On 12/17/12, Ketil Malde
I would use "copying" to mean verbatim cut-and-pasting, which is something else.
I feel I should point out that, while that's currently a common definition of "copying", it's not the legal definition. Copyright law predates the ability to mechanically create copies of a work. The closest you could come was the printing press, which started with what was at the time a handmade mirror image of the work you were going to print copies of. Back then, the only way to create a copy of a printed page (or anything else that wasn't created with the express purpose of being duplicated) was to read the original, and transcribe it into a copy. There was no "cut-n-paste" or "copy command" - just reading and creating another copy by hand. Changes made along the way that depended on the original - adding illustrations or illuminations, setting it to music, re-arranging it into a script for a play, or translating it to another language - were all considered derived works, and hence infringing. IANAL, but I've been studying copyright law since before the US signed the Berne treaty. Generally, copyright law in the US has been getting stricter, not more permissive - largely because the only people who cared were the large copyright holders. In general, new media brought under the purview of copyright is treated as strictly as the law can be interpreted. In the US, most radio stations pay a license fee in order to play music. Bars and restaurants (and even the Girl Scouts!) are required to pay a license fee for public performances if they play live or recorded music. If you buy media capable of recording music or video, part of the cost is used to compensate the copyright holders of the presumably infringing copies you're going to make onto them. If I took a picture of my living room, I'd technically be in violation of a slew of copyrights (images of the statuary on the mantelpiece, paintings hanging on the wall, etc.) but chances are that nobody would care unless I included images from a FOX television show. Personally, I think this is silly, but it's the law.