That's what the RIAA is saying in its latest round of lawsuits. According to this Washington Post article:
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 industry's 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.
This is pretty damn shocking all around. Essentially it means that the only music that is legal to have on your iPod or other mp3 player is music that you bought online. Which is ridiculous. It means that pretty much every single mp3 player owner is in violation according to what the RIAA is now trying to push forth.
The Howell case was not the first time the industry has argued that
making a personal copy from a legally purchased CD is illegal. At the
Thomas trial in Minnesota, 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.
But lawyers for consumers point to a series of court rulings over
the last few decades that found no violation of copyright law in the
use of VCRs and other devices to time-shift TV programs; that is, to
make personal copies for the purpose of making portable a legally
obtained recording.
The article goes on to talk about how the recording industry is refusing to move out of the dinosaur age and into the digital world. Instead of being innovative and changing their business model, they are spending craploads of money on lawyers to charge teenagers and college kids hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines that they cannot afford to pay.
I have been thinking this for such a long time--how stuck in the past the RIAA is. I used to work in the record industry and for the most part, it's run by a bunch of old stodgy men who wouldn't know a creative money making idea if it bit them in the ass. In this day and age, you don't own the consumer. They are smarter, better informed and you can no longer walk all over them by charging an 80% markup on your products. They just don't go for that. What they want is collaboration, integration, discussion and ways to feed the obsession that they have with the artists they admire. There are ways to make money...but the old way is increasingly not going to be one of those ways.
I subscribe to eMusic, which I think is one of the coolest music services out there, especially if you are into indie music. I've found more interesting artists through that service than I ever dreamed. I've stocked up on lots of music from indie bands that I would never have heard about from some record company promotion. Instead I relied on suggestions from other members, recommends based on reviews of music I know and by being able to listen to snippets of the music before I purchased. I can buy whole albums or just songs. I often will choose 2-3 songs from an album to see if I like it, then will go back the next month and get the remainder of the songs. I pay $25 a month for 100 songs...which is about 6-8 CDs...which would cost you at least $60 on iTunes. The thing is, I'm more likely to buy more music over time because I have greater value. And in turn I'm discovering more music, and may go to shows and buy merchandise of the bands that I discover. If I had to rely on hard CDs or iTunes, I wouldn't buy as much. I imagine that those costs are what drive teens to the free download sites.
Record companies need to pay attention to these new types of patterns and learn to diversify their product offerings. Services is where it is at. Because of eMusic I have been slowly stocking up on as much of the Labrador catalog as I can...I've found that I really love the music that those crazy Swedes distribute. If it weren't for a service like eMusic I would never have discovered them nor would they have been likely to get money from me each and every month as a result. I'm a steady customer now...looking for more tunes by the same company vs. just buying one offs like I typically do from other labels.
The RIAA should hire me to help the labels revamp their marketing strategy. It's not really rocket science--you just need to have an understanding of the audience, the new technologies and be willing to take a leap forward and create the next hot revenue stream for today's generations of music lovers. Sigh. Instead, I shake my head, my mind absolutely boggled by their scare-tactic, doomed-to-fail campaign against people who just plain don't know that what they are doing is so wrong in the first place. Instead of spending money to keep money, spend a little money to develop ideas to make more...
Methinks that the lawyers are running the show. Lots and lots of dollar signs to be had for those guys!
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