Download Uproar: Record Industry Goes After Personal Use, illegal to transfer music from CD to mp3

[Herman Munster]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/28/AR2007122800693.html

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.

[varkam]

1. Apparently, the RIAA is only happy if...

you listen to one of the CDs your purchased in your home, on a portable CD player with earbuds (so no one else can hear your music, lest you be accused of sharing) with the lights off.

The RIAAs crusade against it's own customers has been ridiculous for some time, but this crosses the line into the absurd.

ETA This paragraph from the article is a winner:

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."

[Junkdrawer]

2. The RIAA SEZ: MP3 Players are Illegal, but, most of the time, we'll look the other way:

It’s okay to copy music onto an analog cassette, but not for commercial purposes.

It’s also okay to copy music onto special Audio CD-R’s, mini-discs, and digital tapes (because royalties have been paid on them) – but, again, not for commercial purposes.

Beyond that, there’s no legal "right" to copy the copyrighted music on a CD onto a CD-R. However, burning a copy of CD onto a CD-R, or transferring a copy onto your computer hard drive or your portable music player, won’t usually raise concerns so long as:

The copy is made from an authorized original CD that you legitimately own

The copy is just for your personal use. It’s not a personal use – in fact, it’s illegal – to give away the copy or lend it to others for copying.

·The owners of copyrighted music have the right to use protection technology to allow or prevent copying.
Remember, it’s never okay to sell or make commercial use of a copy that you make.

http://www.musicunited.org/2_thelaw.html#5

[BattyDem]

6. Someone forgot to tell iTunes that there's no legal "right" to copy music

From Apple.com (iTunes Support):

How many times can I burn my purchased music?

Songs purchased from the iTunes Store can be burned to audio CDs and data CDs an unlimited number of times. However, each unique playlist can only be burned to an audio CD 7 times.

http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/store/burn/


So, according to the RIAA, if I buy a CD and copy it to my computer so I can put the music on my iPod, I'm in violation of copyright law.

But ... if I buy those same songs from iTunes and I copy them to my iPod, then a burn a CD to play in the house and another CD to play in the car, that's just fine. :eyes:

[Junkdrawer]

9. It all depends if they like you or not....

If they think you'd make a good example, then they'll nail your ass to the wall no matter what you do.

Oh, and avoid listening to music on Tuesdays at ALL COSTS.

[BattyDem]

14. Tuesdays will get you life without parole!

:rofl:

[silverojo]

3. Fuck the RIAA!!

Pardon my French, but this is insane. If you're not distributing music, it's NOT illegal to copy it just for yourself. "Fair use" allows people to make copies for their own personal use. It's not our fault that technology is making CD's virtually obsolete, and that people HAVE to convert them to mp3 format, just to be able to play them.

It's time for people to just freaking boycott the RIAA completely. Stop buying CD's for as long as it takes to crush the RIAA. Hit 'em in the pocketbook till they stop stomping all over our legal rights.

Hell, you're even allowed by law to make one copy of software CD's/DVD's as a backup copy for your own personal use. Who do these greedy bastards think they are??

[msongs]

4. yeah, write and record your own music. that'll show those punks :-) nt

[melody]

5. There will be enough sane, independent artists who'll fall out

The RIAA is writing its own obituary.

[ColbertWatcher]

7. That's probably because...

...the music industry is planning on making CDs really cheap, so after you listen to them once, they break and you have to buy another one and another one and another one...

[high density]

8. That's crazy

I think the RIAA is going to sue the industry right out of business. If they're going to start suing people who build their own private MP3 collections from music they've purchased on CD, people are going to say f--- it and just pirate the music anyway. For one thing the RIAA needs to realize that a large swath of the population has probably owned many of their favorite albums in at least two formats. In an extreme example, between my parents and I, we've owned four copies of The Doors' "Morrison Hotel" album. The LP, an 8-track, a cassette, and now a CD version. So we've bought this album four times, but now they'd sue me if I made an MP3 copy of the CD and they found out about it? That's outrageous.

[JeffreyLebowski]

10. RIAA not suing over CD ripping

RIAA not suing over CD ripping, still kinda being jerks about it

http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/30/riaa-not-suing-over-cd-ripping-still-kinda-being-jerks-about-it/

Okay, so we've done some digging into the RIAA's lawsuit against Jeffery Howell, in which the industry is claiming that ripped MP3s are "unauthorized copies," and it turns out that Jeffery isn't actually being sued for ripping CDs, like the Washington Post and several other sources have reported, but for plain old illegal downloading.

As we're all unfortunately aware, that's pretty standard stuff; the big change from previous downloading cases is the RIAA's newfound aggressiveness in calling MP3s ripped from legally owned CDs "unauthorized copies" -- something it's been doing quietly for a while, but now it looks like the gloves are off.

[Patsy Stone]

21. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[C_U_L8R]

11. By the same twisted logic...

it should be illegal to convert the bits on a cd
into positive and negatively charged electrons
which are transfered into moving airwaves
that download into your ear and become
permanently stored in your memory.

[Initech]

17. And maybe then they'll make it illegal for songs to get stuck in your head.

[Tansy_Gold]

12. Next thing you know, they'll sue you if you. . . . .

. . . . . listen to the same CD more than once.

What is it lately with greed? The worst of it is that most of those doing the most screaming are not hurting in the pocketbook.

I remember the days when an extremely wealthy, best-selling author made it her personal crusade to put used bookstores out of business because they were cutting into her royalties and asked her friends to steal copies of her books from their local libraries so no one could read them "for free." I told her to her face she was greedy and would do better to worry more about writing good books no one ever wanted to part with and worry less about lost royalties from budget-conscious, lower-income folks who still had a desire to read. She called me a communist, I thanked her for the compliment, and her career went down the toilet.

Tansy Gold, who did not see any causal connection between the name calling and the career tanking but maybe it was there after all

[Junkdrawer]

13. The RIAA contributes heavily to politicians who pass laws...

that gives the RIAA vast, unchecked power.

The only thing that limits their law suits is the potential mass backlash by consumers.

[Initech]

15. Next thing they'll make it so you cant play music in public without express written consent.

God I hate those bastards.

[Junkdrawer]

16. Too late:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7029892.stm

[Initech]

19. Wow, so we're not the only country in the world with the record industry gestapo on our asses.

:yoiks:

[Sulawesi]

18. This is going nowhere...

...if peeps can't transfer their CDs to ipods, then the CD is dead...if they are distributed in a way that they can be, then no probs..

[comradebillyboy]

20. any body with any computer knowlege at all can find software

online that gets around any audio or video encryption codes. Geeks love to crack the codes and publish the cracks as freeware. Besides the real big losses come from all the pirating being done in China, but the Chinese govt will tell RIAA to go piss up a rope.

[dkf]

22. I stopped listening to music anyway.

I listen to sports radio on the way to work...

[Crabby Appleton]

23. The WaPo article is misleading, the guy got caught using kazaa

the defendant said he didn't realize that kazaa program was sharing the files with others, he was sued for the sharing, not the copying.

http://www.ilrweb.com/viewILRPDFfull.asp?filename=atlantic_howell_070820OrderGrantSumJudg