7 Comments

According to the RIAA Your MP3′s From CD’s Are Illegal

December 11, 2007 by in Random with 7 Comments

Gotta love the RIAA, In Arizona Atlantic records is suing a man – who is representing himself – for possessing “unauthorized copies” of MP3′s he personally ripped and stored in a shared folder for him and his wife.

The RIAA’s brief makes the novel contention, contradicting its lawyers’ arguments at the Supreme Court in MGM v. Grokster, that making personal copies of songs from one’s CD onto one’s computer is an infringement.

In the US Supreme Court, the record company lawyers said:

The record companies, my clients, have said, for some time now, and it’s been on their Website for some time now, that it’s perfectly lawful to take a CD that you’ve purchased, upload it onto your computer, put it onto your iPod. There is a very, very significant lawful commercial use for that device, going forward.

Hey RIAA, you can’t have it both ways.

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  • Myke

    Just a bunch of greedy men in suits…

  • jackspratt

    I AM ABOVE THE LAW!

    - record exec

  • http://www.didntyouhear.com Cory OBrien

    It’s like the RIAA is trying to save their sinking ship by throwing all of their customers off.

    If they just plugged the holes (gave people the music freedom they want at a price that is closer to what they’re willing to pay) then they wouldn’t have to resort to these scare tactics all the time.

  • mathias

    Couple things:

    1) I hate the RIAA as much as everyone else, I hate their tactics, hate their arguments, and pretty much everything else…

    BUT

    2) The wording on the above story is actually not correct. In the original motion for summary judgment for the plaintiffs (RIAA), the court acknowledged and separated encoding CDs to mp3s from distributing mp3s over the i-net. They aren’t suing over the encoding part, they are suing over the files being distributed over the i-net. MediaSentry (the company responsible for the tracking of the mp3s) found and screenshotted the user’s KaZaA account with all of the songs being shared…

    So this is just another mp3 suing case…

    -matt

  • http://awarmgun.net/ Ian Adams

    How did the RIAA even find out about this “shared folder”? I’m presuming it wasn’t on the internet. Am I missing something?

  • Nick

    Execs have been quoted as saying that Copying a CD to your computer is stealing.

  • http://www.guesswhosright.blogspot.com Mr. Right

    The RIAA needs get used to the computer age.
    They have been happily untouched by ordinary people who would do such heretical things as:

    tape TV shows
    use Tivo
    copy cassette tapes
    use a photocopier
    use a scanner
    copy vinyl

    Now, we can copy CDs; the RIAA can’t stand it. They need to realize that this is the way the world works and stop trying to grab every bit of money they can.
    I am in complete agreement with Mr. Obrian (4th comment up). The sharing of MP3s is a natural response to the practices of the record industry as of late. The industry needs to let go and realise that CDs are being assimilated into the list i just gave. People will copy – people will share. Instead, the industry could use MP3s sharing as a way of advertising. Releasing certain MP3s into the net and having them spread around before the whole album is available for download. Whatever the plan that is used, the RIAA needs adaptation, not legislation.

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