Is it legal to distribute a mixtape?
<p>Rap/hip-hop artists often distribute albums as &quot;mixtapes.&quot; Are people actually free to redistribute them?</p>
<p>For example, take Lil Wayne's <a href="https://www.datpiff.com/Lil-Wayne-No-Ceilings-mixtape.488817.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">No Ceilings</a> album: DatPiff.com has been distributing it for free for years, and Lil Wayne's record label (&quot;YMCMB&quot;) seems totally fine with that. <em>Legally, what is going on here?</em> Is the mixtape in the public domain? Does YMCMB retain copyright and just does not exercise it? Would it be legal for another site to re-distribute this mixtape? Would it be legal for a person to burn the album onto CDs and hand it out, or to sell it?</p>
<p><strong>Note</strong>: This question is <strong>not</strong> about sampling and all the legal concerns that exist around that issue. For the purpose of this question, please assume a mixtape does not contain any potentially copyrighted samples. I have searched the web about this and all I get are results related to sampling, but that is not what I am wondering about.</p>

<p>The tape is not in the public domain. Either they have granted permission to copy, or they have not taken action to pursue infringement. The current youngmoney website does not (on its public-facing page) grant any permissions, but things can change. In addition, permission could be granted in a specific instance as a personal favor or as a contract deal. There is no practical way for John Q Public to know.</p>
<p>Datapif does not affirmatively represent that they have copyright-owner permission, and the attending circumstances indicate that &quot;somebody&quot; uploaded the album, but also they detected that there was some probable infringement and deleted a bunch of tracks, saying</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Some tracks were excluded from the zip file of this mixtape. This is
most likely because a scan discovered that these tracks contained
material that was commercially available. As such, we can not legally
provide these tracks for  download through DatPiff.com</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That &quot;somebody&quot; could have been the copyright owner, or Jane Q Public. Datapif is supposedly safe behind DMCA safe harbor provisions. In their TOS, they do say that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The copying, redistribution, use or publication by you of any such
matters or any part of the Site, except as allowed by Section 4, is
strictly prohibited. You do not acquire ownership rights to any
content, document or other materials viewed through the Site. The
posting of information or materials on the Site does not constitute a
waiver of any right in such information and materials.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So Datapif states that you may <em>not</em> legally redistribute the material from their website on your own. But they are not the copyright holder, only <em>the copyright holder</em> can authorize redistribution, so Datapif is not in a position to grant permission.</p>

intellectual-property