There are certainly some websites offering iPod downloads that are
legitimate, but those are usually from the studio or distribtor itself
offering its own content in iPod-viewable formats.
I can't speak for certain about these particular sites, but there are
plenty of sites making these offers that are not legit. Many of them,
if you read their legal fine print (if they have such a thing) claim
that they're just facilitating the legal creation of the user's back
up copy. That is, you're pledging that you already own the content as,
say, a DVD and that what you're buying is a back up copy. A copyright
lawyer will have to confirm the details, but the loophole travelled
through here is that purchasers of some sorts of copyrighted material
(like software) are permitted to make a copy for their reference/back
up purposes; obviously it's very disingenuous to think that everyone
using such a service is in compliance with that standard.
I can't speak to what may or may not violate the iPod trademark, but
again, there certainly *are* legitimate sites offering legal iPod
downloads of content. But the sites you mention don't seem to be quite
that... |
