OK. Look.
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?RSS&newsid=5714
If you give that a click…
Here’s what it means.
It means, the RIAA is now trying to say that it is illegal to buy a CD and put the songs on your computer or IPOD. They are basically saying you can’t copy the music off the cd in any way, shape, or form.
The recording and movie industries in this country are having serious problems with the legal idea of “fair use.” Fair use is the principle that says you are buying the rights to one copy of the art, not just the physical meduim the art is stored on.
This is in addition to thier last bullshit lawsuit – that it was illegal to copy DVDs because you had to decrypt them to do it, even though it would be legal to copy them if they weren’t encrypted. In other words, you have the right to the data, they were saying, just not to the means to move it.
Guess what? They won that lawsuit.
If they win this one, to comply with the law you will have to buy a downloaded copy of a song or album for your itunes, another for your CD player, etc.
These people have money, and they have clout, and they are scared right down to their bones of us, of our generation, of our sort. They are professional middlemen looking getting cut out of the transaction in the eye, and they are taking something away from all of us, every day, to keep it from happening. Yes, just copying CDs to your computer IS that important.
Decide where you stand on the matter of these pigs buying the law and controlling the art. Decide where you stand on the matter of these people telling your lawmakers what to do and your lawmakers blindly listening to them and their stupid ass money.
You need to write your congressperson about this. You need to tell them that the slow erosion of consumer intellectual property rights is a voting issue for you.
Ok, see I understand all that. And if they pass that law, I will retaliate by never buying another Cd again, downloading everything for free with Limewire of BitComet. Fuck them.
i already download most of my stuff illegally
i wish i could say it was because i was politically conscious but really its because i’m cheap
For once good sir. We are in complete agreement.
k. maybe i’m just…not getting this, but is this not the same as telling me that i can’t re-type a page from a book and say, print it out for my mother?
i’m actually, seriously asking here.
Well, yes. Basically (in the US, at least) there’s a principle called fair use that says you have the right to store and backup a piece of copywritten media you’ve purchased. So like, I can record a VHS copy of something onto a DVD – I’ve paid for the movie, I can move it from medium to medium. Or I’ve bought 10 cds and I want to put my favorite song from each of them on a mix cd – that’s fine. I’ve paid for the music, I can store it how I want. That’s what they’re eroding.
From what I know… it will start showing up soon. You’ll buy a CD and somewhere on it will say “this is not a CD.” It won’t be playable on your PC. Of course, I’m sure the online community has already started working on hacks and cracks for it.
They’re screwing themselves hard on this. They just need to embrace the internet and use it to their financial advantage. It’s the future.
It’s nuts, isn’t it? And you’re right about their fear. Also, their status as middlemen. In the UK we’re witnessing a new type of artist who has used the internet to their fullest advantage to get word of their music out there. The best example right now is the Arctic Monkeys, who just cleaned up at the Brits. They’re a bunch of kids from working class families in the midlands! They’re not even 20 yet, but they’re internet-savvy and word got around because the internet community is HUGE. And the middlemen you refer to are the very people who stand to lose out to this kind of direct marketing to the consumers (because when they become big enough on the internet, they spill into the mainstream – as the Arctic Monkeys have). Attacking not just the consumers but the artists’ means of distributing this content is a kneejerk reaction because they know what’s coming.
And it can’t come fast enough
those little cocksuckers.
i like cds! i like my mp3 player! it was a perfect marriage! THEY’RE DESTROYING SUCH A PERFECT RELATIONSHIP!
I’m very *grrr* right now.
I never really thought about it, but now I will. Thank you for thinking about it in the first place!
show me a cd that doesn’t scratch, and i’ll show you a cd i won’t copy.
this mess is freaking ridiculous.
I saw that you are in one of the Sifl and Olly blogrings. I have copies of Sifl and Olly dvds; Seasons 1,2, unaired third season, and the Top 9 Video Countdown. The DVD’s are region free. Respond if you are interested.