Category Archives: RIAA

The RIAA Says I’m not a Criminal, After All!

According to techdirt, my previous preparations to add some of the criminal element to my life can now be safely done away with, as the ever-magnanimous RIAA has now said that it’s OK to rip a CD that I own and listen to it on my iPod! Too bad, too, as I was this close to picking out my fear-inspiring criminal underworld nickname: “the ripper”. Huh? What do you mean it’s taken?

Question “Answered”

Well, I didn’t quite expect it like this, but I got an answer to my question: What are you paying for when you buy music? The EFF reported on an RIAA filing that wants to make ripping your own CDs to play on your portable audio device fall outside the fair use definition. In fact, so would just making a backup copy of your CDs.

Thanks, RIAA, for wanting to turn practically everyone who owns a computer into criminals. That should go over very well. Let’s see: I got an iPod so I could carry my entire music collection around with me, which worked out to about 3,800 songs. Re-buying those from the iTunes music store at $0.99/song would cost me $3,762.00. Yeah, I don’t think so. I’m willing to take my chances as a criminal.