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Apple, the RIAA, and Ringtones

Posted by Zonk on from the tangled-web dept.

pilsner.urquell writes "Apple's interest in defending the rights of the consumer has cost them a lot of grief in the ringtone market. 'John Gruber of the Daring Fireball cites Engadget, which reported that the RIAA wanted to be able to distribute ringtones of its artists without having to pay them big money to do so. It won a decision last year before the Copyright Office saying that ringtones weren't derivative works, meaning they didn't infringe on the copyright of the songwriter.' The piece goes on to explain the tense relationship between Apple content holders regarding ringtones and other pieces of IP, such as in the recent withdrawal of NBC."

4 of 218 comments (clear)

  1. I never knew copyright law was THIS broken by jonwil · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Playing an audio file from your phone through speakers requires different permissions than playing the same audio file from the same phone through the same speakers in response to a phone call event... How screwed up is that?

    1. Re:I never knew copyright law was THIS broken by Professor_UNIX · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Pretty soon we'll need to buy one DVD per DVD player and they'll have some kind of activation thing where the first time you play it ties it to that DVD player if we keep going down this road.

  2. Entertainment Cartels Want it All by Apple+Acolyte · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They want to have their revenue cake and eat it too, and they don't even want to cut the original authors in. They are an unnecessary drain on the digital marketplace, a dinosaur of the 20th Century. Eventually these cartels will be replaced, since the goods they offer have little compelling reason to be sold in physical formats. It's a just a question of time before key producers decide it makes sufficient financial sense to bypass them completely.

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    Part of the hardcore faithful who believed in Apple long before it was cool again to do so
  3. Re:Weird, that by GeckoX · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What we need is for the Artists to revolt against this. It goes way way too far. They already get screwed by the MAFIAA, and now the MAFIAA got a legal standing that they are allowed to make money off of the artists work, but have no obligation to pay the artists.

    These assholes, in theory, are supposed to be working FOR the artists. The ONLY reason the MAFIAA exists in the first place is because of the artists...No artists...No music...No money to collect royalties for.

    The MAFIAA needs to be taken out back and shot. It's the humane thing to do after all.

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    No Comment.