Slashdot Mirror
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."
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.
If this is what they're complaining about then they won't win because copying CDs to hard drives isn't even nearly illegal unless you distribute the music.
"...today consumers have been conditioned to think of beer when they see a bullfrog..."
From the article:
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.
"The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it." -- Ayn Rand
RIAA: We don't care if we win or we lose. We have
all the money people buying our way overpriced
products have paid to bring about as many pointless
lawsuits as possible til these punks learn who their
corporate masters are.
Morpheus: Gee, I hope we get the same Judge we did
last time.
For every annoying gentoo user, are three even more annoying anti-gentoo crybabies. Take Yosh from #Gimp for example.
He's busy defending Zion, and things look dire. This is the LAST thing he needs!
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. -- William James