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Simple English definitions for legal terms
Audio Home Recording Act
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A quick definition of Audio Home Recording Act:
The Audio Home Recording Act is a law that was created in 1992 to stop people from getting in trouble for making copies of music using digital technology. Companies that make digital recording devices have to pay money to the people who own the rights to the music, and they have to make sure their devices have special security features. These features let people make copies of music from the original source, but not from copies of the music. We use the abbreviation AHRA to talk about this law.
A more thorough explanation:
The Audio Home Recording Act is a federal law that was passed in 1992 to prevent copyright infringement lawsuits related to digital-audio technology. The law requires manufacturers of digital recording devices to pay royalties on sales of the devices and related media, and to build security mechanisms into each device.
These security mechanisms allow the owner of a digital-recording device to make a copy from the original medium, but not to make a copy from the copy. This means that people can make personal copies of their music or other audio recordings, but they cannot make copies to sell or distribute without permission from the copyright owner.
For example, if you buy a CD and want to make a copy of it to listen to in your car, you can do so using a digital recording device that complies with the Audio Home Recording Act. However, you cannot make copies of the CD to sell or give away to others without permission from the copyright owner.