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Details further in the brief support that concept as well. The brief infers that the copies became unauthorized at the moment the MP3 files were copied into the shared folder on the guy's computer.

Once Defendant converted Plaintiffs' recording into the compressed .mp3 format and they are in his shared folder, they are no longer the authorized copies distributed by Plaintiffs." [Supplemental brief, page 15, lines 16-18, emphasis added].

Realistically, all of this uproar over the RIAA's "argument" that ripping CD's is illegal is overkill. MusicUnited.org, of which the RIAA is a sponsor (check the links at the bottom of the page), makes it clear that while you might not have the right to rip the music from your CD, you're not going to cause any issues for yourself by making a "personal copy" (please note that I used the word "might" -- I'm not arguing if that right exists or not. I'm not a legal expert, and, in all honesty, it makes no difference in context). Link (See section on "Copying CDs" at the bottom of the page).

This argument isn't unreasonable. The RIAA is basically claiming that the MP3 became unauthorized once it was used for an illegal purpose (file-sharing). I don't see any problem with that. With regards to the AHRA (this is all covered in the Wikipedia article, but in summary), the issue is if a program used to rip CDs qualifies as a "digital audio recording device."

From http://www.riaa.com/faq.php:

11. How is downloading music different from copying a personal CD?
Record companies have never objected to someone making a copy of a CD for their own personal use. We want fans to enjoy the music they bought legally.

and so on and so forth. Yes, they can protect the CD with some minimal copy protection and then the DMCA applies. That's their prerogative and I don't see them taking it as often as they used to.

TFA barley mentions that this innocent victim was indeed sharing the resulting files out via kazaa. I would have hoped that the RIAA lawyers would think before they spoke and frame better sentences than those that the media picked up. Rolling the act of distribution (illegal) together with the act of copying (usually allowed for personal use) in a court case is hurtful to the consumers and the music industry.

More reading material from the evil industry http://www.musicunited.org/2_thelaw.html

Copying CDs
* It's okay to copy music onto an analog cassette, but not for commercial purposes.
* 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. However, burning a copy of CD onto a CD-R, or transferring a copy onto your computer hard drive or your portable music player, won't usually raise concerns so long as:
* The copy is made from an authorized original CD that you legitimately own
* The copy is just for your personal use. It's not a personal use - in fact, it's illegal - to give away the copy or lend it to others for copying.
* The owners of copyrighted music have the right to use protection technology to allow or prevent copying.
* Remember, it's never okay to sell or make commercial use of a copy that you make.

I don't like corporations suing little people - there needs to be a better way. The "little people" need to stop violating copyright laws, especially since the music industry is starting to bend a little by offering DRM-free MP3s.

That being said, I think the music industry has failed to produce compelling art for too many years now. They need to crushed into a cube and shot into the sun. Just like all those bastards that post things AC because they are too lazy to login.

• It's okay to copy music onto an analog cassette, but not for commercial purposes.
• 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. However, burning a copy of CD onto a CD-R, or transferring a copy onto your computer hard drive or your portable music player, won't usually raise concerns so long as:
  • The copy is made from an authorized original CD that you legitimately own
  • The copy is just for your personal use. It's not a personal use - in fact, it's illegal - to give away the copy or lend it to others for copying.

read this http://www.musicunited.org/2_thelaw.html

This

message is to every musician speaking out against file sharing:
get your facts straight, and stop regurgitating everything the major label tells you.
Anyone still clinging to the cage-format for music is either a middleman or lazy. Squidnecks

You major label suckers make me laugh
Do you really think your label would come out and say, "Hey we cut your paycheck in half because you've got to help pay for the 250 billion copies we give away. Have they mentioned when they cut new releases by 25% sales dropped 4.1% and they blamed it on P2P? Have they mentioned that they responded to that drop by raising the cost of your CD $1 every year? Does that seem like a good business move to you? Or does that smell like fear?
Ask yourself what kind of business would cut research and development first? I'll tell you: the business that's about to make it's bed up in a mother fuckin hearse.
While Hilary Rosen and the RIAA are trying to convince you that free listeners are a bad thing, those same five labels that pay them are charging you $500,000 to buy you spins
While you're negotiating whether or not the latest Napster pays you 1/3 of a cent per download, Comcast and AOL are turning the information highway into a toll road.
you know the end is near when Britney Spears is calling it a moral issue
they've positioned you right between their wallets and your fans
they can't really expect to turn the tide with a few pathetic lawsuits
So you gotta ask yourself how does one stop a flood? You build a damn.
IT'S THE ISPs, IT'S THE ISPs!
Comcast will have every last consumer on their knees
starting with 5.3 million subscribers to cable access high speed
they own the wires, so they can discriminate with bandwidth and queuing fees
guaranteed monopoly by the FCC so

