“Despite more than 20,000 lawsuits filed against music fans in the years since they started finding free tunes online rather than buying CDs from record companies, the recording industry has utterly failed to halt the decline of the record album or the rise of digital music sharing,” Marc Fisher reports for The Washington Post.
MacDailyNews Take: Let’s be fair here: “finding free songs online” is a really nice way of phrasing “stealing” (unless you’re talking about relatively obscure indies or the odd promotional track).
Fisher continues, “In an unusual case in which an Arizona recipient of an RIAA letter has fought back in court rather than write a check to avoid hefty legal fees, the industry is taking its argument against music sharing one step further: In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.”
“The industry’s lawyer in the case, Ira Schwartz, argues in a brief filed earlier this month that the MP3 files Howell made on his computer from legally bought CDs are “unauthorized copies” of copyrighted recordings,” Fisher reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “neo” for the heads up.]
If they ever succeed in getting some judge to say that making a personal copy is illegal, if, indeed, that is what the RIAA is seeking, then we will never buy another bit of music again. The operative word being “buy.”
We want to do the right thing. We want to be able to buy reasonably-priced, DRM-free music online. But, the RIAA seems to continually want to get in the way and, if they’re going after personal copies, they’re going way too far.
This much is clear: they can’t sue everybody. Not even close. The RIAA absolutely hates when people do the math, which is why we love to do it: In the last 10 years or so, the RIAA has brought 20,000 cases to court. That’s 2,000 cases per year on average. Divide that by however many tens of millions of downloaders there are in the U.S. alone and you’ll find that he odds of getting sued by the RIAA are amazingly long. You have a better chance of dating a supermodel than of being sued by the RIAA.
Hey, I date a supermodel and have not been sued by the RIAA.
If there’s no DRM on the CD, they can’t claim it’s a DMCA violation, right? Serious question.
Neo?!?!?
I guess he took the blue pill.
I guess the RIAA wants us to buy on line where the music is already electronic! Since their parent company is the music companies and they are going DRM free, the future must be electronic downloads.
Actually, I wonder if the RIAA is getting desparate since DRM seems to be going away at the source???
Just a thought.
I was dating a super model. Then she started downloading music illegally, and I had to end it. She said I was leading an unhealthy lifestyle. I said she was taking unhealthy risks with her music. Such a tragedy. Now she is with some guy in a trailer park. Oh well… ya win some, and you lose some.
But can I increase my odds of dating a supermodel by putting more music on my computer?
I don’t agree that once I have purchased something I shouldn’t have the ability to enjoy it anyway I can. I do agree the music I have ripped to my library be not available to bit torrent surfers.
MDN… You agree with buying music and not downloading it free. But, whenever there is a comment regarding movies or TV shows you are ok and even suggest bit torrent.
Let’s be fair. The boon of these industries is bit torrent. Stealing is stealing. Kids today have a perception that Music, Videos, Games are all free because they can find them on the net. This is a serious flaw of society today.
How many people will scorn a child for stealing a pack of gum meanwhile sitting and watching superbowl with friends on a stolen satellite dish. Somehow they can justify it to friends and children.
Reality check people… You are stealing the same as the guy that robs a convenience store. It may be more polite but it is the same in the end.
I agree that the RIAA needs to strengthen their position when it comes to Music stealing. But, they should be targeting the people that have thousands of pieces of stolen content and have never bought a thing. They should go after sites like Limewire and others before worrying about the individual.
Napster is a classic example of the industry fighting back. It is now reduced to a also ran music service that no one has time for or interest in.
Go ahead and stuff that genie back in.
That time has come, and that time has gone.
“Now she is with some guy in a trailer park. Oh well… ya win some, and you lose some.”
Would that make her a Supertramp?
recorded music is dead.
Not a serious question. Books have no copy protection, other than the sheer inconvenience of trying to copy one. While you can photocopy part of a book you own for personal use, you can’t copy the whole thing. And you certainly can’t distribute copies you make.
Not having DRM is not de facto permission to make a copy. I don’t agree with the RIAA, in fact I hate the bastards, I’m just saying this is the argument they’ll try to make, and in court, anything can happen. Remember OJ?
The counter argument, of course, is that case law has long ago decided making a home copy of a TV broadcast OK, and this is little different.
The real target of all this: Steve Jobs?
Even this question could stir unrest on Wall Street.
Steve has put so much of Apple Inc. at risk by focusing on tunes players, phones, and in a couple of weeks – movies, that the company is now exposed to any hiccup like this.
I’m hoping this will stir a disturbance in the force and get Cupertino back on the track of developing superior Macintosh computers. Where we are today with this business is closer to the world of Dell than ever before
Well, one of two things is going to happen…either the RIAA will outlive their usefullness…or…the everyone on the planet will be incarcerated.
Question Please,
Apple Inc. makes the best personal computers on earth, Astroturfer.
The RIAA was so far very successful, in every media transition, to have us “buy again the White Album”, so to speak. Old folk out there first bought their music on vinyl; then they got it on 8-track; when that went bust, they bought it on a cassette tape, to be followed ten years later by a CD. Since now you have a nice collection of the same stuff (the White Album, for example) on CDs (in addition to three other media), you can finally easily turn that CD into a file. RIAA would very much love to sell you the fifth format, the way it did the previous four. Therefore the law suits.
If the “Sony Betamax vs. Universal” decision (and its subsequent interpretations) still holds, it will be next to impossible for RIAA to win this.
I should get some popcorn and watch how this plays out.
@Middilay
“The boon of these industries is bit torrent.” Did you mean “bane”?
The RIAA is dead in the water. How long they will enjoy their lame duck status before finally being booted out of office remains to be seen.
Goople, recorded music will probably be around for awhile, at least until generative systems become far more sophisticated. But the industry? The industry is like a self-loathing psychopath, slowly stabbing himself with a steak knife to see how much pain it can create before it finally expires.
While I might agree that it is technically stealing when you download content illegally, it is not the same as stealing a pack of gum. The profit margins both movie studios and record labels have been enjoying over the last 50 years are staggering.
I went to best buy the other day to buy my brother a Stones CD
No wonder people steal, the CD cost $30
You got to be kidding me.
” . . . the everyone on the planet will be incarcerated.”
You just got Snake Plissken’s attention.
My guess is that the RIAA does not really care about personal ripping for a computer/iPod. My guess is that they found this guy because he was sharing that music. Once they found him, they used this to “stick it to him”
It’s the same way that prosecutors use sodomy laws. If they catch a rapist, they will suddenly pull out that law, whereas normally, they wouldn’t enforce that law.
The price of something has nothing to do whether it is stealing or not!
If the asking price is too high, don’t buy it. If enough people agree with you they will lower the price. If not, too bad.
Well, shiver me timbers, everyone!
Look at me, I’m a pirate!!!!
I’m stealing what I bought!!!!!!…..wait…..
So you’re saying there’s a chance I could date a supermodel.
You are allowed under Federal Copyright law to make archival copies of legally purchased music. Would not copying songs from a cd to your computer’s hard drive not be archival?
Email the RIAA what you think:
piracy@riaa.org