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Washington Post issues "correction" (???)

By Ty Rogers and Ray Beckerman

The Washington Post has now issued a "correction", saying that its column

incorrectly said that the recording industry "maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer." In a copyright-infringement lawsuit, the industry's lawyer argued that the actions of an Arizona man, the defendant, were illegal because the songs were located in a "shared folder" on his computer for distribution on a peer-to-peer network.

Recording Industry vs. The People stands by its previous statements on the subject.

Mr. Fisher was right. The Washington Post "correction" is wrong.

Cary Sherman's "retraction" of (a) what his lawyers said in the Atlantic v. Howell supplemental brief; (b) what SONY BMG's chief of litigation testified to, under oath and in the presence of the jury, at the Capitol v. Thomas trial; and (c) Richard Gabriel's cross examination of Jammie Thomas about her failure to ask the record companies for permission to copy her cd's onto her hard drive are:

-of no legal effect unless and until "retractions" are filed in those court cases; and
-completely lacking in credibility.

They did not come about until after stock prices fell in response to the Motley Fool article decrying the RIAA's position.

Initial article on RIAA response to judge's question as to whether copies on the hard drive were themselves "unlawful", and subsequent editor's note
Our Slashdot post on the same subject
Our post on Washington Post article
Motley Fool article
Cary Sherman's on-air "retraction" saying that Jennifer Pariser "misspoke"
Question and answer on "unlawfulness" in Atlantic v. Howell
Wired.com article about Jennifer Pariser "misspeaking" and Richard Gabriel crossexamining based on that "misspeaking"

Commentary and discussion:

p2pnet.net
Wired.com

Full post as published by Recording Industry vs The People on January 08, 2008 (boomark / email).