RIAA Says Ripping CDs to Your iPod is NOT Fair Use]

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

> From the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) --
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004409.php

RIAA Says Ripping CDs to Your iPod is NOT Fair Use

It is no secret that the entertainment oligopolists are not
happy about space-shifting and format-shifting. But surely
ripping your own CDs to your own iPod passes muster, right? In
fact, didn't they admit as much in front of the Supreme Court
during the MGM v. Grokster argument last year?

Apparently not.

As part of the on-going DMCA rule-making proceedings, the RIAA
and other copyright industry associations submitted a filing
that included this gem as part of their argument that
space-shifting and format-shifting do not count as
noninfringing uses, even when you are talking about making
copies of your own CDs:

     "Nor does the fact that permission to make a copy in
particular circumstances is often or even routinely granted,
necessarily establish that the copying is a fair use when the
copyright owner withholds that authorization. In this regard,
the statement attributed to counsel for copyright owners in
the MGM v. Grokster case is simply a statement about
authorization, not about fair use."

For those who may not remember, here's what Don Verrilli said
to the Supreme Court last year:

     "The record companies, my clients, have said, for some
time now, and it's been on their website for some time now,
that it's perfectly lawful to take a CD that you've purchased,
upload it onto your computer, put it onto your iPod."

If I understand what the RIAA is saying, "perfectly lawful"
means "lawful until we change our mind." So your ability to
continue to make copies of your own CDs on your own iPod is
entirely a matter of their sufferance. What about all the
indie label CDs? Do you have to ask each of them for
permission before ripping your CDs? And what about all the
major label artists who control their own copyrights? Do we
all need to ask them, as well?

P.S.: The same filing also had this to say: "Similarly,
creating a back-up copy of a music CD is not a non-infringing
use...."

    "When you come to the fork in the road, take it" - L.P. Berra
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    "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"
     -- Sir Arthur C. Clarke
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                           John F. McMullen
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