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October 03, 2007
Sony: Stop Stealing Music You Already Bought!
Pariser has a very broad definition of "stealing." When questioned by Richard Gabriel, lead counsel for the record labels, Pariser suggested that what millions of music fans do is actually theft. The dirty deed? Ripping your own CDs or downloading songs you already own.When I purchase a CD, I am purchasing the right to personally use the contents of that disk.Gabriel asked if it was wrong for consumers to make copies of music which they have purchased, even just one copy. Pariser replied, "When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song." Making "a copy" of a purchased song is just "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy'," she said.
Countless studies have shown that the majority of music on portable music players like the iPod comes from sources other than download services. For most people, that music is comprised primarily of songs "ripped" from CD collections to MP3 or some other comparable format. Indeed, most portable music players comes with software (like iTunes) which is designed to facilitate the easy ripping of CDs. According to Pariser's view, this is stealing.
If I don't make copies for friends or distribute it outside my own media players, I do not see how Sony's copyright is violated, since the person who paid for the music (me) is still the sole user of it - I'm just not limiting my use to CD players.
It seems the music industry's hostility to its customers is unlimited.
Posted by slublog at October 3, 2007 09:35 AM
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Comments
Yeah, they've been complaining about this for awhile now. A drowning man will cling to anything, but right now, most of the companies are clinging to the ship's anchor. Internet distribution is replacing CD sales (which would be the real reason CD sales are down), and instead of taking advantage of this, they make rules, alienate customers, and sue people left and right to try and enforce a system that's going to be obsolete in 5-10 years. But hey, anything to make a buck, right?
Posted by: Dan Pete at October 3, 2007 11:45 AM
I forget where I heard it (may've been a friend of mine, may've been a pundit), but my favorite line is that the RIAA would charge you everytime you listened to a song if they could.
(And IIRC, legally, you're allowed to make at least one backup copy for yourself, which is why they can't copyguard everything.)
Posted by: Some Guy at October 3, 2007 12:49 PM
The other thing I should mention is that many people are discouraged from buying CDs due to the one-or-two-good-songs syndrome. Buying single songs online disrupts that paradigm and presumably makes more profit.
Posted by: Some Guy at October 3, 2007 12:51 PM
I haven't bought a CD in years and have no intention of doing so again. I buy all my music online so I can get the music I really want and not a bunch of crap with only a couple of good songs like SG was talking about.
Posted by: John at October 4, 2007 01:28 PM