News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

February 16, 2006

legal

RIAA Says Ripping CDs to Your iPod is NOT Fair Use

Posted Feb. 16, ’06, 10:20 AM PT by Cyrus Farivar
Category | Legal

ipodnano.gif And from our San Francisco neighbors, the Electronic Frontier Foundation says that apparently the RIAA doesn’t think that ripping to an iPod is legal:

As part of the on-going DMCA rule-making proceedings, the RIAA and other copyright industry associations submitted a filing that included this gem as part of their argument that space-shifting and format-shifting do not count as noninfringing uses, even when you are talking about making copies of your own CDs:

“Nor does the fact that permission to make a copy in particular circumstances is often or even routinely granted, necessarily establish that the copying is a fair use when the copyright owner withholds that authorization. In this regard, the statement attributed to counsel for copyright owners in the MGM v. Grokster case is simply a statement about authorization, not about fair use.”

For those who may not remember, here’s what Don Verrilli said to the Supreme Court last year:

“The record companies, my clients, have said, for some time now, and it’s been on their website for some time now, that it’s perfectly lawful to take a CD that you’ve purchased, upload it onto your computer, put it onto your iPod.”

Subscribe to a RSS feed for this comment thread.

Comments

An addendum from the EFF article linked to above:

P.S.: The same filing also had this to say: "Similarly, creating a back-up copy of a music CD is not a non-infringing use...."

Combining the two statements, one discovers a classic case of overplaying the hand. There is simply no way imaginable that the RIAA will be able to convince any reasonable person(s) that copying a CD one has purchased for backup, or playback purposes in alternative modes (i.e., iPod ripping), is an infringement of anyone's rights.

If they restrict their argument to distribution concerns, they've got a good case, but as soon as they maintain that an otherwise law-abiding person who rips the new Tim McGraw CD to his iPod in order to listen to it at the gym is breaking the law and subject to fine and/or liable for damages, well, they've lost. Not even the little ol' grandma who only drives the speed limit in her '89 Caddy in the only driving she does, to the church on Sunday, is going to buy that one. Or any CDs, for that matter.

Another complicating factor: The same music is generally available, be it from iTunes or other online sources, with or without DRM protection, with both implicit and explicit permissions allowing for form-shifting and transportation of the music in alternative forms, for personal use. That strongly implies that similar utilization of a hard-copy CD--i.e., ripping it to an iPod to listen to at the gym--is and should be perfectly legitimate. End of story.

Posted by: Lucas Cato | February 16, 2006 11:19 AM

GREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREEDGREED

Posted by: Sly | February 16, 2006 1:18 PM

Post a comment

(If you haven't logged in with TypeKey, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting. For quicker posting, set up a TypeKey account.)

 



IDG IDG NETWORK:   CIO   Computerworld   CSO   GamePro   GamerHelp   IDG Connect   Infoworld  
   JavaWorld   LinuxWorld   Macworld   Network World   PC World   PC World Canada   Playlist   Techworld