RIAA Says It's Granting You A Favor In Letting You Use Your iPod

from the gee,-thanks dept

The recording industry has made it clear in the past that they feel they deserve money for every iPod sold, even though they fought the development of MP3 players every step of the way, claiming (oh, that again?) that it would destroy the music business. Of course, they seem to ignore that the success of the iPod alone has allowed them to start to build up a business in digital music sales. The latest move, however, is to suggest that the fact you can transfer (some) songs from CDs (that don’t have copy protection) to your iPod has nothing to do with fair use (which they like to pretend doesn’t exist) and is simply a gracious favor that the recording industry offers everyone by choice. As part of a petition they’ve filed with the government concerning the latest DMCA rule-making, they make it clear that the government should recognize transferring music to an iPod is because they alone have said it’s okay, and does not show that copying a song to another device is fair use in any manner.


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Comments on “RIAA Says It's Granting You A Favor In Letting You Use Your iPod”

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54 Comments
Jeff says:

Re: RIAA granting favor

So you would rather buy DRM’d music online? That makes a lot of sense. If the RIAA ever got some brains, they would find that the CD is much worse for their business than online sales. It costs more to produce a CD than to put the music on an online store and its easier to copy a CD than to break DRM.

I fear the day that CD’s will no longer be sold.

Dosquatch says:

Re: Re: Re: RIAA granting favor

Here’s the good news: There are roughly 200 million households with broadband connections worldwide. 45 million of those are in the US.

There are 6.5 billion people worldwide, or about 1.5-2 billion households. There are 300 million people in the US, or about 75-100 million households.

If the RIAA and equivolents were to cease the manufacture of physical content, they would be abandoning 90% of their potential customers worldwide, and over 50% in the US. They are simply not going to do this, it would be suicide.

As far as making physical media: to have a CD pressed, labeled, jewel-cased with full-color inserts, shrink-wrapped, and shipped to the RIAA’s front door, the cost is about $1/disc (assuming an order of 10,000 and amortizing glass mastering).

Considering the artists see on average about a nickel a disc (when the RIAA bothers to pay at all), your fury should really go into wondering where the rest of the purchase price goes.

Kent Horvath says:

Re: RIAA granting favor

Buying a CD is somewhat irrelevant. There are many people who don’t buy CDs anymore because they no longer need them. Instead, they buy their music from sources like iTunes, Napster, etc… Were I you, I would instead pledge not to purchase any music, unless it is from an Indy label or a DRM free user-friendly place like allofmp3.com. That’s how you’ll really stick it to the Man.

Searcher says:

Re: Re: RIAA granting favor

All this makes me want to encourage more people to pirate more and more. The stupid PSA’s they insert in the beginning of a movie at movie theaters are both anoying and funny. At the end of them I make a point of saying “Oh that reminds me!” and then pretend to call a friend asking him to burn me a copy of the new DVD he got. It always gets laughs. 🙂 The RIAA needs to go the way of the dinosaurs. They serve no purpose other than their own greed.

Arochone (user link) says:

Re: No Subject Given

The RIAA should get a chunk of DVD and VHS players too. Most DVD players play MP3s and audio CDs too, and you COULD record audio on a VHS…a heck of a lot of it too. Oh, and what about things like the X-Box and Playstation and stuff? They play music. Oh, and computers. Oh, and so can my digital camera. So yea, them getting money on every digital camera sold is BS, and so is them getting money on every MP3 player.

Anonymous Coward says:

No Subject Given

yup, im a 16 year old and i am boycotting. RIAA is as unamerican as communism. they are an enemy of the nation yet bush loves them because they are republican. the artists wont even see a dime of the money if they win. FUCKERS!!! BURN IN the place of your relgious beleifs where bad people go. wait, they dont believe in anything because they dont fear any god. i am not a religious person, but come on, they have no fuckin ethics.

Jason says:

Re: No Subject Given

Off subject: Bush seems to be the evil force behind a lot of places that have been evil for longer than he’s been alive. Reality check buddy, he doesn’t cause all the problems in life.

On subject: Artists already don’t get hardly any money. If you can find it you should read Courtney Love’s 40+ page speech on the RIAA. its a very good read. This will all blow over. I’m sure they said the same about records… then cassets… then cd’s

Christopher (user link) says:

Re: No Subject Given 16

A) I don’t disagree with your hatred and enthusiasm.
B) Capitalism… Communism (theorhetically anyway) is where everyone gets to use everything freely because no one owns it… actually more like what you’re asking for than not.
C) Croneyism… What Bush suffers from, mind you, I’m a Republican… a convservative at that… but you can’t hide from that particular truth.
D) Democrats… led by the media and hollywood, are just as much behind this as any other party (if not more)… This particular issue is about who can afford the most expensive lawyers.

Cameron says:

Re: No Subject Given

Off topic of news:For something to be unamerican you’d have to define what _is_ american? If you actually know what’s going on in our country we’re about as close to communism as you can be and not be communist….Our school system is based on the prussian system, from the moment we enter kindergarten to the point that we go to college we are trained to be mindless consumer dogs that don’t question our master the government when it comes to major things. Bush is not a bad person, a moron yes but he is afterall still a product of the school system that we all come from.

On topic: They did say the same thing about CDs and VHS and DVD, they are still saying it about DVD. -semi off topic- They are the people that want us to be the mindless consumer so that they stay in power, capitalism will always be like this, if it’s not one thing it’s another…..we just have to make sure it doesn’t ever go through,but more and more people don’t question it because they want to be the person running the movie/music industry.

TriZz says:

No Subject Given

…and to whom do I owe the pleasure of being able to dubb tapes from CDs?

