Hey, Record Companies, This Isn't Helping...

I have the sudden urge to download/convert Fiona Apple's "Criminal" right now.

Followed by Judas Priest's "Breaking the Law".

 

Your nephew is Troy Aikman! </skip_bayless>

 

It's a good thing for me that 95% of the stuff I've copied to my computer is from labels that aren't affiliated with the RIAA.

 

Exactly - and that was after they tried to convince us that home taping was a crime. Somewhere I still have the dust sleeve from an old LP that had an image of a cassette turned into a skull and crossbones and it said "Home taping is killing the music industry!"

Absolutely one of the worst-run industries ever. On the bright side, I firmly believe the record companies as we know them will cease to exist within 5 years. Can't happen soon enough.

 

RIAA not suing over CD ripping, still kinda being jerks about it

http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/30/riaa-not-suing-over-cd-ripping-still-kinda-being-jerks-about-it/

Posted Dec 30th 2007 12:16PM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Okay, so we've done some digging into the RIAA's lawsuit against Jeffery Howell, in which the industry is claiming that ripped MP3s are "unauthorized copies," and it turns out that Jeffery isn't actually being sued for ripping CDs, like the Washington Post and several other sources have reported, but for plain old illegal downloading. As we're all unfortunately aware, that's pretty standard stuff; the big change from previous downloading cases is the RIAA's newfound aggressiveness in calling MP3s ripped from legally owned CDs "unauthorized copies" -- something it's been doing quietly for a while, but now it looks like the gloves are off. While there's a pretty good argument for the legality of ripping under the market factor of fair use, it's never actually been ruled as such by a judge -- so paradoxically, the RIAA might be shooting itself in the foot here, because a judge wouldn't ever rule on it unless they argue that it's illegal. Looks like someone may end up being too clever for their own good, eh?

 

And from August at ars technica. Again, sounds like Kazaa was the problem:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070827-judge-sides-with-riaa-file-sharing-apps-lead-to-direct-infringement.html

Pamela and Jeffrey Howell were sued by the RIAA in 2006 for copyright infringement. The Howells decided to defend themselves against the charges and submitted a remarkably short answer to the RIAA's complaint. In it, the Howells argued that their file-sharing program was "not set up to share" and that the files found by MediaSentry were "for private use" and "for transfer to portable devices, that is legal for 'fair use.'" Their three-paragraph response was miniscule in comparison to those filed by file-sharing defendants with professional representation.

In his summary judgment, Judge Neil V. Wake dismissed the Howell's arguments and handed the RIAA $40,500 in statutory damages, $350 in court costs, and a permanent injunction against future copyright infringement by the Howells. "Several cases suggest that Kazaa users commit direct infringement by employing the Kazaa program to make their collections of copyrighted sound recordings available to all other Kazaa users," wrote Judge Wake, citing three other cases as well as Howell's deposition in which he admitted ownership of the Kazaa account in question.

 

Everything on my iPod is from a CD I own. But there's a CD out of print that I can't find that is on that mininova site.

I guess my next question is this: Being a neophyte on technology, do I have to load this into my computer or will it go into my iTunes? And if I have to download it onto my desk top how do I get it into my iTunes and onto my iPod?

BTW, the album also was not available in the iTunes store.

Can anyone help with instructions?

 

tony -- those sites Mizzou linked are for torrents, and are a lot more involved than downloading from iTunes.

Someone here can probably help you, though.

 

Thanks, Zeke.

Now, what's a torrent?

 

That's about where my expertise runs out, though EStreet tried to explain it to me once.

 

Torrents — bit torrents — can be bad, bad things.
Loaded with nasty viruses that will turn your computer into an expensive paperweight. But I'm not bitter or anything, but bit torrent at your own risk.
Mininova was generally fine though.

 

System of a Down's "Steal This Album!"