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Music

By TM

In an effort to crack down on illegally shared music, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has announced it will now start suing anyone who buys a CD, in the hopes that preventing CD sales will prevent file swapping. The industry hopes that preventing the sale of CDs will reverse the longstanding trend of decreases in CD sales.

All right, that's not true. That's the Jamestown Lawyer making something up given the sheer ridiculousness of the latest RIAA position on shared music, as chronicled in this recent Washington Post article.

I can understand their legal opinion on downloaded music, if not endorsing their tactics. Thousands of lawsuits have been filed against various people for making music available online. What is of most concern to the Jamestown Lawyer is the idea of trying to fix a broken system by scare tactics and seeking unrecoverable damages.

In this article, it seems the RIAA contends that even making a copy of a song one already legally owns is violating copyright, but (and their magnamity is breathtaking) they probably won't start suing over that.

Full post as published by Jamestown Lawyer on January 02, 2008 (boomark / email).