Download Uproar: Record Industry Goes After Personal Use – washingtonpost.com — This sort of legal attack will lead to the end of “fair-use” and back up copies of anything. I can seriously see this extended to the copying machine too.
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 industrys 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.
found by Aric Mackey
John you better bring this up on Cranky Geeks or TWIT if your on it this week.
These intellectual property issues won’t be resolved until they come up in front of judges that have more understanding of digital technology. I’m convinced that many members of Congress voting on these bills, and many judges deciding the cases, don’t even have a clear concept of what a “file” is. And if the RIAA is able to get a case in front of a jury, it only gets worse.
It will take another generation to sort this out.