Getting the RIAA to answer a fairly simple and direct question is akin to pulling teeth
I want to direct everyone’s attention to this article by Ryan Singel of wired.com, where he gives us a short correspondence with Liz Kennedy of the RIAA.
He’s asking the question that’s been on the minds (one I mentioned on my show); does the RIAA (the people who are in charge of suing file sharers across America) believe that ripping a CD and transferring those files to a media player (or listening to them on your computer) is an illegal act. He doesn’t really get an answer, which is not only ridiculous but will only help to unwind any of the credibility this organization hopes to uphold.
Key quip from Liz:
“It’s also okay to copy music onto special Audio CD-R’s, mini-discs, and digital tapes (because royalties have been paid on them) - but, again, not for commercial purposes. Beyond that, there’s no legal “right” to copy the copyrighted music on a CD onto a CD-R.”
Wait, so it’s okay to copy to a CD-R, but there’s no legal right to do so?
As much as the giant iPodopoly on mp3 players is a bane in certain areas, it can actually come in handy when confronting the RIAA. There are simply too many ipods (119 million, according to wikipedia) with too many legally obtained mp3s for the RIAA to dump something like this on the public and expect it to stick. For better or worse, the digital media player is king right now, and it’s going to be a long, uphill battle that will end in complete disillusionment in terms of PR at best and disintegration of the cause at worst.
