RIAA: Ripping CDs to iPod is not Fair Use

February 18, 2006

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Fred von Lohmann, the RIAA does not consider ripping a CD and copying it to your iPod or other MP3 player to be fair use. The EFF is an organization whose goal is "protecting our civil liberties in the networked world."


"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."

Lohmann continues:


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."
Source: EFF

Comments
The RIAA will be hard-pressed to un-ring that bell.

Posted by: Anonymous at February 18, 2006 04:53 PM

So according to the RIAA...NO RIAA music can be on a mp3 player...

that means all you can have on an MP3 player "legaly" according to them is none RIAA music, podcasts, Music you have gotten illegally - technically you haven't copied the CD.

Posted by: Ronald-san at February 18, 2006 08:20 PM

No, it means that according to the RIAA, the only music you can have on your mp3 player is the music you paid for in mp3 format - whether you already owned the CD or not. They just want you to pay for the same song more than once.

Posted by: Eric at February 22, 2006 03:47 PM

Let me get this straight. If I buy a piece of music to play on my piano, I'm not legally allowed to play it on my violin? Makes perfect sense ...not!

WizDad

Posted by: WizDad at February 25, 2006 08:44 AM

Methinks the RIAA doesn't have the resources to do it's job. And it never will. This simply cannot be policed now. This all should have started at the inception of the MP3/MP4 file type. And logically, one would have to assume that making an MP3 of a song from a CD one has already paid for is different than recording one's own albums to cassette, how exactly? I wish abysmal failure for the RIAA. It deserves nothing less for it's insipid witch-hunt.

Posted by: Len Jennings at February 28, 2006 09:46 AM

==========
--From the forums/news at:
http://garageband.com

Hmm... Time to find some webspace and throw up my html guide for audio ripping and the required software.

So what exactly can we do with our cds according the the RIAA? I suck at frisbee...