RIAA: It's 'Illegal' to Rip Your Own CDs to Your Own Computer
The Recording Industry Association of America has said that an Arizona resident whose computer contains almost 2,000 songs ripped from CDs he bought legally is in violation of copyright law for creating the collection.
Jeffery Howell is accused of sharing the songs, but industry officials said he should not have made the copies from his CD collection onto his computer. The RIAA recently won a $220,000 judgment from a woman who downloaded 24 songs.
Lawyer Ray Beckerman said, "Recently, the industry has been going around saying that even a personal copy on your computer is a violation." Beckerman, who has experience in such cases, has attacked the RIAA's position.
for 2,000 of his own? Thats crazy! The recording Industry needs a clean sweep, me thinks, me does. I guess my collection of 500 CDs x at least 10 songs per is 5,000 mp3s.. never mind the other 31,000... runs and hides..
The RIAA lawyers have used the term "unauthorized", not "illegal". There's a big difference between the two terms. As of now, making a personal copy of a CD is legally considered fair use unless they can convince the courts otherwise. Unauthorized means they don't like it, but can't do anything about it.
Sorry - but his title is spot on. From the very first line of the source : "The U.S. recording industry has intensified its fight against illicit downloading, saying it is illegal for someone to transfer music from a CD onto a computer." They indeed used the word "Illegal" - Apologies if the source was changed or amended since first posted.
At least with our new copyright laws, we can now transfer music bought on CD to either a MP3 CD, computer or mp3 player for personal use(of course).
We can also now record TV to watch(once) at a later time. Format change is now a legal thing in Australia. This means we can change video to DVD, CD to MP3, vinyl record to CD, like we have done for sooo long but now allowed to.
I'm just unsure whether I should raise one finger or two.
@RIAA I rip the CDs because the game I'm playing won't work without the CD in the drive. I think friends of yours came up with this boneheaded idea. I refuse to buy a seperate sound system that takes up more of my limited room to do what my computer will do so you leeches can make more profit. I refuse to buy any new CD by any artist you represent.
This goes back to their crybaby days when they protested the establishment of 'Used CD' shops- whining that they were losing sales due to this immoral sale of previously-owned CDs.
Crock o' lard. RIAA needs to be stopped before they sue another 12 year old!
The RIAA have finally crossed into their own little dream world. I believe the saying is "Don't bite the hand that feeds you". They are going after someone who has been legally buying these songs and filling their coffers. Insane.
Back in the 80's, there was a huge court battle over the legality of copying cassettes. The court said that it was legal to make a personal copy because, due to the degredation of quality, and exact duplicate could be made and subsequent copies of copies would further deteriorate, etc, etc.
Some of you may remember that it had become illegal to copy DVDs. In fact, it is even illegal in the US to sell software that enables a user to copy a DVD with copy protection on it. The law has even gone so far as to make it illegal to share info on how to circumvent a DVD's copy protection.
It won't be long before the same standard is applied to music. But then that will create a new can of worms: If I've purchased multiple MP3s, would it illegal if a created a backup of them? What if I backed-up my hard-drive? Would I risk facing lawsuits because my backups happened to contain the MP3s? Does this mean that I have to delete each song from my computer if I uploaded the song to my MP3 player?
This is in regards to DVDs. Some of you may have noticed that Microsoft's newer versions of Media Player refuse to play copyrighted DVDs. I think this limitation was implemented to protect their own butts from liability.
It's frustrating when you're on the road or on a trip and your laptop is the only device you have capable of playing DVDs.
Here's a little tip for those frustrated with this limitation: Download Media Player Classic.
Media Player 6 and prior versions do not have this limitation and *will* play DVDs.
OH, you did?... WELL IT'S ILLEGAL TO OWN THAT CD. You should have consulted with us first before continuing to own that piece of property that you paid for. We're going to need to indict you on charges for the ownership of property you paid for. WAIT.... DO YOU OWN THIS CD PLAYER. Clearly you weren't aware that owning property to play your illegally owned, yet legally purchased CD's was illegal. Unfortunately negligence of the law is no excuse. We're going to have take your worldly possessions into our grubby grubby little bastard hands.
Actually, here's a good question. How in the hell can you sue for damages greater than the cost of the song. Should these people be forced to pay what they would have paid had they legally downloaded the songs. Why the 220,000? RIAA ? RiLAME.
"How in the hell can you sue for damages greater than the cost of the song."
There are two types of damages, punitive and restorative damages. Punitive damages are punishment, resorative are an attempt to pay specificaly for the damage.
RIAA sues for punitive, which are set by the federal government, its yet to try and sue for the other.