We're standing on the verge of an artistic cleansing of biblical proportions I say bring it
when the wickedness of big business is great in the earth
and it will even try to sell the waters that it's drowning in
marching two rappers
two rockers
two composers
two programmers
onto a pirate ship
in a free-market flood
until businessmen are businessmen
and art is art again. Rock

this is not an issue of children not recognizing value in art
this is an issue of children recognizing value-less art
getting artists paid doesn't even play a part
The truth is
for the first time since it's creat

You may like this. It answers some of your questions (But does not reference which laws make it illegal)

- Jax

Yes, it would be illegal to steal a copy from a store. Why, because the store is deprived of a copy.

Now, one thing you'll find is that the RIAA is very vocal on what is illegal about music copying, and very quiet on what is legal. They'll skate the issues of legality by stating all the borderline illegal acts.

So, to go on with this a bit:

You make an MP3 copy of a song because the CD you bought expressly permits you to do so. But then you put your MP3 copy on the Internet, using a file-sharing network, so that millions of other people can download it.

Mp3 copying legal. P2P downloading legal if own the song (on CD, etc). P2P uploading to others is a grey area because you don't know if the other person has an original copy, in cases where they do they're entitled to a digital reproduction of the same original work (IOW you can get an Mp3 copy of a CD if you own a CD, not if you have a cassette I suppose).

Now to further move on, in Canada downloading is legal but uploading supposedly not:

[article]

And of course, laws are subject to change, and it's the people that change them. I personally don't support downloading music if you don't have the rights to it. However, there isn't a proper alternative.

The RIAA will not replace your disc when it becomes a coaster due to normal wear and tear, but they do everything they can to prevent normal users from making duplicates, even personal ones. In fact, the DCMA seems aimed at expressedly blocking even legal duplications, despite fair use - as other laws already made "piracy" illegal the only intent seems to be to put a block between the 'protected' media and the consumer.

That being said, I just bought a bunch of CD's off of garageband.com/cdbaby.com.
They'll probably be seeing more of my business in which case I'll not have to worry about RIAA idiocy anyhow.

No. 1 is EV1Servers.net who announced SCO lied about how much they were paid (Microsoft is a fan of EV1)
(little did the CEO know when he made the deal that SCO planned to 'worth' him out of seven figures)

No. 2 is CompterAssociates who announced SCO lied about "linux licenses" which are really from an unrelated settlement

No. 3 is Leggett and Platt say SCO lies and they don't have a license and "would not have an interest in doing so"

No. 4 is Questar Gas said they just wanted to get things over with and also runs Apache/1.3.26 (Unix) on Windows 2000


Make sure *you* are Legally Unencumbered(tm) by getting a SCOsores license
and don't forget to head over and sign your Clean Slate contract with the RIAA

No. 1 is EV1Servers.net who announced SCO lied about how much they were paid (Microsoft is a fan of EV1)
(little did the CEO know when he made the deal that SCO planned to 'worth' him out of seven figures)

No. 2 is CompterAssociates who announced SCO lied about "linux licenses" which are really from an unrelated settlement

No. 3 is Leggett and Platt who shockingly is running Microsoft-IIS/5.0 on Windows 2000

No. 4 is Questar Gas who just wanted to get things over with and also runs Apache/1.3.26 (Unix) on Windows 2000


Make sure *you* are Legally Unencumbered(tm) by getting a SCOsores license
and don't forget to head over and sign your Clean Slate contract with the RIAA

If you look at the description of what the "Clean Slate" agrteement accomplishes, it's effectiveness and intent is pretty clear. It says:

Provided that I have in fact deleted from my computer(s) and storage devices (including portable devices) all copyrighted sound recordings illegally downloaded from P2P Networks, and destroyed all copies of those sound recordings in any format, and do not engage in illegal downloading, copying or "sharing" (that is, uploading/distributing) of copyrighted sound recordings on P2P Networks in the future, I understand that RIAA agrees not to support or assist in any copyright infringement lawsuit against me based on these past activities.

