RIAA: Illegal to Copy CD’s to Hard Drive

Game Politics has a story on a last desperate act of the foundering Recording Industry Association of America. They’ve apparently moved on from targeting the average Joe who downloads music illegally, to attacking those who’ve actually bothered to purchase CDs legally.

An Arizona man who refused back down, choosing to fight in court rather than pay out a check after a threatening letter from the organization, is at the center of the controversy. The RIAA has initiated a federal case against Jeffrey Howell for copying his own legally purchased CDs to his hard drive for his own personal use.

The Washington Post reports:

Sony BMG’s chief of litigation, Jennifer Pariser, testified that “when an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song.” Copying a song you bought is “a nice way of saying ’steals just one copy,’ ” she said…

The RIAA’s legal crusade against its customers is a classic example of an old media company clinging to a business model that has collapsed. Four years of a failed strategy has only “created a whole market of people who specifically look to buy independent goods so as not to deal with the big record companies,” [New York attorney Ray] Beckerman says. “Every problem they’re trying to solve is worse now than when they started.”

I thought with all the frivolous stupid lawsuits being thrown about everyday, I had seen everything and was immune to surprise. This really just blew me away. If this were to actually go through, it would be a great reason for me to never buy another CD.

via GamePolitics