Is this illegal to do?

[Janna]

Please don't think me dumb, LOL.

A friend just gave me her old iPod shuffle - the old, original, 512mb one. I've never had an iPod and am really looking forward to having something to listen to while working out.

That being said, one of the things I wanted to do was download an audiobook. I don't even know if there is enough space to do it, but if there were, I thought listening to one of my 888 books would be helpful.

I was on iTunes looking through their audiobooks selections. I was thinking that I don't want to purchase an audiobook that I'm going to listen to once (maybe, if the narrator is even ok to listen to) and then delete it for space for another book. So I'm wondering if it's ok to get an audioCD from the library, put it into my iTunes library and then download it into the iPod. Is that illegal? I'm thinking it is for royalty reasons, but maybe audiobooks is different? I don't know why it would be, but thought I'd ask here to be sure.

Thanks,
Janna

[mommybee]

As far as I know it's fine as long as you delete it when your borrowing time is up. Otherwise it should be fine. Some libraries even let you just download directly onto your device, although my library doesn't support ipod, just regular mp3 players.

[Crissy]

I believe it is legal. Our library allows us to load content on players, but we are required to delete it at the end of the check out period.

[JFS in IL]

with audiobooks from the library. We also have been known to copy the cd's onto our own cd's to take on vacation and listen in the car (rather than risk losing the library copy!)

[Claire]

I think the others are right that this would be legal. However, a Shuffle is incapable of bookmarking. This means that you cannot "pick up where you left off" in the book. Instead, you have to fast forward to try to find the place where you left off. The Shuffle really was designed for listening to songs. All of the other iPods (and many other types of MP3 players) have bookmarking capabilities. This allows you to start up right where you left off listening. You might want to save the Shuffle for listening to songs.

Many libraries now have online audiobook lending capabilities now. This means that you can "borrow" books by going online and downloading into an MP3 player for listening at home. (No need to physically go to the library.) When your time is up, software that you have downloaded disables the book. iPods usually do *not* work with this type of lending service. Ask at your library to find out which MP3 players use the format they are using. These are typically much less expensive than iPods, so you may be able to find a good one (with bookmarking capabilities!) at Amazon or Sam's Club.

[Tap, tap, tap]

You can store it on your computer or Ipod as long as you don't share it in a public domain.

One problem you may or may not care about is that your Shuffle will only hold about 1 hour (roughly 1 disk) of audio.