The Record Industry Has Lost Their Minds

According to them, it's illegal to transfer your CD's to your computer. What all this comes down to is, the record companies have diluted the music world and less people want to buy their junk. There is so many crappy bands/singers now and they all sound the same. Even some of my favorite bands are rushing to get music out and that is even crap. There may be one or two songs on an entire album that I want to hear. I use iTunes (I know, but there isn't a better alternative with a large selection) and rarely download an entire album. There's no way I will spend $15 or so dollars on a CD for at most, two songs. I can buy and download the songs I want for 99 cents or an album for $9.90.

I'm waiting for the RIAA to come up with self-destructing CD's that explode after 10 plays.

On with the article.

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. 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."