RIAA Says No To Transferring Legally Purchased Music From CD To PC

Washington Post:

Despite more than 20,000 lawsuits filed against music fans in the years since they started finding free tunes online rather than buying CDs from record companies, the recording industry has utterly failed to halt the decline of the record album or the rise of digital music sharing.

Still, hardly a month goes by without a news release from the industry's lobby, the Recording Industry Association of America, touting a new wave of letters to college students and others demanding a settlement payment and threatening a legal battle.

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[3fingerbrown]

Watching the music industry as we knew it go extinct before our eyes is a sad but interesting spectacle. Kind of like watching a dinosaur trying to extricate itself from a tar pit. The more it bellows and struggles, the deeper it sinks.

[DMSmith]

Any industry that stalks and sues its own customers deserves to die.

What don't they understand about the concept of a good capitalist who learns to adapt to the marketplace? Seems to me that's the essence of the game.

Can we say DUH??!

[lovethesinner]

The music business is just so fucking short sighted. The reason why nothing is happening is because they have turned people off to the experience.

Innovation is what they should be worried about. They forget that the stuff they were selling in the sixties had meaning for the people who were listening to it.

Like any pimp, they'd rather abuse their money maker than go out and work for a living.

Analog to digital is so clean now, it doesn't really matter what they do to enforce their laws. If you can hear it, you can record it, and there's nothing they can do about that.

[aigeanta]

fair use means i can make a copy of my cds, which i always do, because they're made so poorly they scratch in like three seconds compared to my oldest ones which were made much better, yet somehow managed to cost less. the RIAA are fucking mobsters.

[robotfog]

the industry is angry because they are the ones who are supposed to be ripping of artists. I found a cool station called pandora.com where you can choose the music you like and then hear similar music and it works well for me.

[Moderation]

None of this would even be an issue if the record industry wasn't utterly ripping folks off. They are using a 25 year old storage medium (CDs came out in 1982), and are charging the same bloody price now for them that they were the medium was first released. CDs should, realistically, be at most $5, and that is being incredibly generous to the recording industry. More like $1-3 per CD. And the RIAA would be SWIMMING in $$$.

Now, the RIAA is losing money, because people don't want to pay preposterous prices for a product that everybody knows costs literally pennies apiece to manufacture, box and ship. If the RIAA had simply lowered the cost of the CD medium, as has occurred with every other medium that has come and gone, people would be vastly more willing to pay the price. The same goes for downloads. If the RIAA would charge $1 (maybe $2) to download a record, people would PAY THEM FOR SUCH A SERVICE rather than download for free. Instead, they got (far too) greedy, and they are paying the price.

As for their ludicrous assertion that you cannot copy music you've legally purchased, and in turn store it on other forms of media for your own personal use, is simply never going to fly. So, no one anywhere can make their own homemade CD mixes? No one can put play lists for parties, etc, on to a CD-R? No one can transfer their records to their MP3 players? No one can simply archive all of their music so they have backups should something occur? Their are countless legal reasons falling well within fair use guidelines for copying and storing musical recordings you've legally purchased.

Seriously, RIAA? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Good f*cking luck with your delusions of grandeur. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[boogiepop]

I used to work at Peaches Records back in the mid-seventies. The record companies have a small problem. When they originaly made the switch from phonograph records to CD, their shipping costs went down, and the record stores could stock more titles in less space. But the price of a CD went UP not down. Now in the beginning I suppose that price could have been justified by the CD being a new technology. The technology is no longer new, but the price of most CDs are still high, too high.
If the record companies would charge a reasonable price for a CD, they might find that the public would once again start buying them.
However, as long as record companies continue to want $16 to $20 or more for a single CD, they are the ones causing the problem. They have been robbing us blind for many years now, and the public is tired of it.
Remember, these days it is not hard to buy a new release DVD of a movie for between $14 to $16, so how do they justify the high cost of an audio CD?
They can't. It is their greed that caused this problem in the first place-and in the end it will be their greed that kills them off one by one.
Some musical groups are already selling their songs on-line and completely by-passing the record companies all together!
I hope these companies save that money they're winning from these lawsuits, cause they're gonna need it. When all is said and done, they are responsible for the drastic drop in CD sales because they were too greedy and over-charged the public for their product in the first place.

[S1m0n]

"Unauthorised" is a legally meaningless term. So what? ALL fair use is unauthorised, by definition.

No doubt the inclusion of a this term in this statement of claim was made for a reason, and no doubt as well that the reason is this hysterical holiday media-splash: HO HO HO from the folks at the RIAA!

[Gary47]

The last gasps of a dying breed. These people will be buried soon. They are pathetic dinosaurs.

[Kally]

I have a solution..­.stop buying CD's the artist and recording companies will then go broke.

[Wilburrr]

So if I download a tune from the internet, paying $.98 for it from Rhapsody, can I then copy it to a CD?

Computer software deals with the same laws, and an answer has developed that will make RIAA shit in their drawers...­.
www.openoffice.org
http://www.ubuntu.com
http://www.mozilla-browser.com/firefox-download.htm

It won't be long before artists will be selling directly to their audiences. Home recording technology is getting to be so cheap and so good that there is really no more need for a recording industry. Open source rules!! Not only is RIAA digging their own grave, they are filling the dirt in on top of themselves as well. Goodbye, assholes!

[Birdman]

Here is a solution never buy a sinle CD and listen to the radio. I imagine eventaully the record companies will try to make listening to the radio illegal as well. Had they stepped up several years ago and offered digital content then maybe they would not be in the pickle they are now.

[DatelessNerd]

Everyone who has copied a CD onto their PC should go to their local police station, turn themselves in, and demand a jury trial.

The millions upon millions of cases would bring the entire criminal justice system to a screeching halt.

It's time to put a stop to special-interest laws written by and for corporations, like the DMCA.

[bluesky49876]

Just to spite the RIAA, I intend to copy all my CDs to my computer and also make copies and distribute it to my friends.

[BUSHsurvivor]

Dear RIAA,

How do you know when this happens?