That's all it says. Nowhere does it promise that these affiants won't be sued -- rather, it says the RIAA won't help out those planitffs. Is it an ironclad guarantee that you'll never be sued? No. But it does do exactly what it purports to do, and nothing more

This lawsuit sounds like a cheap and easy way for a law firm to get some publicity,

To download a copyrighted work from the internet is NOT RESTRICTED BY COPYRIGHT LAW. The offender is the person who uploaded it. This is where you are wrong. Knowing downloading a song that is a copyrighted work which you do not have the permission of the copyright holder IS A CRIME Even if all you do is download it and never listen to it.

I work hard and anybody can just throw a computer up and download my music for free. It could kill the whole purpose of making music. It's not just about the money: It's the thrill of going to the store; you can't wait till that artist's release date, taking the wrapper off the CD and putting the CD in to see what it sounds like. I've seen those little sissies on TV, talking about how 'The working people should just get music for free,'

Britney Spears

Would you go into a CD store and steal a CD? It's the same thing, people going into the computers and logging on and stealing our music. It's the exact same thing, so why do it?

THE IT'S ABOUT THE QUALITY STUPID AWARDS

Stevie Wonder

...our industry must take a very strong position against the stealing of our writing and music or else those writings and music will become as cheap as the garbage in the streets.

Neil Young

I don't like to have a record out and have people hear versions that we don't want them to hear.

Third Eye Blind's Stephan Jenkins

Burning CD's is like an arranged marriage and the artists are the shot-gun brides. When nobody asks your permission, things tend to go bad.

(ED: How come my cassette tape mixes weren't evil)

Beach Boys' Brian Wilson

The bottom line is the fan who is saying, "Oh man you're the greatest," is in reality stealing from you and your family, and more importantly not respecting [the artist's] judgment on what [they] think is appropriate to bear your name.

Goo Goo Dolls' John Rzeznik

If you rob artists of their means of earning, eventually there will be no art of consequence or substance.

E Street Band's Danny Federici

Although music is a blessing, the parasites of piracy pollute its 'specialness.' We don't need digital pimps robbing us blind of our own creativity and the fruits thereof.

THE BREAKING-AND-ENTERING POLICE REPORT AWARDS

Creed's Scott Stapp

These file sharing services are sneaking in the back door and robbing me blind.

Nelly

As an artist you hate for someone to break into your home and take everything that you've accumulated over the last how many ever years you've been in this game.

Rusted Root's Jim Donovan

Think of recorded music in terms of equal energy exchange, just like buying a candy bar. You can't just walk out of the store with the candy without visiting the checkout counter -- they'd arrest ya.

Everclear's Art Alexakis

It's taking money out of my kid's mouth. That's the way I look at it. It's wrong. It's inherently wrong. It's stealing.

Luciano Pavarotti

Artists and composers - particularly the younger ones - will not stand a chance of creating music in the future if their recordings are simply stolen in this way.

Victoria Shaw, Country Music Singer

In what other industry can someone take a product, not created by themselves, make money from the use of that product and not compensate the original creator?

(ED: ask Disney)

Troy Verges, NSAI 2002 Songwriter of the Year

Go to your job every day next week and work. When payday rolls around, tell the boss you only want half of your check.

The RIAA Clean Slate Program (pdf)

The Affidavit (pdf)

Music United

These links are provided for info purposes, but I agree with the EFF - Don't Sign!

The RIAA Clean Slate Program (pdf)

The Affidavit (pdf)

Music United

These links are provided for info purposes, but I agree with the EFF - Don't Sign!

The RIAA Clean Slate Program (pdf)

The Affidavit (pdf)

Music United

These links are provided for info purposes, but I agree with the EFF - Don't Sign!

"very few artists"?

