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

Eric Jackson eric-jackson at comcast.net
Wed Jan 2 13:59:54 EST 2008


Jim Wilke wrote:

> Eric,
> 
> Of course it doesn't prevent "records" from being "dubbed" - remember LP 
> to tape cassette?  The copying that's freaking the record industry 
> resulted from quick ripping and peer sharing - 3 or 4 minutes to copy a 
> full CD instead of 40 minutes to an hour for an LP.  PLUS the ability to 
> pick specific tracks, OR re-order or eliminate them later, OR shuffle 
> playback to change the sequence for variety make the mp3 player a very 
> different beast from a cassette.   And then when the copiers give it 
> away on the internet no wonder the record companies worry about how many 
> sales are lost as a result.


Hi Jim,

You are definitely correct about it being much easier to just copy a CD 
or burn mp3s to CD. It is a pain to do lps and I wouldn't want to have 
copy any number of lps at a single sitting. I do make copies of lps or 
songs occasional because I don't have the music on CD, for whatever reason.

I find it easier when doing my show to use a CD instead of an lp in our 
studios. That's one reason why I sometimes copy from vinyl.

Eric Jackson
Mon - Thurs 8 pm - mid.
89.7 FM WGBH Boston
www.wgbh.org/jazz






> 
> Like most of you I have little time for leisure listening.. I'm mostly 
> auditioning new CDs, things I haven't heard before and may never listen 
> to again.  I did buy an iPod Nano to gain an understanding of why people 
> like them so much and think about the impact on radio and records.  
> After transferring some favorite tracks from a variety of CDs and 
> downloading a few podcasts, I can understand their appeal.  It bear 
> little relationship to the painstaking 1 to 1 dubbing of LP to cassette 
> or CD in real time.   Also, having hundreds of tunes you can immediately 
> access in a device smaller than a single audio cassette is a huge leap.  
> Yeah, I can see it ...  It's not like making a single copy from an 
> out-of-print record for a friend.
> 
> I think I'd agree with David's tongue-in-cheek comment.  Most of the 
> iPod generation would not be able to figure out how to get a vinyl LP 
> into a computer.  The drawer is too little!
> 
> Jim
> 
> Jim Wilke
> Jazz After Hours, PRI
> www.jazzafterhours.org
> 
> 
> On Wednesday, January 2, 2008, at 08:55  AM, Eric Jackson wrote:
> 
>> David Kunian wrote:
>>
>>> Maybe it's time for labels to move back to vinyl,
>>
>> That wouldn't help. It's easy enough to copy from vinyl to CD. I just 
>> copied a song today for list member Ron Gill. Al it takes is phono 
>> cables.
>>
>> I have a USB turntable that plugs right into my computer and comes 
>> with software for the Mac or Windows that allows you to record the 
>> audio but as I mentioned you can do it easy enough with just phono 
>> cables or maybe a stereo mini plug.
>>
>> Eric Jackson
>> Mon - Thurs 8 pm - mid.
>> 89.7 FM WGBH Boston
>> www.wgbh.org/jazz
>>
>>
>>
>>> but that's probably irrelevant because labels as we know them will be 
>>> a thing of the past like the dodo bird.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>>>> Labels at some point will have to sale their products and once out 
>>>> of the box, there is no save way to keep it form being "illegally" 
>>>> copied. It will be an eternal cat and mouse tech arm race.
>>>>
>>>> Luis Mario Ochoa
>>>> info at CubanMusicProductions.com
>>>> www.CubanMusicProductions.com
>>>> Tel: 416-654-5410
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "jazzhead" <jazzhead at bellsouth.net>
>>>> To: <jazzproglist at jazzweek.com>
>>>> Sent: Tuesday, January 01, 2008 4:06 PM
>>>> Subject: Re: [JPL] Download Uproar: Record Industry Goes After 
>>>> Personal Use
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 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
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 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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