. The vendor is distributing unauthorized duplicates of the protected sound recording.

• Consider a website that offers a vast library of recently released audiobooks for free download. The site did not license these audiobooks from the publishers or authors, but instead acquired copies of the copyrighted recordings and made them available to its users. Each downloadable audiobook file on this site represents a pirate recording because it is an unauthorized digital duplication of a sound recording protected by copyright, distributed without the rights holder's consent.

• A user subscribes to an exclusive online streaming service that features original music albums. The user then employs specialized software to "rip" the audio from these albums, creating high-quality digital files. Subsequently, they upload these files to a peer-to-peer file-sharing network, allowing others to download the music without paying for the streaming service or purchasing the album. These shared digital files are pirate recordings because they are unauthorized copies of the copyrighted sound recordings, distributed without the permission of the artists or the streaming service that holds the rights.