RIAA Says No to Ripping CDs
December 29th, 2007 at 4:59 pm 
Today the Washington Post Released an interesting Article “Download Uproar: Record Industry Goes After Personal Use“.
In the article, A man Jeffery Howell of Scottsdale Arizona is being sued by the RIAA for obtaining illegal music. This is pretty common to hear when people download illegal music, but this was not the case. Mr. Howell is being sued for having around 2,000 mp3’s on his computer which where ripped from legally bought CD’s that he owns.
I know many of us have copied our bought CD’s into iTunes, so in the eyes of the RIAA we are breaking the law. Whats next, illegal to burn disk from iTunes Music? I’m against illegal downloads of music and software, but this just isn’t right.
Update December 30th 2007 2:50pm EST
Engadget recently posted that Washington Post was partially wrong. Engadget claims the RIAA is suing Howell over file sharing, not Ripping his own CDs, but also claimed the RIAA thinks Ripping bought CDs is making “unauthorized copies”.
I honestly didn’t know who to trust, a professional newpaper or a blog, so I decided to find the dirt myself. After doing some searching myself for the actual brief, it appears Engadget is correct and Washington Post is wrong.
According the the brief, Howell was caught sharing music over Kazaa. Thanks for the heads up Engadget and Ruel for pointing this out!
December 29th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
oh my god that’s scary.
December 29th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
How can the record industry possibly win a suit against someone who converts media into a different form.
For example, if I was to scan in pages of a magazine, crop them and blow them up, and give them to my friend, making it easier to focus on the article, and allowing me to carry just a single page, not a full magazine; Is this copyright infringement?
This is as ridiculous a lawsuit as the many lawsuits against cafes for coffee that is “too hot”. This just makes no sense. The industry is getting the money it so selfishly wants, he bought the albums; perhaps he wants to listen to the songs on an iPod, or listen to songs from different artists without changing CDs, it shouldn’t matter.
If he isn’t spreading the data to those who did not buy it, it shouldn’t matter.
Does this mean I can be prosecuted for converting files bought from iTunes to a different format? This is RIDICULOUS. Are the RIAA lawyers bored?
Is it then illegal to, in theory, use a tivo?
I apologize for the rant; however, this is unacceptable.
December 30th, 2007 at 7:17 am
This is just insane….
I have around 80 CD’s, that i convert to iTunes, and they were legally bought! I really expect that this is just an equivocate case…
Cheers from Brazil!
December 30th, 2007 at 9:28 am
what makes this even more ridiculous is the erratic behaviour of the RIAA - why charge this man, when they know literally millions of others are doing this round the world, and yet they take no steps to combat this. yes, perhaps they want to make an example of him, but this is unfair. if you do make up stupid rules such as these, at least inforce them by making all cds uncopyable (with copyrights protection on).
December 30th, 2007 at 10:18 am
Just found this report on Engadget:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/30/riaa-not-suing-over-cd-ripping-still-kinda-being-jerks-about-it/
He isn’t being sued for ripping CDs, but for illegal downloading. However; the RIAA is still calling the ripped CDs unauthorized copies. Fair use should prevent suits on tat though.
December 30th, 2007 at 10:45 am
The RIAA just needs to get abolished. They aren’t doing anything but wasting the money they claim they are getting for the artists on lawsuits without any merit or hope of winning.
December 30th, 2007 at 10:56 am
I read that too and was actually thinking about posting a 2nd post bout this, but its hard to tell who’s providing false information or not. The Washington post is pretty much a reliable source and so is Engadget to a degree. Engadget has no links to reliable sources saying the Washington post is wrong.
But thanks for posting the link, its good to hear other peoples views.I’m going to do some digging to see if I can find anything concrete.
January 3rd, 2008 at 12:57 am
Yes, the guy in question is being sued for file sharing, not ripping. The RIAA’s lawyer, however, did make the statement that ripping CDs is technically illegal. This is either an idot lawyer speaking out of turn or the dying gasp of an industry that can’t seem to adjust to modern technology. With CD sales down dramatically in 07, look for the RIAA to do everything in their power to save their old business model. That may some day include criminalizing the ripping of legally purchased music for personal use.