Copying and spyware are OK: RIAA
p2pnet news | RIAA News:- Copying is cool and not only that, the music industry [read Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG] is the "most permissive in the copyright industry".
The Word came from RIAA spin-doctor-in-chief Cary ‘Tough Love‘ Sherman.
Ripping your legally acquired CD for personal use, "is unobjectionable," he stated unequivocally, going on to equivocate, but, "We don’t take a position on legality. There are all sorts of implications if you take a position on legality which go well beyond the practice."
And, observes Sherman, of course, there’s always spyware.
Posted p2pnet last month:
In the Jammie Thomas trial, ’star’ RIAA witness Jennifer Pariser, a top level Sony BMG lawyer, declared unequivocally:
"… when an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song".
Couldn’t be plainer.
And in the Howell case, RIAA lawyer Ira Schwartz says MP3 files Howell copied to his computer from his own legally bought CDs were "unauthorized".
In other words, he definitely shouldn’t have done it, says the RIAA, and that’s why he’s now facing copyright infringement allegations which, if proven, could cost him a fortune.
Clear enough?
But according to RIAA president Cary Sherman, who says the sue ‘em all cases launched by the Big 4 against their customers are just examples of "tough love," Pariser, "misspoke in that trial".
Now, trying to spin filtering technology as functional and effective to the audience at the State of the Net Conference put on by the Advisory Committee to the Congressional Internet Caucus, Personal copying? No Problem, says Sherman in a video posted to YuTube by Public Knowledge.
Then he weasels out of it with:
We don’t take a position on legality. There are all sorts of implications if you take a position on legality which go well beyond the practice. The first sale doctrine comes into play —- all sorts of things change because of the collateral impact of whether this is legal or not. So what we’ve done is the best thing we could, which is to say nobody in the music industry has ever objected and I think our actions themselves. We’ve got a whole lot of lawsuits against people engaged in peer-to-peer sharing. No one has ever had any kind of personal claim made for personal use copying and we affirmatively said it over and over again, Enjoy it. It’s a good commercial and consumer experience. We want people to have it so they will come back and buy more. Put it on your iPod. Burn an extra copy.
And I just want to point out this makes us the most permissive in the copyright industry.
The music industry has said No objection.
But that’s not all.
"Perhaps the most interesting part comes as a response to Question 2, where Sherman essentially proposes placing spyware on users’ computers to get around the ‘problem’ of encryption," says Public Knowledge, going on to quote him as saying:
Filters can be put in the applications for example. You know, one could have a filter on the end user’s computer that would actually eliminate any benefit from…encryption because if you want to hear it, you’d have to decrypt it, and at that point the filter could work.
And he continues the spyware, "might be in your virus checker or media player, or even in an ISP-provided modem or somewhere else under the ISP’s control.
But, " fear not," says Public Knowledge because, "it’s just to ‘notify’ you so you learn what’s right and wrong".
"What’s next?" – it adds. "Our keyboards will shock us when we download the wrong music?"
That’s no too far removed from a p2pnet spoof in which we suggested Apple and Microsoft had developed an anti-file sharing ear-bud.
"When an iPod (or other) user wearing the new audio devices plays an iTunes track not sanctioned by Organized Music (EMI Group, Vivendi Uiversal, Warner Music), Fair Play feedback ‘instructs’ the buds to emit a piercing, high-pitched scream in stereo at 250 decibels," we posted, continuing:
"Microsoft’s PowerHit system is a DRM application keyed to the company’s Power Management technology. Starting at midnight on December 1, all users of Windows 2000 and higher will receive automatic system updates which will instruct desktops, laptops and PDAs running appropriate MS OS software to release a 125-volt anti-p2p DRM ‘charge’ into computer chassis every users attempt to play unauthorised iTunes tracks."
The spoof prompted a panicky denial from SunnComm which issued an international press release denying it had done no such thing.
Stay tuned and meanwhile, check out the video …….
Also See:
Tough Love – RIAA lawsuits are ‘tough love’, October 18, 2007
p2pnet – EFF joins Howell vs RIAA fight, January 12, 2008
Public Knowledge – RIAA wants content filters and proposes spyware too [VIDEO], February 6, 2008
p2pnet spoof – Apple, Microsoft p2p collaboration, November 5, 2005
panicky denial – SunnComm falls for p2pnet spoof, November 9, 2005
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February 7th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
That video has clearly been edited and I am not convinced in a benign way. Around 1:53 Mr. Sherman say, “That the sort thing that could be enforced[delete potion] at the modem [deleted portion] or something.”. You can tell these edit because the video jumps and often cut of a hand gesture by Mr. Sherman.
February 7th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Ok, ignore the above. I watched the entire video. The edits are benign.
February 8th, 2008 at 7:28 am
here is the complete conference
see the full conference here (watching an hour of streaming Real Player video is done at your own risk).
http://www.netcaucus.org/conference/2008/20080130sotn-filters.ram
February 8th, 2008 at 7:31 am
full address for downloading
rtsp://www.neted.org:554/2008/sotn/20080130sotn-filters.rm