This whole thing is bullshit. If I purchase music – I should be able to listen to it on any medium that I want to. I’m so sick of the RIAA and all of their propaganda.

Thank you RIAA for letting me listen to music on my $400 device? FUCK YOU!! You should be thanking me for purchasing an iPod and using iTunes to fill the thing up with music.

…sorry, I got a bit carried away.

anonymous Coward says:

No Subject Given

The RIAA has been given enough rope and is slowly hanging itself and its whole industry. They will keep playing the “consumer=criminal” game and keep trying to push ridiculous legislation and, in the short-term, they might even succeed.

As consumer awareness of these issue grow, it is only a matter of time before there is a vicious backlash at a consumer and legislative level that will leave the RIAA nuetered and the music industry shattered.

They should have taken there success in slowing P2P and killing Napster and gone home proud. Instead, it went to their heads and nothing short of a DRM helmet worn by all Americans will satisfy their swollen egos and misguided sense of righteousness.

Anonymous Coward says:

its just a matter of time

its just a matter of time before they are not needed, they are middlemen. artists will continue to need them less and less and will continue to have more and more control of their own content. before long no new artists will be stupid enough to sign with them because they get LESS in the end, than if they distribute their own creations online.

i think it would be funny if everyone flooded the labels with requests to transfer music from their CDs to their ipods
then they would start charging a fee to do it, which would likely be larger than just buying the song off ipod

Marcy says:

Give me a break!

C’mon the recording industry makes millions upon millions and here we are the working stiffs barely making the cost of living but they think we should fork over extra money for them just because we want to listen to a little music to ease our mundane days a little bit??? Give me a break! My dollars are hard-earned, if it was affordable to support the artists and the recording industry belive me I would – to those I belive should be supported, but until then I won’t buy any over-priced CDs!

Joanne says:

Thank you RIAA for acting like I'm stealing from y

The more I hear from the big fat mouth of the RIAA, the more I feel like a chump, because I’m one of those fools who actually pays for the music I listen to. Either I buy a CD or I pay to d/l the song from Itunes. Yes, I copy those CDs I buy onto my IPOD. So sue me. What f**ing more do they want from us? If you’re going to view me as a criminal and a pirate, then maybe I should just start being one and quit paying for my music, eh?

Anonymous Coward says:

No Subject Given

we should sue riaa for harassing people about their own failure, I will not buy a music CD nor will I sped money to download music.

The music industry should do more in making money on concerts, I would spend money on a good live concert, and if the band is good, then it will get paid good, at least its something to pay for, why would anyone pay for something that costs $0 to duplicate?

wolff000 says:

I don't care anymore.

I used to buy CDs of artists I liked only after downloading it “illegally” to see if it was worth my cash. That all stopped when they shut down napster and started going after others. Now I say screw them if the artists don’t get paid oh well. There are lots of unsigned talented artists to choose from even if the whole recording industry was shut down. So it wouldn’t be the end of music just the end of the bs. The artists that truly loved what they did, would do it without pay like so many musician friends of mine. They get next to nothing for their appearances and their cds barely cover costs but they do it because they love music not to get rich. So boycott all music labels except for the small independent ones, that way you know your money goes to the artists and not the assholes. If you like music from the big labels downloaded its easy and free. Remember boy and girls bit torrent is your friend.

Cody H says:

music industry and ipods

I am so tired of the music industry whining. The 80’s are over, along with the days of excess for the music industry. I am sorry you dont have money for your expensive cars and homes and alcohol and drugs, i feel really bad for you! let me tell you from a customer standpoint that i DO buy CDs from bands that i believe to be good, bands that can fill a CD with decent music and not 1 or 2 hit songs and the rest with crap that they wouldnt listen to themselves. I realize that piracy has hurt the music industry, i can tell this by watching MTV cribs along with some of the music videos on there. it sure makes it look like artist are starving. and i know since artists get like next to nothing from album sales, if they are living large then the producers and record companies cannot be hurting so bad either. bottom line is if i like 1 song from a cd with 12 on it, i am going to download that 1 song from where ever i can find it, if i pay for it great, if i dont, well, the CD should have been better. it sure seems like record companies are signing everyone anymore whether they have talent or not. hey, i cant sing, and can barly play a guitar, can i get a record deal?

WarrenG says:

Wouldn't it be nice

Hey Apple! I hope you’re working on this already, but if not then here is an idea for you. Why don’t you start your own music label and give preference to your own musicians through iTunes? Geez, you know how many musicians would sign through your label instead of becoming RIAA peons? Give them a fair cut of whatever songs are downloaded, and you’ll be cutting out the middleman with a chainsaw!

Kirk says:

Re: GonaRIAA

The latest RIAA stance is really nothing new. Back in the mid to late 90s they said that simply ripping the music to your hard drive was piracy and a violation of fair use. Later they changed their tune when they realized they couldn’t hold the position.

I haven’t purchased a CD in years from a RIAA member. There are many independant artists releasing music either on their own, or through sources not affiliated with RIAA. Many of these people support your right to listen on your Ipod.

And honestly, I think many of these artists are better then the generic crap pushed by the big 5.

Digitalsaint says:

Independant artists...

Itunes should start allowing independant artists and labels to use them(if they already don’t now, I don’t use it except to load my own CD collection to my ipod) and give the artists a cut of the sales. Creating a music community like that would let small bands grow based on people’s likes and dislikes, not who has the richest backers. You would cut out the middleman/RIAA and allow a more liberated marketplace for music. Artists get more money, RIAA stops gorging on profits, win/win situation.

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