racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

RIAA, the organization set out to sue grandmas and pre-teens for alleged usic piracy, wants ripping of CD music into digital format to be considered outside of fair-use.

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.

I understand that selling your iPod pre-loaded may not always be considered legal, say, for instance you’re doing it for profit (one of the latest stupid ideas from the RIAA before this one). But this is just too much. You should be entitled to ripping music from CDs you legally bought.

Or maybe they want to lessen incidences of pirates ripping music off CDs and then distributing on peer-to-peer networks.

At any rate, they’re barking at the wrong tree. The RIAA is passing on the blame to the ordinary consumers, and not the big-time pirates. Why don’t they conduct investigations on the large-scale organized crime groups that earn gazillions from selling drugs and pirated wares. Oh, I forgot, the RIAA is actually considered to be the music mafia, with its mob-like tactics in suing “copyright violators.” They may not be an organized crime group, but they’re surely the biggest bullies around (probably even surpassing Microsoft in its pre-antitrust heyday).

What people are saying:

• “Who cares?”
• “They can go to hell”
• “This is completely insane”
• “Does anyone really care about the RIAA?”
• “If the RIAA had it their way, playing music off the CD you purchased wouldn’t be fair use.”
• “Mom, what’s a CD?”

(via DIGG)

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