SIDENOTE: RIAA can kiss my ass! Now they trying to tell me that I can't make myself a back-up copy of an album CD that I brought!!!

http://blog.myspace.com/i...=344262015

RIAA SAYS ITS ILLEGAL TO MAKE PERSONAL COPIES OF YOUR CDS
By Marc Fisher

Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 30, 2007; Page M05

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.

Still, hardly a month goes by without a news release from the industry's lobby, the Recording Industry Association of America, touting a new wave of letters to college students and others demanding a settlement payment and threatening a legal battle.

Now, 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.

"I couldn't believe it when I read that," says Ray Beckerman, a New York lawyer who represents six clients who have been sued by the RIAA. "The basic principle in the law is that you have to distribute actual physical copies to be guilty of violating copyright. But recently, the industry has been going around saying that even a personal copy on your computer is a violation."

RIAA's hard-line position seems clear. Its Web site says: "If you make unauthorized copies of copyrighted music recordings, you're stealing. You're breaking the law and you could be held legally liable for thousands of dollars in damages."

They're not kidding. In October, after a trial in Minnesota -- the first time the industry has made its case before a federal jury -- Jammie Thomas was ordered to pay $220,000 to the big record companies. That's $9,250 for each of 24 songs she was accused of sharing online.

Whether customers may copy their CDs onto their computers -- an act at the very heart of the digital revolution -- has a murky legal foundation, the RIAA argues. The industry's own Web site says that making a personal copy of a CD that you bought legitimately may not be a legal right, but it "won't usually raise concerns," as long as you don't give away the music or lend it to anyone.

Of course, that's exactly what millions of people do every day. In a Los Angeles Times poll, 69 percent of teenagers surveyed said they thought it was legal to copy a CD they own and give it to a friend. The RIAA cites a study that found that more than half of current college students download music and movies illegally.

The Howell case was not the first time the industry has argued that making a personal copy from a legally purchased CD is illegal. At the Thomas trial in Minnesota, Sony BMG's chief of litigation, Jennifer Pariser, testified that "when an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song." Copying a song you bought is "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy,' " she said.

But lawyers for consumers point to a series of court rulings over the last few decades that found no violation of copyright law in the use of VCRs and other devices to time-shift TV programs; that is, to make personal copies for the purpose of making portable a legally obtained recording.

As technologies evolve, old media companies tend not to be the source of the innovation that allows them to survive. Even so, new technologies don't usually kill off old media: That's the good news for the recording industry, as for the TV, movie, newspaper and magazine businesses. But for those old media to survive, they must adapt, finding new business models and new, compelling content to offer.

The RIAA's legal crusade against its customers is a classic example of an old media company clinging to a business model that has collapsed. Four years of a failed strategy has only "created a whole market of people who specifically look to buy independent goods so as not to deal with the big record companies," Beckerman says. "Every problem they're trying to solve is worse now than when they started."

The industry "will continue to bring lawsuits" against those who "ignore years of warnings," RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy said in a statement. "It's not our first choice, but it's a necessary part of the equation. There are consequences for breaking the law." And, perhaps, for firing up your computer.

Fuck the RIAA.

wow

Well the RIAA should partner up with the makers of CD Burner (Sony, Microsoft, ect) and the makers of black CD (Maxiel, Sony, TDK, ect) and see if they can help this terrible, terrible thing stop.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

I know. They should just NOT make CDRS and all things that are recordable and then it will stop

paisleypark4 said:

People ain't scared of lawsuits. People be tripping like these suits is gonna solve anything, lol.

Timmy84 said:

I mean...it's really rediculous. It is not the user's fault. What are they going to do? Go in2 peoples houses and look through their CDR collections?

LittleBLUECorvette said:

why not go after them since their making the very product to allow you to burn copies?

paisleypark4 said:

This is a scare tactic. People have been burning CDs for years and you only see one or two stories about people actually "illegally burning CDs" for CDRs, lol. Yet they make it seem like there's some kind of outbreak of music-stealing vultures and they're gonna come to people's houses and quarantine the place.

CHIC0 said:

That's why suing common folk won't work. They're the ones who made the CDRs available. What are they gonna do? Tell us to pay the artists a million dollars just because the CD may or may not suck? What kind of logic is that?

The music industry is getting dumber and dumber as time go on. FUCK 'EM!
[Edited 1/7/08 20:36pm]

Timmy84 said:

I don't mean to be cocky, but if I was to ever get sue by the RIAA for any reason pertaining to THIS bullshit, I will NOT settle out of court!!! And even if I lose in court, I'll just have to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy and the RIAA still will not be able to get millions that I don't have.

TonyVanDam said:

Exactly. It ain't like we rich and shit. @ them corporate assholes.

FREE MUSIC FOR EVERYBODY!

AlexdeParis said:

Don't mind if I "steal" it from you. "Don't sue me".

Timmy84 said:

No problem. After all, everything on the internet is stolen.

AlexdeParis said:

Ya know!

AlexdeParis said:

But seriously, how are they going to stop people from burning CD's? Please. The RIAA needs to go somewhere with that bulls**t .

Cinnamon234 said:

It's a scare tactic just like when the White House cronies kept telling us in the past to look out for Al-Qaeda. That's all it is.

Timmy84 said:

Yeah dont get me started on that shit, do people realize that more people were killed last year by insect stings than were killed by terrorism, i mean are we serious, the odds of you dieing in a terrorist attack are about the same of winning lotto. This crap always bothered since the day the closed down my favorite "bootleg" concert dvd/cd store in NYC Revolver Records, they shut it down because the RIAA claimed it was hurting them because they were selling illegal copies, and yet they werent, they were selling bootleg concerts, which is something that has NO effect on them, and yet they dont go after the dude on the corner selling the 3 dollar cd, with the photo copied album cover in it, thats ok.

These dumb bastards!!! These companies shove all this technology down our throats.....make it readily avaliable...and then turn around and tell us we're breakin the law if we utilize this technology....FUCK 'UM!!!

AlexdeParis said:

Not Linux. That's free.

VonMarie said:

Don't forget hypocrites.

VonMarie said:

Exactly! They were crying foul 30+ years earlier when cassette players & VCRs were on the market.

TonyVanDam said:

That's why I'm not even concerned about this bullshit!

Desperation makes people do crazy shit...I wonder why nobody has gotten on board with a new business plan for the digital revolution?

It's been going on for over 10 years now...could it be that this is their business plan? One law suit at a time?

oh this is silly...who the hell is managing their pr departments, prince?

Slave2daGroove said:

Shows you how stupid they are, they have to go through millions of people here and it'll take too much of their time. By next year they'd forgotten about the rest of us to sue one person.

It's funny how the RIAA has never thought of the simple solution of lowering the prices of CDs. That'd solve the problem. If CDs were priced right people might actually buy them legally.

But it's fucked up saying we can't burn copies of CDs we purchased. It's my CD, I do what I want.

DarlingDiana said: