I posted it because I was curious. If I purchase a car from someone and I know they stole it, then I can certainly get into some serious trouble. But a car can't be deleted and made unstolen.

Digital media can be scrubbed, but that doesn'y absolve the purchaser from buying stolen property in the first place.

I imagine that since piracy is a relative low priority for authorities compared to other types of stolen property transactions, that purchasing DJ rigs with all the music pre-loaded just doesn't get the attention it deserves.

I also asked because there are a few rigs I have found that I have wanted to buy but passed up on because I didn't want to run afoul of anyone because I knew up front. I have taken to asking people to drop the price if they will delete the music. Every single person has said no so far. I find that interesting because most of the ads boast about the large amount of music as a value ad for the sale and many say they have spend thousands of dollars over years to acquire the music. But when asked to delete or sell without the music and drop the price, they always refuse. Pretty clear to me they have no skin in the game.

-Chris

When I initially bought my karaoke system. It came with a hard drive with a bunch of karaoke tracks on it. I started looking for ways to make them legal or sub them out for original discs. Stellar was the only one that had a program where by you could keep the music you have on the drive wihout having to be 1-1. So I started with them. I deleted everything except for what I thought would be covered under the CAP and shelved that drive and have used only 1-1 since then for all manufacturers and I intend to do so until I have the CAP certificates in hand. Once I have them I will revisit the drive and determine if there is enough there and/or tracks that would be requested if I added the drive back in.

I have not even looked at the drive in 6 months so I don't know what was left on it after I deleted everything but Stellar music.

I did buy into this back in July of this year. I did so because I had bought a system from a KJ that claimed to have thousands of original discs when in fact they had very few original discs but 10's of thousands of tracks on hard drives. I investigated ways to get legal and in the process discovered the C.A.P. program. in the mean time I have picked up used discs here and there to get original copies of discs to ensure.

If we're talking about the letter of the law, Receiving stolen property is proscribed by federal statute (18 U.S.C.A. § 662) and is a Federal crime. This would fall under Federal jurisdiction, I believe, because the content came from several sources across several state lines. So the real answer...the legal one...is that if you knowingly purchase a system which contains illegal music, you are responsible for receiving stolen goods and this is a Federal charge potentially punishable by jail.

@earthling - hehe That gave me a chuckle. Imagine a police officer taking a statement from me regarding the piracy of karaoke music. The primary complaint to the police was about theft because I did not receive was what I paid for. We didn't get into the fineries of karaoke piracy.
-Chris

The statute you cite is limited to the "special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States," which is defined in 18 U.S.C. § 7 and means the high seas, federal land reservations, and other similar areas that are not under the jurisdiction of any state or territory. It does not apply to the fact pattern given.

That being said, I have never met a prosecuting attorney, state or federal, that regarded the sale of articles containing pirated music to be a "theft" of that music. Under the laws of most states, larceny requires that a tangible item be taken with the intent to deprive its owner of possession. Unless the hard drive and other equipment itself is stolen, what has been described is not "receiving stolen property." It may be a criminal act, but not on the basis of the larceny statutes.