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Download Uproar Record Industry Goes After Personal Use
Marc Fisher
Washington
Post
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
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.
(Article continues below)
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."
Full
article here.
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INFOWARS: BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR
MIND
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