Phil Galdston, Grammy Award Winning Composer, Lyricist Music Publisher. Amber, Top Five Billboard Chart Hit "This is Your Night". Rivers Rutherford, Co-writer of 2001 billboard's Country Song of the Year. Martina McBride, Number One Country Music Hit "Wild Angels". Brooks & Dunn, Multi-Platinum Country Music Artists, Number One Hit "Brand New Man". Brad Paisley, Gold and Platinum Award-Winning Country Music Artist. Vince Gill, Grammy Award Winning and Multi-Platinum Country Artist. Matraca Berg, Co-writer of the 1997 Country Music Association Song of the Year "Strawberry Wine". Troy Verges, Nashville Songwriters Association International's (NSAI) 2002 Songwriter of the Year. Keith Urban, Grammy Award Nominee for Best Country Instrumental Performance. Dixie Chicks, Grammy Award Winning and Two-Time Diamond Award Recipient. Nelly, Multi-Platinum Hip-Hop Artist, Number One Hit "Hot in Herre". Stevie Wonder, Legendary Multi-Platinum Award-Winning Artist. Missy Elliott, Writer, Producer, Rapper, Singer. Musiq, Singer, Platinum Award Winning Urban Music Artist, "AIJUSWANASEING". Eve, Multi-Platinum Award Winning Artist, "Ruff Rydersâ(TM) First Lady". DMX, Multi-Platinum Award Winning Artist, "And Then There Was X". Shakira, Grammy-Winning Latin Pop Artist. Britney Spears, Multi-Platinum Award Winning Artist "Ooops! I Did It Again". Mary J. Blige, Multi-Platinum Award Winning Artist, "No More Drama". Lamont Dozier, Legendary Songwriter, including "Stop! In The Name Of Love". Sean (P. Diddy) Combs, Multi-Platinum Award Winning Artist, Producer, Founder and CEO of Bad Boy Entertainment. Vanessa Carlton, Singer/Songwriter, "A Thousand Miles" and Gold-Award Winning Artist for "Be Not Nobody". Glen Ballard, Award-Winning Songwriter/Producer. Luciano Pavarotti, Legendary Tenor. Renée Fleming, Grammy-Award Winning Classical Artist, "Bel Canto". Brian Wilson, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee and Founding Member of the Beach Boys. The Barenaked Ladies, One of the Best-Selling Canadian Bands Of All Time. Mandy Moore, Platinum Award Winning Artist, "So Real". John Rzeznik, Member of the Multi-Platinum Award Winning Group, the Goo Goo Dolls. Steve Smith, Member of Dirty Vegas. Mark Knopfler, Member of Dire Straits. Damon Dash, Executive Producer, Roc-A-Fella Records. Stephan Jenkins, Lead Singer of Multi-Platinum Group Third Eye Blind. Fabolous, Gold Award-Winning Artist for "Ghetto Fabolous". Danny Federici, Solo Artist and Sr. Member of the E Street Band. Joshua Bell, Internationally-Known Violinist. James Grundler, Singer/Songwriter, Member of Paloalto. Kelly Price, R&B Singer, "Priceless". Jim Donovan, Member of Rusted Root. Carl Sturken & Evan Rogers, Grammy-Award Winning Songwriters/Producers. Eminem, Grammy Award Winning Rapper. Elton John, Legendary Grammy Award Winning Artist. Lou Reed, Grammy Award Winning Singer/Songwriter. Neil Young, Legendary, Multi-Platinum Award Winning Artist. Shaggy, Grammy Award Winner, "Best Reggae Albumâ"âBoombasticâ(TM)". Scott Stapp, Frontman and Songwriter for Creed. Don Henley, Grammy Award Winning, Multi-Platinum Artist. Aimee Mann, Former Member of âTil Tuesday, Gold Award Winning Singer/Songwriter. Denyce Graves, World-Renowned Mezzo-Soprano Opera Singer. Sarah Brightman, Platinum Award Winning Artist. Jimmy Jam, Renowned Producer, Writer, Collaborator with Janet Jackson, Mary J. Blige, Prince. Steven Curtis Chapman, Grammy-Award Winning Christian Artist. Trent Reznor, member of Nine Inch Nails. Scott Weiland, Lead Singer of Stone Temple Anastacia, Top-Ten Single "Iâ(TM)m Outta Love". Deborah Harry, Lead Singer of Blondie. Art Alexakis, Lead Singer of Everclear. Damian Kulash, Member of OK Go. Victoria Shaw, Country Music Singer/Songwriter.

