The RIAA wants to sue...100s of millions of people

[Blair]

The RIAA does NOT love you.

According to the RIAA, ripping an MP3 of a CD you own is *also* illegal. Whatever happened to "fair use" - the tenet that you were allowed one copy for personal use?

[Ed Post-Mortem]

I wonder how long it'll be before it's not legal to listen to a record you didn't buy!?! This kinda thing makes me sick. Music is supposed to be shared, and the more people enjoying it the better.

[kopper]

Book me, Dano.

[Blair]

My guess is...Both. If you can't load CDs onto your computer, then you can't share 'em (as easily). And if you want to play it on your iPod and/or computer, you'll have to buy it via iTunes, etc., as well. MORE money!!!

Hell, the only major label things I even look at these days are box sets of old stuff. If this is the attitude, though, I'm at the point where I'll just not bother w/those boxes. There's plenty of other good music out there.

I did talk to my entertainment lawyer friend about this today and he basically said: (a) the only way they'd even go after you is if you were file sharing in the first place and (b) he doubts they'd manage to win on this part in court. He said, "They can claim anything they want, but that doesn't make it so."

The funny thing is, I have a hard time believing that there are more than a few people at the various labels who don't actually do this themselves!!!

[Thee Strawberry Mynde]

It's like the "home taping is killing music" campaign of the 80s.

[Dgrador]

Umm... I think that I was the Home Taper who Killed the music.

[kopper]

It makes you wonder how long it'll be before they start to go after podcasters...

[kopper]

Actually, this is just kind of a media blow up after some misinterpretation by the Legion that is the Internet.

In the particular case that the Washington Post discusses at the beginning of the article you've linked to, the defendant Jeffery Howell is being sued for "illegal downloading," the RIAA's favorite dish of choice. The vague warnings of the questionable legality of ripping a CD to your hard drive combined with some silly scare tactics taken by Sony BMG months ago and the reactionary state of being the Internet exists in kinda made this story snowball. Engadget briefly explains here. Here's a blog post that goes a little more in depth and also has a link to the PDF of the actual brief.

Granted, the RIAA are still being dicks, and this sly way of slipping the words "unauthorized copies" into the conversation is some dastardly shit. One wonders what might happen if the RIAA actually tries to go to court on such a platform with a technophobe judge behind the bench. Still, in a country where over 110 million iPods have been sold since its introduction, it's hard to imagine that kind of argument winning.

Thanks to Jason Lauderdale for the above info!

[Blair]

Nobody's arguing the point that the guy broke the law. But it appears that the RIAA is trying to say that even ripping a CD is illegal. Actually, if you read the actual brief, even that isn't *quite* what they're saying. However, if you remember what Sony BMG's chief litigator said in court - that making one copy is still stealing one copy - that seems like they are *indeed* trying to tell us that it's illegal.

Having said that, they'd likely get laughed out of court. Still, it's one more reason to hate the buggers.

[Lost Soul]

I wonder how libraries are still able to lend CDs out without prosecution?