If you store your iTunes library on Dropbox, did you upgrade to a paid account to have sufficient storage? - maʀtha

Is anyone promoting Dropbox to your library users? I suppose folks would have to use the Web client instead of the desktop client, right? - maʀtha

*crickets* - maʀtha

I love Dropbox, but have only used it for personal use. Haven't thought about it in the context of libraries and promoting it to users. What *is* good about Dropbox, though, is that it's accessible in many formats; mobile, desktop, etc. Hrm. - Derrick

I suggest it to patrons who complain about having lost their thumb drives. I don't know if any have actually started to use it, but when they start bitching about losing those drives, I tell them that I use Dropbox almost exclusively now and don't worry about losing stuff any more. - WebGoddess

I've been promoting it a lot at our academic library, to faculty especially. The campus IT gives them a network drive but hardly any of them have VPN access to it from home, so Dropbox becomes their method of sharing with themselves and others while at home or at conferences. I've told some students about it, but many use the campus lab computers where they can't install anything. When our campus gets iPads for all the freshmen in the fall, I think Dropbox will be crucial. - Sara Q. Thompson

In light of our recent (and ongoing) network drive crash at MPOW, I may be evangelizing for Dropbox a good deal more, both with students and with faculty/staff. Very few of us have our docs on the network drive due to quota limitations (100MB) but many of the students do. - Catherine Pellegrino

as just a place to toss documents I also recommend google docs and adrive.com Adrive.com 50gb of free storage (no auto sync unless you pay for the pro account which is 7 bucks a month or it did at least...) here are the features of the plans: http://www.adrive.com/plans easy to use and all types of file formats supported - Sir Shuping is just sir

Sorry, Martha - to get back to your first question... No, haven't even considered putting iTunes on Dropbox. Hubby and I have been using Pandora more. I don't know if this is related, but I have a personal Dropbox account separate from the one we use at work. - Sara Q. Thompson

I use it to move music from my home computer to my work computer, but only a bit at a time. If I backed up all my music there, I'd have to buy a lot more space. - laura x

Okay, so no one is storing their entire iTunes/music library on Dropbox? - maʀtha

Also, thanks for your comments on how folks are promoting Dropbox to patrons or might do so. And, Andrew, that tool is new to me, so, thank you! - maʀtha

my entire iTunes library is a bit over 25Gig, and I have a small collection compared to some people I know. - DJF

Not completely thought through, but: I'm pretty sure there are copyright issues involved in putting your iTunes library (or any files in which you own limited rights) on Dropbox. It's not a server you own... - N. Ansi

Hmmm. An interesting challenge as more of us increasingly rely on cloud storage - maʀtha

That's assuming, n. ansi, that the music in iTunes is licensed. The vast majority of mine is format shifted from CDs. - Jason Griffey from iPhone

And most of mine is stolen in the first place. - Steele Lawman

(Not really.) - Steele Lawman

Dropbox does say in the fine print that they reserve the right to remove anything that they deem to be illegally obtained - maʀtha

That's why I don't keep my pot in my Dropbox. - DJF

According to the recording industry, format shifting is NOT a fair use. So there, Griffey. (Not that I necessarily agree with them.) Steve has one kind of "right" idea... http://xkcd.com/488/ But generally speaking, cloud storage presents a problem for the whole set of"personal uses that get left alone but are legally indeterminate", because I know that to the content industry, cloud storage looks a lot more like file sharing than like putting things on your own hard drive. There is case law on point, holding that an online service that only played you back music from CDs you had authenticated as owning in hard copy, was not a legal use. - N. Ansi

Respectfully, the content industry has its collective head in a physically difficult location - which is one reason why they are having piracy problems. If I bought the content (say vinyl of The White Album) and I copy some of the content to cassette tape and give that that tape as a gift (say a mix tape like we did in the 80s), my read (ianal) of first sale says I am well within legal bounds. Ditto when I make a mix CD in the 90s. By extension, if I reformat my vinyl to MP3 (and *don't* give it away, to keep my vinyl from wearing out) for personal use, first sale still says that's fine. JHoping for a correction I can 1. understand, and 2. agree with. - awd

I think your understanding is incorrect. First sale governs what you do with the object you bought, right? Your scenarios involve making copies, actions governed by copyright, not first sale. I think. - Steele Lawman

First sale isn't why a mix tape is legal. A mix tape may be fair use, but it's also more likely to be legal since blank audio tapes had (have?) a separate fee levied on them paid back to music licensing cos. First sale only applies, as Steve says, to the original copy you bought (which is why it gets so F'ed up with digital copies.) - N. Ansi

More questionably, but by extension, I would like to be able to say that if I bought the content in one format, I should be able to download it from any source online without repercussion. But I'm sure legal reality would not agree with me. However, law and legal enforcement are of the government - and the government is of, by and for the People (a.k.a. me and my friends), so the common practices of the People are the ultimate arbiters of what should be legal. Right? :) - awd

Um. While I agree that common practices should inform what's legal in many cases (and have done some work on research papers arguing this specifically in relation to copyright), allow me to present a couple common counter-arguments: jaywalking. speed limits. (ETA: Inform != determine. "Tyranny of the majority" ring any bells?) - N. Ansi

counter-counter-argument: who is the injured party in jaywalking or speed limits? I agree that risks are increased when these activities are performed - but without an injured party I feel there is no basis for lawmaking. Again, I'm not really legal reality based and these are just my opinions - awd

In Canada, the blank media levy was extended several years ago to cover blank CDs and DVDs. Thus, there is a case to be made that copying legally acquired media onto a blank is legal in Canada. The large media companies are now, of course, lobbying to have the levy discontinued completely, so they can get back to their primary business: suing their customers. - DJF

(note: "legally acquired media" includes borrowing CDs from the library. But you have to burn the CD to another CD.) - DJF

Thanks, Aaron, for reminding me that I wanted to write something about "license thinking." I may try that this morning. - Steele Lawman

I appreciate the "not really legal reality based" acknowledgment, Aaron - wish I could live there & argue from first principles, but that's not _quite_ my job. DJF - the levy was extended to blank CDs here, too - but only the ones sold as "MUSIC CDs" - that is, quite literally, the ONLY reason blank "music" CDs cost more than blank "data" CDs. And there is a very strong argument to be made that burning a library CD to a blank music CD is totally totally legal. Recording industry would argue, but I can't see the leg they'd be trying to stand on other than arrogant self-righteousness clothed in a "concern for artists". - N. Ansi

Was there a US-based fee for blank media? I remember the Canadian fee DJF mentions, though. I just enjoy the "common practices define what's legal" argument -- because followed to logical conclusion (and ignoring all else) piracy is legal :) [eta: and more than from a might makes right plus I have a parchment from the King, high-seas piracy standpoint - awd

N.Ansi, that artificial distinction didn't fly here, I seem to recall. In fact, I have never seen a "blank music CD". For a while, there was a media levy on iPods and other HD based music players, but that was challenged, and the regulatory group responsible for the levy ruled that iPods aren't "media", so they don't get to have the levy charged. - DJF

and now I want to listen to Don McLean, for some reason. - DJF

OK, I wrote the post about license culture that Aaron reminded me I wanted to write: http://stevelawson.name/seealso... You can comment on the blog or on the FF post here: http://ff.im/zxxJr - Steele Lawman

And here's my riff, which is only tangentially related: http://www.newrambler.net/lisdom... - laura x