My source

You'll notice that the list includes respected classical artists as well as tenny poppers.

Get ready for a big PR campiagn by the RIAA that is designed to make music traders feel guilty. The cross media campaign was kicked off today with the unveiling of the music united website, radio and TV spots should be out soon featuring several big names such as Madonna and Nelly talking about how poor they have become since the days of Napster, even though music sales went up with napster's popularity.

...on www.musicunited.org which is the website of the RIAA backed organization behind the recent ads and TV spots. If you check out their page of quotes you'll notice that some of the quotes like "artists should get paid" have apparently been taken out of context. And their list of 80 names really isn't very impressive considering the numbers they could have gotten.

For instance, they quote Neil Young as being against file-sharing by using a quote from Yahoo! Entertainment News: "I don't like to have a record out and have people hear versions that we don't want them to hear. With the Internet, there is no more privacy and not even the chance to express yourself in front of your audience in the intimacy of a concert that lets songs evolve. You can't do this because they immediately get circulated."

For enough, but this doesn't necessary mean he's against file-sharing, only that he's frustrated when unauthorized songs are released. Maybe they did get his permission, but since he isn't listed on the actual ads I sincerely doubt it. He's also on the record as talking to BusinessWeek about Napster: "It's great. Whatever gets the music around. The record labels will worry about that, and I'll worry about the music." I wonder how many of these other artists have similar views and if they realize they are the being represented as the poster children for anti-piracy.

I would LOVE to see someone make a parody of the these ads with a list of equally prominent artists that have come out in favour of file-sharing. You could change the tag-line to "we don't care about file sharing" or something, and maybe take a dig at the RIAA for mispresenting certain artist's views ("libel is wrong").

...on www.musicunited.org which is the website of the RIAA backed organization behind the recent ads and TV spots. If you check out their page of quotes you'll notice that some of the quotes like "artists should get paid" have apparently been taken out of context. And their list of 80 names really isn't very impressive considering the numbers they could have gotten.

For instance, they quote Neil Young as being against file-sharing by using a quote from Yahoo! Entertainment News: "I don't like to have a record out and have people hear versions that we don't want them to hear. With the Internet, there is no more privacy and not even the chance to express yourself in front of your audience in the intimacy of a concert that lets songs evolve. You can't do this because they immediately get circulated."

For enough, but this doesn't necessary mean he's against file-sharing, only that he's frustrated when unauthorized songs are released. Maybe they did get his permission, but since he isn't listed on the actual ads I sincerely doubt it. He's also on the record as talking to BusinessWeek about Napster: "It's great. Whatever gets the music around. The record labels will worry about that, and I'll worry about the music." I wonder how many of these other artists have similar views and if they realize they are the being represented as the poster children for anti-piracy.

I would LOVE to see someone make a parody of the these ads with a list of equally prominent artists that have come out in favour of file-sharing. You could change the tag-line to "we don't care about file sharing" or something, and maybe take a dig at the RIAA for mispresenting certain artist's views ("libel is wrong").

They support music lovers, really!

I just looked at this site and, while having a laugh at some of the "artists" that quoted about the evils of sharing music I came accross a few comments that seemed pulled completely out of context for this site:

Trent Reznor, member of Nine Inch Nails: "Just because technology exists where you can duplicate something, that doesn't give you the right to do it. There's nothing wrong with giving some tracks away or bits of stuff that's fine. But it's not everybody's right. Once I record something, it's not public domain to give it away freely. And that's not trying to be the outdated musician who is trying to 'stop technology. I love technology."

Scott Weiland, Lead Singer of Stone Temple Pilots: "There should be some way to compensate the artists. Because obviously they wouldn't be providing a service if they weren't getting compensated, it's not a free service, it's not like it's done just to please fans. Everything that's done is done for a profit."

Looks like, at least to me, that many of these quotes were part of much larger discussions. The Trent Reznor quote is more along the lines of the rest of the page, but the Scott Weiland quote doesn't really fit very well. Do these people know that they are being quoted on this website?