Ubuntu One for Rhythmbox

is it legal to publish purchased music using ubuntuone publish feature?

Asked by Dimitri John Ledkov

I've bought a couple songs on Ubuntu One Music service.

When I go online I can click more -> publish on any of the Purchased music files. And i get a valid link.

Isn't it illigal for me to distribute purchased music to a whole bunch of people using that public link?

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Ubuntu One for Rhythmbox Edit question
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Matt Griffin Edit question
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Matt Griffin
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Revision history for this message
Timo Kluck (tkluck) said : 		#1

Yes, I am pretty sure it is -- no less than publishing the music on your own website would be.

I do not think the option should be disabled; there may very well be usage scenarios without licencing issues. Perhaps it would be elegant if Ubuntu One warned the user, upon choosing that option, that publically sharing music may violate terms of use.

I am opening a bug report so that someone closer to the fire can decide whether to prioritize this.

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Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox) said : 		#2

Thanks Timo, but I was hoping for an answer from Canonical legal / U1 teams. I've dug up 7digital T&C here are some juicy bits:

8.4 Content Usage Rules.
(i) You are authorised to use the Content only for personal, non-commercial use, and not for redistribution, transfer, assignment or sublicense, to the extent permitted by law.
(ii) You are authorised to use the Content on up to five authorised devices at any time. 7 reserves the right to limit the number of authorised devices further and the number of authorised downloads to comply with the wishes of its licensors.
(iii) You may not use Content as a musical “ringer” in connection with mobile phone calls.
(iv) You agree that you will not attempt to, or encourage or assist any other person to, circumvent or modify any security technology or software that is part of the Service or used to administer the Usage Rules, or interfere with, remove or alter any rights management information on the Content.
(v) The delivery of Content does not transfer to you any commercial or promotional use rights in the Products.
(vi) Content in the MP3 or AAC format does not contain security technology that limits your usage of such Content and you may use them as reasonably necessary for personal, non-commercial use.

So I think I'm OK to use publish this song to transfer my purchased song to another device which cannot support ubuntuone sync (e.g. download it on my phone cause I don't have USB cable to sync it in conventional way)

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Best Matt Griffin (mattgriffin) said : 		#3

Dmitrijs - I don't think publishing is the best way to do this. Since others could grab the songs, you would risk violating the Ubuntu One Terms of Service (https://one.ubuntu.com/terms) around third party's rights (section 5) and possibly have your service terminated (section 8). If you would like to transfer your purchased songs to another device that doesn't sync with Ubuntu One, it's better to browse to the Ubuntu One website from the device and download. Thanks.

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Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox) said : 		#4

Thanks Matt Griffin, that solved my question.