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Diploid
Cuban



Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 19,274
Loc: Rabbit Hole
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RIAA Getting Stoopider and Stoopider
#7822590 - 01/02/08 04:26 AM (16 years, 30 days ago) |
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Forget file sharing, now you can be sued for legally buying a CD and transferring the music to your MP3 player for personal use! 
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The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) hasn't won many friends in the public sphere lately, what with filing tens of thousands of lawsuits against music fans believed to be distributing music online in violation of copyright, sending letters to college students and others threatening legal action unless they pay a settlement, and (of course) falsely targeting many individuals in these actions.
But in an unusual move in a file-sharing case the RIAA is brining against Arizona resident Jeffrey Howell, RIAA attorney Ira Schwartz characterizes MP3 files Howell allegedly shared via the Internet as "unauthorized copies." (PDF) The catch? These are MP3 files Howell created from music CDs he legally purchased.
Although this is the first time the RIAA has made such a claim in court filings, it is not the first time the organization has floated the concept that transferring music from a legally-purchased CD to a computer for personal use constitutes an "unauthorized copy" in violation of copyright law. Earlier this year, Jammie Thomas was ordered to pay $220,000 in damages for songs she shared online; in that case, the head of Sony BMG's litigation team Jennifer Pariser testified she believed transferring your own CDs to a computer constituted theft. According to Pariser, transferring a song to a computer for personal use is "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy.'"
The idea that transferring music from a legally purchased CD to a computer for personal use has commonly been considered to fall within the realm of "fair use," an exception to copyright law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the copyright owners or administrators. However, this particular application of fair use has never been upheld by a court. By specifically citing transferring music to personal computers as an unauthorized copy, the RIAA is possibly hoping to set legal precedent that these copies are not protected by the fair use exception.
Conversely, if RIAA does not win the case, they may set precedent that such copies fall within the realm of fair use.
Howell maintains that the digital music files on his computer were for personal use only and transfer to portable devices, and were intended solely for private use.
-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero



Registered: 04/27/01
Posts: 23,480
Loc: Caribbean
Last seen: 2 months, 20 days
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Re: RIAA Getting Stoopider and Stoopider [Re: Diploid]
#7822646 - 01/02/08 05:08 AM (16 years, 30 days ago) |
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It is amazing to watch the RIAA's spasms as the beast slowly dies in the modern age of digital media where publishers are no longer needed.
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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SheerTerror
ST


Registered: 11/28/03
Posts: 2,348
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Re: RIAA Getting Stoopider and Stoopider [Re: Diploid]
#7822719 - 01/02/08 06:07 AM (16 years, 30 days ago) |
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hah they're trying to sue and completely contradict all copyright laws.
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johnm214



Registered: 05/31/07
Posts: 17,582
Loc: Americas
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Re: RIAA Getting Stoopider and Stoopider [Re: SheerTerror]
#7823065 - 01/02/08 10:19 AM (16 years, 30 days ago) |
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This position seems untennable.
Course, all they need to do is put minor DRM on that cd, and then any copying is a DMCA violation, which is pretty clear.
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RuNE
bomberman


Registered: 09/23/00
Posts: 2,331
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Re: RIAA Getting Stoopider and Stoopider [Re: Seuss]
#7824265 - 01/02/08 04:03 PM (16 years, 30 days ago) |
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Quote:
Seuss said: It is amazing to watch the RIAA's spasms as the beast slowly dies in the modern age of digital media where publishers are no longer needed.
 That's a good visualization. But true that. Especialy with the recent developments with Amazon and DRM.
-------------------- ~Happy sailing~
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Newbie
User of semicolons.



Registered: 07/18/04
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Re: RIAA Getting Stoopider and Stoopider [Re: RuNE]
#7825822 - 01/02/08 10:57 PM (16 years, 30 days ago) |
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Fuck the RIAA. Retarded Ignorant Asshole Association
If you buy your music you should be able to listen to it on whatever the fuck you want to! Hell even if you're smart enough to find it online illegally, which a lot of people do, you deserve it. I'm still going to shell out $60 a ticket to see them live if I like them...
Nothing makes me happier than going to a live show and hearing the artist themself telling the crowd to download their shit for free online. Those are the real artists.
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johnm214



Registered: 05/31/07
Posts: 17,582
Loc: Americas
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Re: RIAA Getting Stoopider and Stoopider [Re: Newbie]
#7825922 - 01/02/08 11:29 PM (16 years, 30 days ago) |
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ehh...
I think copyright is fine, it's excessive penalties that need to be reexamined.
IN other areas of law, where the punitive damages exceed the actual damages by more than a set multiple ( I think around threeish? ) they tend to become a due process violation.
The statutory damages w/ copyright just fucks things up. The lawsuits are fine, for the most part, the push for shitier laws than we have not (i.e. DMCA and its progeny as proposed) is wrong. Lower the statutory damages to something reasonable, repeal anti-circumvention part of DMCA, and all will be hunky dory.
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RuNE
bomberman


