iTunes and library CDs

Does anyone know if it's permissible under the iTunes terms of use agreement to import CDs and Audio Books I got from the library or did not purchase through iTunes?

I haven't read all the way through the iTunes Terms of Service Agreement in a while so I won't comment on that. The bigger problem, it seems to me, is that it violates the DMCA. The governing idea is that you are accessing copyrighted material in a way that the author/publisher never intended.

If you had purchased the material copyright law would give you the right to make an archive copy (unless the author had copy protected it in some way. Even that right would not seem to apply in this case since you have not actually purchased the material.

As Slydude pointed out, that's a clear violation of copyright whether or not the material is copy protected. It would be like borrowing a book from your public library and copying the entire book at your local Office Depot.

I import CD Audiobooks that I rent from an online company so that I may put them on my iPod or iPhone. I then delete the book, after I have listened to it. I imagine if MacLover did the same with audiobooks, only, then that would follow the spirit of borrowing the audiobook.
Along those lines, some audiobooks break their CDs into ridiculously short tracks, so there may be over a hundred on a disk. If I make any mistakes adding them to a playlist, it screws the whole book up. I use iTunes 11 and I can't figure out how to link the tracks, like i used to. Where are those controls, now? They used to be under an "advanced" button, under options. I don't see it anymore.
Thanks

The problem with overly broad laws like the DMCA is that it doesn't matter what your intent is, or how honourably you handle the files. What you're doing is probably illegal, and under the TOS of this forum we can't discuss it in any kind of specifics.

Authors deserve to be paid for their work, so I encourage you to follow the laws of your country. If you find the laws ridiculous (as I do with huge chunks of the DMCA), lobby to get them changed. That's about all you can do.

Apparently, you do not understand the term "rent." That means that a person pays money for the use of an item. I agree that authors should be paid, that's why I PAY for the use of the books. I rent audiobooks from one site and buy them from another. Both of these sites tell the user how to load them onto players, thus giving permission. I don't know the deal these groups have with the authors. I'm guessing the authors or publishers agree to this or these sites wouldn't be legal. I'm not talking about stealing like Napster, or whatever.
I had another site that was only for military personal, from which we could get books for iPod or iPhone use, and we had them for a two week period or so. Then, somehow we returned the book. I quit using this group, because it didn't work very well.
So, back to my original question; does anybody know how to join the CD tracks in iTunes 11?

I've been getting pretty much all my audiobooks from Audible for several years now so haven't had to deal with that much. Prior to that, the best tool I found was Splasm's AudioBook Builder.

Great app for that and only $5 now instead of $10 when I first started using it. I'd get it from the Mac App store now though - then you can put it on any Mac you own instead of the single computer license sold through their site. Free trial to test it out.

One item to note and don't know if it's been fixed in later versions of iTunes or not.
Don't put more than 7-8 hrs max into any single file.
Larger than that and you'll run into play back problems.

And I will note that with audiobooks, every legitimate place I know of that rents audiobooks have tutorials on their site showing you how to import them into your computer, iPod, etc. - with the caveat that you're suppose to delete them when finished listening. I'm figuring they must have some agreement with the distributors which permits ripping them from the CDs in this case.

Drewber: I was not addressing you in my post, I was addressing the OP who asked about audios he BORROWED from the library.

This is why it's a bad idea to hijack another thread instead of starting your own (if your post got moved into this thread by a moderator, then no blame on you).

bobtomay said:

And I will note that with audiobooks, every legitimate place I know of that rents audiobooks have tutorials on their site showing you how to import them into your computer, iPod, etc. - with the caveat that you're suppose to delete them when finished listening. I'm figuring they must have some agreement with the distributors which permits ripping them from the CDs in this case.

Click to expand...

I haven't made an in-depth examination but I wonder if any of the newer audiobooks used by libraries may be encoded so they can only be played for a certain period of time. I'm thinking something similar to the time restrictions on iTunes rentals.

@bobtomay not to hijack the thread but what kinds of problems occur with files of that length. We have problems with some of my wife's longer sci-fi books getting out of sequence. Seems like every iTunes update brings the problem back. Google was less than helpful.

tbh, I don't remember for sure.

For a long time I was just ripping them and combining into one file per CD - that was hard enough for a long time.

Early '07 is when I started looking for a way to combine multiple CDs into a single file for moving onto an iPod, I found numerous posts/blogs that mentioned problems with 8+ hour files. I just basically took their word for it and kept all of mine maxed out 7 - 7.5 hrs per file and never had a problem.

Sort of like all the horror stories many of us read related to Filevault and decided it was best to recommend against using it to the majority of users.

And yes, at least some public library mp3 online checkout services do have a time limit the file is playable, similar to the movie/TV show rentals from iTunes and others.
Most of these though have specific apps that are required to listen to them.

Another note - have been using Audible now since '09 I think.

I have noticed they follow this same general rule. Not sure how many books I have from them - but it's a bunch - I don't believe any of their files hit that 8 hr threshold.

Drewber said:

So, back to my original question; does anybody know how to join the CD tracks in iTunes 11?

Click to expand...

Give this article a read. Perhaps it will clear things up.

@bobtomay We have been using Audible as well for the last few years. We generally pay for an annual membership which entitles us to credits for several books per year. Don't remember how many.