I don’t pay attention to Emmys or Oscars or Tonys or speed limit signs or calories like some of you out there, so you won’t be seeing any report about them from me.

But something I haven’t blogged about yet but is pretty important to me is the Celtic Woman series.

I love these DVD’s!

The gist is - five beautiful and talented women (6 in the second DVD) get together with a supporting choir and a full orchestra and perform some amazing songs.  One of them is a fiery fiddler and the rest are powerful vocalists.  Some of the songs just send chills through you with how good they are and the punch they deliver to your soul.

There are two shows that they’ve performed, and both have been featured on PBS.  You may have caught them once or twice during their pledge drives.

Celtic Woman actually has a touring show, and I was fortunate enough to catch them in San Antonio in the past year, and boy, what a show.  By that time, I had only known about and seen the first DVD, so the event pleasantly surprised me with some new songs, some of which showed up on the second DVD.

It looks like YouTube has several postings online (and I’m unsure of their legality, given that this would presumably be copyrighted material).  My favorite singer is Lisa, and she’s featured in this piece here called “The Voice”.

Lisa also has her own website (UPDATE: seems someone snagged her domain name and made it a parked site; oh well.  Try her profile at Celticwoman.com or her Wiki entry) and I have one of her solo CD’s.  So beautiful, so talented, with a voice to curl up in.

Other favorites of mine:

• Lisa singing Caledonia
• Lisa singing May It Be from Lord Of The Rings
• The whole group singing “Beyond the Sea” - wonderful rendition of this classic song!
• Máiréad playing The Butterfly - violin solo.  Starts off slow and then simply rocks the house.
• Hayley (new addition for second DVD) singing Scarborough Fair.  Hayley kinda looks like Jenna Fisher to me.  This version of this song is haunting and her voice is so incredible.
• Si Do Mhaimeo I (Wealthy Widow) by Meav.  I’ve never heard gibberish sound so good.

And what is probably my favoritest song at the moment: Dulaman from the second DVD.

I wish I could get the English translation of the words, tho.  The flute solos are awe-inspiring.

Around the house, we frequently pop the DVD in, turn off the TV and just turn up the sound.  Since our DVD player auto-plays the default track on the DVD (movie, whatever), it works out well.

Question for you:

I own these DVD’s and I love the music.  I also own the CD soundtrack from the first DVD.  However, the music on the soundtrack CD is slightly different than the DVD, and it’s in a different order.  So I rip the music OFF of the DVD onto my mp3 player and to make my own CD.  I’ve done the same with Xanadu - the soundtrack music is so different than the music *in the movie*, and I want to listen to the movie.

Is that wrong or illegal?

And if you “know” one way or the other, is it just something you feel should be right, or do you actually know the law?  Could I technically get busted for making my own copies of my own DVD’s, even though it’s in a different format?

First!
Ahem, I mean… first I want to say I love Celtic Women. I’ve got a big Irish heritage thing goin’ on and I really get into these gals.
On the music ripping? Personally, I think if you have bought the music and are making a copy for personal use it should be okay. My opinion. Take it for what its worth…

Sue, I’m not sure if I have Irish going on or not - I’m 50% Norweigian tho. I do know, however, that Irish and Celtic music resonates on a deeper level with me. Something about it is just… ancestral.

Hi, I love Celtic Woman too! But what a complicated question. Bear with me while I try to answer. First, the legal question.

The “Audio Home Recording Act”, passed in 1992, contains this passage: “No action may be brought under this title alleging infringement of copyright based on the manufacture, importation, or distribution of a digital audio recording device, a digital audio recording medium, an analog recording device, or an analog recording medium, or based on the noncommercial use by a consumer of such a device or medium for making digital musical recordings or analog musical recordings.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Home_Recording_Act#Exemption_from_Infringement_Actions

Basically, this means that if you’re making copies for a family member, or copies for use in a car, even though it’s still technically copyright infringement, the copyright holder can’t sue you or do anything about it.

Furthermore, the “fair use” doctrine under US copyright law states something similar:
“Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—
the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
1. the nature of the copyrighted work;
2. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation 3. to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.”
There have been some court cases that imply that format-shifting (making MP3s of a CD you own, or making a CD of a DVD you own [as you’re doing], or making a DVD of a VHS tape you own, etc.) is legal under these “fair use” provisions of copyright law. (See e.g. http://www.eff.org/IP/eff_fair_use_faq.php, #4).

That said, DVDs are in a murky area because of two things: encryption and the DMCA. DVDs are digitally encrypted, meaning that it’s impossible to copy them without “cracking” their code. Furthermore, the “Digital Millennium Copyright Act”, or DMCA, passed in 1998, “criminalizes the act of circumventing [encryption], even when there is no infringement of copyright itself”. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMCA) This means that, even though you might be fully within fair use rights to make copies of your DVD, or format-shift into MP3s or a CD, the DMCA makes breaking the DVD’s encryption (which you must do in order to format-shift) illegal. This is hugely controversial, and the DMCA is widely regarded on the Internet as a bad law. Regardless, it is the law.

All that said, if this is all for personal use, you have exactly zero chance of ever being sued. There have been absolutely no court cases (as far as I am aware) that involved solely personal-use copyright infringement. All cases either involve widespread distribution (such as peer-to-peer filesharing) or some sort of commercial benefit. You basically have nothing to worry about from a legal standpoint, despite the technical illegality under the DMCA (due to DVD encryption).

The moral issue is a completely different kettle of fish. Let’s just say I personally believe that format-shifting is, and always will be (regardless of circumstance or legality) completely morally acceptable, and leave it at that.

Hope that helps!

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