Record Labels Sue Morpheus, Again

Brushfireb writes "In a move that most Slashdotters will find suprising (/sarcasm), the RIAA has once again sued Morpheus, over a service that Morpheus never launched, known as StreamCast Networks. This comes not long after the RIAA lost the case to Morpheus, as you may remember from this Slashdot article."

Comments

Hope they don't win..

[PFAK]

Lets hope that the RIAA doesn't win this case. This would be a big boost for the P2P community, and would probably in the end mean that P2P wouldn't always be related by piracy.

Why does the RIAA always think they can boss everyone around, they act like everyone is a little child, and that they can be squashed.

Doesn't help with the current state of the US justice system though..

Frivolent

[clonebarkins]

From the article:

Record labels allege in the suit that in preparing to launch the radio service, Streamcast bought thousands of CDs with thousands of songs and then transferred the music onto a digital database on computer hard drives and other memory devices without the permission of the copyright owners.

I'm sorry, but why would they have to notify the copyright owners? There are thousands of radio stations that do this same exact thing.

Now, if Morpheus planned on not paying appropriate royalties, there might be a case. There might also be a (unjest, nevertheless still legal) case if any of those CDs are copy-protected. But simply making a database should not be illegal.

Hopefully this will be dismissed for the farce it is. Morpheus should countersue the RIAA for filing frivolent lawsuits.

Greedrageous

[cgenman]

Company A pays large amounts of royalties for CDs for music to be broadcast across the internet. Company A transfers the legally paid for music to another medium for internal use only, in preparation for a service that would pay an additional fee. Company B-F, represented by the RIAA, sues company A for copyright infringement.

The RIAA has been making the case for quite some time, unsuccessfully, that consumers do not have the right to meduim-shift the music they purchase licenses for. It is no surprise that they are attacking an old enemy with this old stick. If they win, they have a powerful prescident and a hobbled competitor. If they lose, they still progress in their plan to litigate threats to death.

This suit is saying that you don't have the right to make a casette copy of a CD for play in your car, a right courts have upheld time and time again.

Frivolous.

This is RTFA

[notque]

And what exactly does this have to do with the lawsuit?

What's that smell?

[HTH NE1]

There's something ripe here, and it's not the RIAA's case.

They should have to wait until there such a service is launched before suing, just like those who fear being sued under the DMCA seeking affirmation of legality beforehand have been rebuffed by the courts.