Shall I Raise the Jolly Roger?

According to the Washinton Post, the RIAA wants to make ripping an MP3 from a CD you legally own into iTunes illegal. That’s ridiculous. Now I understand the problem with giving mp3s that you’ve ripped to your best buds. I’ve little doubt that that violates copyright. Of course these says if you want to lend a CD to a friend that’s the easiest way and when CDs are a thing of the past (and for some folks they already are) how are you supposed to let someone borrow an “album” or an individual song?
And this quote from Sony BMG’s chief of litigation, Jennifer Pariser,

“when an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song.” Copying a song you bought is “a nice way of saying ‘steals just one copy,’ ” she said.

Well that’s just… words fail me. Nice words anyway.

  • http://sidfaiwu.com/blog sidfaiwu

    Well the RIAA (and the MPAA for that matter) have been fighting consumer-level digitization of media since it first appeared. They’ve already managed to criminalize a large chunk of their own customer base by pushing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act through congress in ’98.
    I recently blogged about a talk Larry Lessig gave on this very topic. He did a fantastic job of pointing out the absurdity of this situation. He goes on to promote a sensible, market-based solution. I highly suggest watching it.

  • Patrick

    These people are despicable.

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