RIAA aims to ban CD ripping

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http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2150479/riaa-aims-ban-cd-ripping

Can they?

 

I wish lobbying weren't so easy and so completely legal. There should be limits to that. Even if the majority of people disagree with something, the majority of their representatives always seems to be able to be convinced.

 

That's because the people lobbyists represent are funding them. You don't bite the hand that feeds you.

 

If they did pass that, they would put Apple's iPod section out of business... most people rip their music to their iPod, not just buy it.

Hopefully electronic companies are lobbyists too...


And this is Absolute

 

How on earth do they expect this to hold up in court? If, as the article states, their assertion is that is already illegal, rather than should be illegal, they're clearly doomed.

Am I missing something?

 

The RIAA are evil - maybe as evil as Microsoft... :-/

 

does it matter? there's no way of preventing it. some sony brand CD's have attempted this by including software for computers which allow it to only be played with that software... but there's always a program out there which will rip it.

 

Former head of MPAA, Jack Valenti: "If you buy a DVD you have a copy. If you want a backup copy you buy another one."

A few years old quote, but I think it describes this situation quite well.

 

As a musician, I feel I have every right to say this to the RIAA: go **** yourself.

Music is not a commodity. It is not a good. It is not something that is owned. Music is a gift; from "the muses" to the musician, from the musician to the people. Yes, there can be money involved if the people appreciate the gift enough. That's why people purchase CDs or go to concerts to begin with -- they've heard the music before (typically via radio), and they enjoy it enough to support the artist. The RIAA doesn't understand this, because it isn't composed of musicians, just greedy businessmen.

 

in the industrial world, when the worker wasnt happy with the employer they would strike.

in the commercial world if the customer isnt happy with the supplier they stop buying from them.

maybe the only way to make them see that we are the ones with the real power is to bypass them altogether, everyone start copying and downloading music, and soon they will notice their profits collapse... and why? because of their own greed.

 

This is not exactly a new issue. Back in the 80's people were 'taping' songs off the radio, or making back-up tapes on their cassette players. People could even do this with old Spectrum/Commodore 64 games (dispite the average cost being only £2.99!)

 

Music piracy isn't a new issue; widespread, large scale piracy is. Taping songs off the radio is a pain in the ass; downloading them (with broadband, of course)or copying them to your harddrive is simplicity itself.

 

I don't understand this - what do you mean by "ripping a CD". Obviously, I'm not much into music

 

Basically, copying music off a cd onto your HD.

 

I had not realized it was illegal in that case. My understanding was that it was OK to do that, provided it was still for personal use. In other words, if you bought a CD, you could copy it onto your computer and then onto an iPod for example. Like BTA said, once you buy it, you should be able to use it however you like.

 

It's technically illegal in Australia at the moment - though I did read that they were going to revise the copyright laws this year to make them less crappy.

Zenastin: Sadly, not all musicians agree with that - see Metallica, for example (sellouts that they are...).

I read an interesting article on ... Gamedev.net, maybe - that discussed a future evolution of copyright laws. One of the points made was: do the artists really need to make tens of millions of dollars? It's not like they're overcoming some great big expentiture to make the album like a game company needs to, for example - so why can't they be satisfied with making a figure closer to what a normal job could bring in? There will generally be people who enjoy supporting their favourite band and thus seeing them make more music - and they'd probably be even more inclined to do so if they weren't pissing money away to a record company...

Er ... wait, I think I'm getting off-topic ...I guess I'll stop this rant here...

Shoshino - no, they'd probably just bring in harsher copyprotection or something...

 

If the artist is to make six digits, the record company has to make eight or nine digits. So yes, if there's a greedy and not really reasonable artist, he will go for that and he will let the company screw the audience out of the money all it wants if he just gets some buck. But I wonder how many artists think like Zenastin. Probably not so few.

 

No, not really. Some people would rather have the music on their computers, since it is now a player. Not everyone wants to download an inferior sounding 128 bit download, and have eveything billed to a credit card. Technology is about more choice, not less choice. No matter how hard they bleat against it, the record companies cannot hold technology back for the sake of their own greed.