[JPL] Download Uproar: Record Industry Goes After Personal Use

[jazzhead]

Does anyone know specifcally how this person was found out by the RIAA?
Also, I want to think there was an instance where a label released a CD by 
an artist that you couldn't copy at all - who was the label and artist? I 
can't remember offhand.

I would think that in this day and time labels would simply block CDs from 
being copied period - and just FTP their new releases to radio - reviewers, 
etc.

Mark Dove
"Sounds of Jazz"
"Cafe Jazz"
Eclectic 89.1 WBCX
http://www.brenau.edu/about/wbcx



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jazz Promo Services" <jazzpromo at earthlink.net>
To: <jazzproglist at jazzweek.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 01, 2008 6:05 AM
Subject: [JPL] Download Uproar: Record Industry Goes After Personal Use


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> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/28/AR2007122800
> 693.html?referrer=emailarticle
>
> Download Uproar: Record Industry Goes After Personal Use
> By Marc Fisher
> Washington Post Staff Writer
> Sunday, December 30, 2007; M05
>
> 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.
>
> Now, in an unusual case in which an Arizona recipient of an RIAA letter 
> has
> fought back in court rather than write a check to avoid hefty legal fees,
> the industry is taking its argument against music sharing one step 
> further:
> In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a 
> Scottsdale,
> Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his
> personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone 
> who
> has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.
>
> 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.
>
> "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."
>
> RIAA's hard-line position seems clear. Its Web site says: "If you make
> unauthorized copies of copyrighted music recordings, you're stealing. 
> You're
> breaking the law and you could be held legally liable for thousands of
> dollars in damages."
>
> They're not kidding. In October, after a trial in Minnesota -- the first
> time the industry has made its case before a federal jury -- Jammie Thomas
> was ordered to pay $220,000 to the big record companies. That's $9,250 for
> each of 24 songs she was accused of sharing online.
>
> Whether customers may copy their CDs onto their computers -- an act at the
> very heart of the digital revolution -- has a murky legal foundation, the
> RIAA argues. The industry's own Web site says that making a personal copy 
> of
> a CD that you bought legitimately may not be a legal right, but it "won't
> usually raise concerns," as long as you don't give away the music or lend 
> it
> to anyone.
>
> Of course, that's exactly what millions of people do every day. In a Los
> Angeles Times poll, 69 percent of teenagers surveyed said they thought it
> was legal to copy a CD they own and give it to a friend. The RIAA cites a
> study that found that more than half of current college students download
> music and movies illegally.
>
> The Howell case was not the first time the industry has argued that making 
> a
> personal copy from a legally purchased CD is illegal. At the Thomas trial 
> in
> Minnesota, Sony BMG's chief of litigation, Jennifer Pariser, testified 
> that
> "when an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can 
> say
> he stole a song." Copying a song you bought is "a nice way of saying 
> 'steals
> just one copy,' " she said.
>
> But lawyers for consumers point to a series of court rulings over the last
> few decades that found no violation of copyright law in the use of VCRs 
> and
> other devices to time-shift TV programs; that is, to make personal copies
> for the purpose of making portable a legally obtained recording.
>
> As technologies evolve, old media companies tend not to be the source of 
> the
> innovation that allows them to survive. Even so, new technologies don't
> usually kill off old media: That's the good news for the recording 
> industry,
> as for the TV, movie, newspaper and magazine businesses. But for those old
> media to survive, they must adapt, finding new business models and new,
> compelling content to offer.
>
> 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."
>
> The industry "will continue to bring lawsuits" against those who "ignore
> years of warnings," RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy said in a statement. 
> "It's
> not our first choice, but it's a necessary part of the equation. There are
> consequences for breaking the law." And, perhaps, for firing up your
> computer.
> --
>
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