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RIAA: Ripping CDs to iPod not 'Fair Use'
Posted by
samzenpus
on Thu Feb 16, 2006 08:53 AM
from the buy-another-copy dept.
from the buy-another-copy dept.
dotpavan writes "EFF has this article about RIAA saying that ripping CDs and backing them up does not come under Fair use.
Ars Technica also reports on this, by quoting, "The [submitted arguments in favor of granting exemptions to the DMCA] provide no arguments or legal authority that making back up copies of CDs is a noninfringing use. In addition, the submissions provide no evidence that access controls are currently preventing them from making back up copies of CDs or that they are likely to do so in the future. Myriad online downloading services are available and offer varying types of digital rights management alternatives. For example, the Apple FairPlay technology allows users to make a limited number of copies for personal use. Presumably, consumers concerned with the ability to make back up copies would choose to purchase music from a service that allowed such copying. Even if CDs do become damaged, replacements are readily available at affordable prices. Similar to the motion picture industry, the recording industry has faced, in online piracy, a direct attack on its ability to enjoy its copyrights.""
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Big surprise (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Big surprise (Score:5, Insightful)
Which is exactly what the RIAA wants; they make far more off a download than a CD, at least on a per-track basis. Ringtones even more so. And for a lower quality product.
TWW
Parent
Re:Big surprise (Score:5, Insightful)
In my understadnding, once you buy a CD, you have a license to play it's songs in any format, in as many devices as you want and as many cars you have.
Another problem is iTunes proprietary format not being compatible with all media devices(or devices not compatible with DRMed media in general).
Parent
Buy it again, Sam. (Score:5, Insightful)
Thanks, so I'll just buy another copy. Great solution.
Re:Buy it again, Sam. (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Buy it again, Sam. (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Buy it again, Sam. (Score:5, Funny)
I feel so sorry for the poor RIAA, having to deal with you tightwads with limited storage space, and welcome the day when they can download whatever they want directly into the back of your brain and charge it to your bank account.
Parent
No CDs (Score:5, Interesting)
What about... (Score:5, Insightful)
Backup and preservation of investment? (Score:5, Interesting)
I hope this comes to court (Score:5, Interesting)
The only question that remains then is "which of the two statements is perjury?".
Let me get this straight (Score:5, Insightful)
I thought I was "licensing the content," not "buying the CD." Shouldn't I be able to put my licensed content wherever I want?
Until the companies offer free download replacement of the music I am (ahem) licensing, so I can store that content on a blank CD or wherever else I want, why should I care what they consider "affordable"?
What rights? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry guys, but I think the age of "my music" or "owning music" is dead, and currently in the process of being burried. This is just the latest shovel of dirt.
Re:What rights? (Score:5, Insightful)
Last shovel of dirt, yes - But on the RIAA, not on our right to own our culture.
Slashdotters (and all people) need to keep in mind the difference between a major country's legal systems saying "fair use does not include a right to backups" and the RIAA spewing yet another round of customer-repelling male cow feces. The former means a lot of people turn into criminals overnight by the wave of the magic wand-of-exclusive-law. The latter means... Nothing at all.
Parent
Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 (Score:5, Informative)
That's simply not true (Score:5, Insightful)
I have several CDs that I couldn't replace easily. Sometimes they go out of print.
Re:That's simply not true (Score:5, Insightful)
These are perfectly legal, but some of the companies which distributed them no longer exist, so I cannot get copies from them even if I wanted to pay full price.
Sometimes entire companies go "out of print" too!
Parent
What a ripoff... (Score:5, Funny)
RIAA Goon 2: Let's sell CDs covered with heroin! Then they'll need to keep buying more CDs to get their fix!
G1: Although we're above the law, I don't wanna use heroin. It's expensive.
G2: Hmm... I've got it! Let's charge them for something they ALREADY OWN!
G1: Great Scott!! Like what?
G2: We'll tell those suckers that ripping CDs to MP3 players (especially iPods!!) is illegal and that they'll need to buy DIGITAL (ooooh the d-word) music for their MP3 players.
G1: Brilliant! Except, we already said that was legal when we sued Grokster.
G2: Well, say now it isn't!! The dumb consumers bend to us!! We are above the law!!
G1: Well, all right. Good idea, Jim. I'm gonna go now, I have $2.4 million from Britney Spears' latest album to roll around in and wipe my ass with. See ya!
Legally speaking... (Score:5, Insightful)
But I think most people would agree that fairness is also a moral concept, and in that sense it's obvious that it is indeed fair use to copy something you already have to your MP3 player or PC to listen to in a more convenient way.
Here's a hint to the lovely people at the RIAA and similar bodies around the world: if people can't use CDs in this kind of way, they won't buy them.
Congress was not impressed with their arguments (Score:5, Informative)
The RIAA spokesman said the Broadcast Flag was needed because with HD radio
(which is just digitial radio), now people could record music off the air
without paying for it. They want to stop that. They put forth the CD ripping argument, too, saying there was nothing to prevent people from copying songs willy-nilly and sharing them, denying royalties to the struggling artists.
The Senators didn't like his view at all. It seems that many of them have
IPods, and like to grab songs, interviews, and other audio so they can listen to
them on the plane! They like their Dean Martin as much as the kids like their Ice Masta Jam.
I was pleased to see liberals and conservatives both on the side of fair use,
rather than on the side of corporate profit. I think they've been getting mail.
What are we buying? (Score:5, Interesting)
I can fully understand (assuming that I am only buying the rights) that I can't legally copy the music and give/sell that to someone else, but I'm no longer clear on what 'buying' a CD actually buys me.
Dear RIAA, (Score:5, Informative)
16 million iPod sales in 2005 alone. Nearly one billion songs purchased from iTMS. 90% and 70% market share respectively. Just thought I'd remind you that the market has spoken and you're old. In closing, screw you.
Sincerely,
Everyone
Is my iPod different from a cassette deck? (Score:5, Insightful)
What the RIAA doesn't realize is that there are quite a few people like me that ONLY purchase CDs so I can listen to them on my iPod. Before getting a portable mp3 player I would purchase perhaps one CD per year (I listened to the radio in my car and at work). Now I buy CDs so I have new content for my mp3 player.
The RIAA will be shooting themselves in their collective FOOT if they turn a CD into a 'limited playability license'. I for one would not buy another CD if I didn't have legal 'fair use' rights to the content.
I haven't bought a physical CD in years... (Score:5, Insightful)
'Even if CDs do become damaged, replacements are readily available at affordable prices.'
Next, I'm sure they're going to say that copying the contents of a data CD (Microsoft Office, or Frontstep CRM) to a network software repository is infringant use on that license. Just prevents me from having to
- Find the CD once I know that I need it...
- Determine that the CD isn't being kept in the master disc binder...
- Determine which of my coworkers was the last to use it...
- Try to root through their crap in an attempt to find it.
Back to music discs, though.So I'm not allowed to store the data on a networked disk drive to enjoy throughout my own personal network, nor am I allowed to play it on my own iPod, iPod Pico, or Rio Karma, or whatever the hell it is you kids have nowadays.
Am I breaking the 'license' I bought when I play it in a CD player with 120second or 300second skip protection? Technically, the data has been encoded to digital media, and is therefore must be mutable into a file format.
Online alternatives would seem like the solution. Because then I can just download an album, burn it to a disc, rerip it without copy protection, and REMEMBER THE GOOD OLD DAYS.
Seriously, this shit has got to stop. Maybe satelite radio is where it's at...
Re:These people really don't get it do they? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent