RIAA Backs Off Dead Man's Family > i wait

reply to Jason Levine

Re: i wait

They only get their "piracy tax" from the so-called "Music CD-Rs". If you buy a plain old box of non-music CD-R discs, the RIAA doesn't get anything. I also don't think that they get anything from CD Rewritable sales. Of course, this only applies to the US. I'm not sure about other countries.

I do remember at one point the RIAA pointing to a statistic about the number of blank CD discs manufactured. They then subtracted the amount they used. Their final total was trumpeted around as the amount of CD discs used for piracy. They didn't seem to think that a CD-R could be used for anything except storage of pirated music. (So I guess I really didn't use those 2 CDs to burn some photos of my brother-in-law's wedding like I thought I did. )

And of course the they don't factor in the blank CD's bought to make legitimate copies of the CD's they own for backup copies they listen to while keeping the original tucked away safe. Then there are those who still like to create their own mix CDs from the music they own.

But what is fair use anyway?

reply to AmnChode
close. The "music CDR" disks have a small royalty built into the price. If you have a stand-alone recorder that hooks into your stereo music system, it has music industry-mandated hardware controls that require you to use one of the above specially encoded music CDR blanks; a standard data CDR/RW disk won't record. Thus, the music industry continues to get royalties when you rip your own using a music recorder. That's also why a cakebox of "music" disks costs more than a box of generic (or even name-brand) data disks.

However, standard data disks don't have the royalty and computer-based recorders are not locked to royalty-encumbered media. Thus, people who use computers rather than the living room stereo to manage their music collections are not supporting the **AAs. Hence the need to "get all those pirating bastards" with their computers.

dw

reply to SRFireside

My opinion is sharing, whether it be lending a CD to a friend or peer to peer trading, legally doesn't fall under copyright infringement. My personal views are along the same lines. Music is art. Art is meant to be shared. Copyright was created only to help compensate artists for a period of time for sales of a work, not create a commodity. Yadda yadda... you've heard it all from me before.

I sorta see where you are going with this. OK Music is Art and Art is supposed to be shared. I can't take the rembrant painting down get a nice scan of the orginal ? and plus music is shared. They allow you to stream music as long as you follow some rules. Aol music allows you to listen (normally without the AOL slogan in the background).

I haven't seen a lawsuit (correct me if I'm wrong) for a person ripping an MP3 to put on their portable MP3 player. They are attacking illegal file sharing (but they seem to attack the file sharing program more and more) which most of us agree that sharing on P2P isn't right. We agree on terms when we purchase the CD and I feel they should be printed OUTSIDE of the package or allow us to return the for a refund if we don't agree. If you don't like the terms don't buy it. Then over time they will have to come up with a solution to correct the problem. Once an artist makes song it isn't a legal right for you to have it.

Don't get me wrong I see both sides and it isn't an easy fix. My wife is a photographer and we have copyright on our images and we get upset if someones makes a photocopy of the images we provide to a client. If a customer make one or two not the end of the world and will not likley take it to court. But, you make alot of copies there can be a problem. This is stated in the contract and they agree to it BEFORE they sign it and pay us.

Sorry I get on a rant once in a while.

Call me naive, but didn't the Supreme Court already rule on this back in the '70's??? Movie studios went nuts over VCR's and the Supreme Court ruled that a person could make as many copies as they wanted, but couldn't sell or publicly display the content. I see filesharing as public display. I agree with the 30 year old Supreme Court ruling: Once I own a "CD", I can do whatever I want with it as long as I don't sell the copy or gift it to someone else. RIAA needs to be stopped, for as I see it, they are violating the Supreme Court ruling in certain cases. As for the other cases, I can't conceive that it can be "proven beyond a reasonable doubt" that an IP address can link to an actual person.

Here's a question in theoretics... if I download a song from an "evil" P2P location and already own the CD, is it a crime? If my CD is scratched, do I no longer own that song?

Ok, you're naive. (just kidding)

The Supreme Court did rule on it, but "fair use" is a very nebulous concept legally. The studios (and other copyright holders) lobbied Congress to make laws granting them more and more control over copyrighted material and pushing fair use further and further to the fringe. It was a gradual thing, and they did have some setbacks (e.g. the music and book industries' attempts to outlaw used CD/book sales) but they've gotten to the point where fair use is seriously threatened. We've gotten to the point where fair use is defined by the industry as something that they allow us to have as opposed to being defined by the courts as something that the people inherently have.

As for your theoretical question. It is a crime technically, but chances are you'd never be prosecuted for it. Remember, they only prosecute suspected uploaders regardless of the media reports.

As a real world example: My wife owns a copy of Billy Joel's Kohuept. I bought it for her when her cassette tape version broke. In a stroke of bad luck, the CD recently broke as well (cracked into 2 pieces). We never got around to ripping to music to CD. (A mistake we won't make again.)

Now I might be able to locate the songs online via a P2P network and download them, but I don't think that would be legal. At least not legal enough for me. AllOfMP3 is another option, but I have doubts about their legality too. So what I'll likely do is buy a used CD. I just checked Half.com and there's one there for under $3.50 with shipping. That beats any online downloads or even AllOfMP3 in my book. And the RIAA won't be getting another dime from this sale. (Somewhere, a RIAA executive is crying out. )

reply to Jason Levine
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Huh? If that were the case, we couldn't have LIBRARIES! You have the right to let anyone borrow your CDs whenver you want and its not a gray area at all. Of course, its up to them to not make copies, but the burden of such an act is on them and not you, the lender.

You can freely let anyone borrow your CDs whenever you want.

reply to Jason Levine

reply to Librarian