RIAA doesnt sue your for stealing, it sues you for supplying it to others.
but the RIAA is seriously overstepping its boundaries, and needs to be permantently shut down.
I'm not justifying the distrobution or download of content you don't own, but when the RIAA says I Can't rip a CD I own to my computer and/or IPOD or let my friends listen when they come over, make a backup of software I purchased in case the CD dies....etc.... come on...
They are already screwing over artists as it is by taking a huge chunk of their change, but suing people for hundres even millions for a f***ing song they downloaded in bad judgement? A slap on the hand and a small (maybe like 100 or 200 bucks) fine is enough...
Now they are just after him for illegal downloads.
I just listen to the radio and when they start charging for that I will let them starve. I can envision the music industry with a double barrel shotgun blasting away at both feet. Their hateful attitude will come back to bite them in the ass.
I've never really given two shits about the RIAA, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say the artists they're protecting rarely see a dime of the money they win in these cases.
The source is also inaccurate and doesn't go into very much detail as to what is actually going on. The RIAA has been fairly widely mis-quoted on this. Here's the official statement regarding making copies of music on the RIAA web site:
"Copying CDs
* It’s okay to copy music onto an analog cassette, but not for commercial purposes. * It’s also okay to copy music onto special Audio CD-R’s, mini-discs, and digital tapes (because royalties have been paid on them) – but, again, not for commercial purposes. * Beyond that, there’s no legal "right" to copy the copyrighted music on a CD onto a CD-R. However, burning a copy of CD onto a CD-R, or transferring a copy onto your computer hard drive or your portable music player, won’t usually raise concerns so long as: o The copy is made from an authorized original CD that you legitimately own o The copy is just for your personal use. It’s not a personal use – in fact, it’s illegal – to give away the copy or lend it to others for copying. * The owners of copyrighted music have the right to use protection technology to allow or prevent copying. * Remember, it’s never ok"
The concern in this case is the fact that the defendant shared the music, not that they ripped it to their computer. I do think that the wording was intentionally used to give people the impression that it's not OK though (more money to be had that way).
I read a comment somewhere i think in the wachington post where it said the guy hav the music on his myspace webpage for people to download. Im sure you can prob back stuff up privatly but not on a public forum where other people "can steal your backup"
I was catching up on my daily dose of news on Fox News (the best source of reliable news anywhere, as all of you already know) and I came across an article very similar to this one.
It appears that the RIAA has changed their stance in regards to ripping CDs.
From Fox News: "Jeffrey Howell of Scottsdale stands accused of placing 54 music files in a specific "shared" directory on his personal computer that all users of KaZaA and other "peer-to-peer" software could access — pretty standard grounds for an RIAA lawsuit. However, on page 15 of a supplemental brief responding to the judge's technical questions about the case, the RIAA's Phoenix lawyer, Ira M. Schwartz, states that the defendant is also liable simply for the act of creating "unauthorized copies" — by ripping songs from CDs."
Cryingstrings - "The source is also inaccurate and doesn't go into very much detail ..." ===== I agree with you that the source is perhaps inaccurate, but l'anglais' title is not misleading - as it is based on that source.
Next they will say it's illegal to listen to a CD with the headphones too loud since people around you might hear the music and could possibly make illegal copies with some sort of recording device.
Where exactly does all this money go anyway that they are trying to collect i fines? I highly doubt it goes to anything useful. They want you to buy their CDs then slap all these technicalities on what you can and can't do with it. What's the difference if I buy the CD and put it on my computer or buy it off iTunes. Either way I still legally purchased the music so I don't see their reasoning behind ripping it on your computer.
Next they will say it's illegal to listen to a CD with the headphones too loud since people around you might hear the music and could possibly make illegal copies with some sort of recording device.
Where exactly does all this money go anyway that they are trying to collect i fines? I highly doubt it goes to anything useful. They want you to buy their CDs then slap all these technicalities on what you can and can't do with it. What's the difference if I buy the CD and put it on my computer or buy it off iTunes. Either way I still legally purchased the music so I don't see their reasoning behind ripping it on your computer.
Anyway, doesn't copyright expire after 50 years anyway? So technically, in 10 years (or less, if the music hadn't just been released when you bought it) you can do whatever you like with it, put it on MySpace, BitTorrent, UseNet etc.
its been illegal to rip cds to your computer for years and years. Its just noone really got prosecuted. Now that the record companies have seen they can win court cases about illegal donwloads, theyre tryingt to go after 'illegal' rips. But it has always technically been illegal to rip cds to your computer. And its technically been illegal to put songs on another device (m3 player etc.) its unregultaed Greedy record companies who bully people into getting their own way.
