Dec 30
RIAA Now Suing Consumers for Copying Legally Purchased CDs to PC
Dec 30, `07 — This Slashdot article highlights the latest strategy of the RIAA to sue consumers who have ripped their legally purchased CDs on to a PC.
“With this past week’s announcement by Warner to release its entire catalog to Amazon in MP3 format with no Digital Rights Management, you would think that the organization that represents them, The RIAA, would begin changing its tune.
Instead, they are pressing on in their campaign against consumers by suing individuals who merely rip CDs they’ve purchased legally. ‘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.”
The Washington Post article further writes, “”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.”
The RIAA’s legal crusade against its customers is a classic example of an old media company clinging to a business model that has collapsed. Four years of a failed strategy has only “created a whole market of people who specifically look to buy independent goods so as not to deal with the big record companies,” Beckerman says. “Every problem they’re trying to solve is worse now than when they started.”" More at WashingtonPost.