Registered: 09/23/00
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Re: RIAA Getting Stoopider and Stoopider [Re: Newbie]
#7826705 - 01/03/08 09:11 AM (16 years, 29 days ago) |
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Quote:
Nothing makes me happier than going to a live show and hearing the artist themself telling the crowd to download their shit for free online. Those are the real artists.
And it's funny how that is the exact thing that will cause their CD sales to go up.
-------------------- ~Happy sailing~
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hummermania00
Strange Son of aBitch



Registered: 04/07/07
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Re: RIAA Getting Stoopider and Stoopider [Re: Seuss]
#7827937 - 01/03/08 03:18 PM (16 years, 29 days ago) |
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Quote:
Seuss said: It is amazing to watch the RIAA's spasms as the beast slowly dies in the modern age of digital media where publishers are no longer needed.
Question on this if anyone knows. Is the US the only country where these copyright suits are taking place? I have not seen or heard of any others in other countries.
-------------------- You are a fortunate person indeed, if you can begin each day accepting the fact that during that day there will be ups and downs, good breaks and bad ones, disappointments, surprises, and unexpected turns of events. When you have solved all the mysteries of life you long for death, for it is but another mystery of life.
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Diploid
Cuban



Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 19,274
Loc: Rabbit Hole
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Re: RIAA Getting Stoopider and Stoopider [Re: johnm214]
#7830836 - 01/04/08 06:31 AM (16 years, 28 days ago) |
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The statutory damages w/ copyright just fucks things up.
They're arguing along the lines that if you give away 10 copies of an album and they lose $10 on each, then each of the people who downloaded it from you give out 10 more times, and then it happens for a third generation, that's $10,000 of lost revenue due to your one upload. And I'm pretty sure popular music gets copied on an even more steep curve than an order per generation.
To be fair to RIAA, the damages make sense as far as that goes. A popular torrent can have hundreds or thousands of downloads on a single tracker, let alone when it makes its way to other trackers and multiplies the losses.
They ARE losing money, lots of it compared to before digital. Naturally, they're freaking out, for all the good it's going to do them.
I think the only way for the RIAA to survive is to come to terms with small profit margins and volumes and accept that only old and non-technical people are going to buy music in the future. The rest of us will copy it and since there's nothing the RIAA can do to stop it, their energies are better spent streamlining their business model and reducing costs than pissing off tech-savvy young people who will only copy and share more as a result.
But I don't expect this to happen. The people who run the record industry are too old to change.
-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
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Diploid
Cuban



Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 19,274
Loc: Rabbit Hole
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Re: RIAA Getting Stoopider and Stoopider [Re: hummermania00]
#7830839 - 01/04/08 06:33 AM (16 years, 28 days ago) |
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They seem to be going after trackers instead of individuals outside the US.
-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero



Registered: 04/27/01
Posts: 23,480
Loc: Caribbean
Last seen: 2 months, 20 days
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Re: RIAA Getting Stoopider and Stoopider [Re: Diploid]
#7831079 - 01/04/08 08:24 AM (16 years, 28 days ago) |
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> They ARE losing money, lots of it compared to before digital
On the assumption that those that download would have purchased had downloading been unavailable. This is a rather large assumption.
> They ARE losing money, lots of it compared to before digital.
There are only so many hours in the week, and only so much money available, that an individual has for entertainment. I believe that it is the advent of portable music players, dvd players, home theaters, computer games, the internet, game consoles, and all the various other forms of entertainment that eat away the majority of RIAA's revenue. The world changed and the RIAA didn't...
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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Diploid
Cuban



Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 19,274
Loc: Rabbit Hole
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Re: RIAA Getting Stoopider and Stoopider [Re: Seuss]
#7831398 - 01/04/08 10:08 AM (16 years, 28 days ago) |
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Hey, preaching to the quoir. Like you, I like to understand the other side and how better than to try to see things their way.
-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
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johnm214



Registered: 05/31/07
Posts: 17,582
Loc: Americas
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Re: RIAA Getting Stoopider and Stoopider [Re: Diploid]
#7831466 - 01/04/08 10:29 AM (16 years, 28 days ago) |
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each transmition of the copyritten work is a sepperate violation, sepperate damages.
That its dificult to prove the extent of sharing, isn't relevant (to me).
Those statutory damages have been around prior to the advent of peer to peer online sharing.
They seem to be a due process violation to me.
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tak
geo's henchman




Registered: 11/20/00
Posts: 3,776
Loc: nowhereland
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Re: RIAA Getting Stoopider and Stoopider [Re: johnm214]
#7858373 - 01/10/08 09:45 AM (16 years, 22 days ago) |
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they just need to hurry up and die
-------------------- The DJ's took pills to stay awake and play for seven days.
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