Not content to go after people for illegal downloads anymore, the RIAA has turned its sights to the new evil: your personal backups on your computer. That’s right, the RIAA now wants to bank on the fact that most judges are a little behind the times when it comes to technology in hopes that they will rule in their favor that copying your legally purchased CD to your computer or iPod for listening is no longer fair use.
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.”
I don’t even know what to say for this one. I think they have lost their collective damn minds. Unfortunately, if people aren’t proactive in educating their lawyers and judges, things like this will continue to happen. When will our legal system finally defeat the RIAA thugs and free consumers from their monetary shackles? This goes against decades of fair use law, and would place prohibitive restrictions on what people spent their money on. I can see this being the straw that finally killed the music industry. If I can’t use the CDs I have paid for in any way I see fit for my personal use, I won’t buy music from signed acts anymore. Ever. Not a single song. I will speak with my wallet, which already gets dipped into routinely to purchase music in a variety of formats on and offline.
Hat tip to Pippa for bringing the article to my attention.
Update: The RIAA may have gotten the WaPo to retract their story, but I still believe that they are trying to stick it to music lovers. And here is a bit on why.
NOW LISTENING; the last gasping breathe of a music industry dying at the choking hands of the misguided RIAA
I am not a lawyer.
But as I understand it, copyright law is mostly about protecting artistic works from the distribution by unauthorized parties.
So I have a suspicion that this novel argument will be somewhat hard to prove if it comes down to showing that any copyrighted work was distributed to anyone.
I’m sort of glad that the RIAA wants to make this an issue and get weird with their tactics. It makes it quite a bit more fun to watch, and I’m certain that if they really pursue this angle, it’ll be a legal field day.
Crash and burn,
transiit
That is outrageous. I can’t see how it can possibly be enforced. It can’t be, can it?
I hope not, but technology is so foreign to so many people on the bench these days that any lawsuit about music use makes me nervous.
The truth of it is, this will get more people buying things like movies and video games, rather then being worried about being sued cause this brought music from itunes and you put it on your ipod , which is also being considered against the law from what i’ve been reading.
That’s ridiculous. This would be a legal battle that they would not be able to win. It’s like the RIAA is trying to kill music altogether by making every kind of way of having music illegal. What’s next? Listening to music on CDs, and, purchasing songs on itunes, and downloading songs off of zune, made illegal? What will they do next? Make the act of making songs illegal? What will the RIAA think of next?
I’m not sure what they’ll think of next, but I know we won’t like it, that’s for damn sure. Meanwhile, SomethingAwful has a great satirical cartoon about where it’s headed here: http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/riaa-liner-notes.php?source=010408
Their argument is somewhat correct but, how can they honestly know if the user is going to distribute the content or simply just keep it on their PC’s. It’s very trivial and I think asking for large amounts of cash for backing up a CD to your computer is absolutely crazy.
Users pay for their CD’s and they are allowed to copy them for personal use by law. Bring down the RIAA.
I have posted some interesting articles on my blog about the RIAA and the touchy subject of copyright.
dwaynecharrington.com
- Dwayne Charrington.
FWIW, the case isn’t about somoene simply ripping a copy of his CD to his computer, it’s that he ripped it to his computer and placed the files in a shared directory that allowed others to grab copies for themselves. In effect, he was illegally making copies for others–something not covered under fair use.
Before you think that I’m standing up for the RIAA, let me assure you that I’m not. I find them to be reprehensible bottomfeeders.
I have no doubt that it’s only a matter of time before they find some way to prohibit people from making backup copies of legally purchased music in their collections, but this isn’t it.
Actually, Ogre, the way that I’ve read it is that the copy IS the issue. The ‘shared directory’ is the argument they are going to use to snow the judge (no disrespect intended to the judge, but this is where they are going) into ruling that personal copies aren’t fair use. It’s a clever approach as long as you are working in an area of law where many judges lack the skills needed to differentiate between babies and bathwater.
It shouldn’t work. I know enough judges to trust in their intelligence. It won’t cause a huge uproar, however, because the main complaints are valid (not saying guilty here, just saying it’s valid to bring suit if you think someone did what they are saying they did.) I don’t think that the RIAA is stupid enough to bring a suit where personal copies would be the only complaint. That would probably really piss off a judge, and make national news in mainstream media. And they can’t afford the opinion hit that that would bring.
The Post isued a retraction to their earlier article but, naturally, that didn’t get nearly as much press:
“A Dec. 30 Style & Arts column incorrectly said that the recording industry “maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.” In a copyright-infringement lawsuit, the industry’s lawyer argued that the actions of an Arizona man, the defendant, were illegal because the songs were located in a “shared folder” on his computer for distribution on a peer-to-peer network.”
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/04/AR2008010403607_2.html
Here’s another article that speaks of the original’s inaccuracy:
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9843939-7.html?tag=nefd.blgs
I saw that yesterday and added a note. It doesn’t change the accuracy of the RIAA targeting computers users or alter the many other times they have made it plain they consider a copy to your hard drive to be illegal though.