2008 Woodie Awards
Dear reader: You are a music thief
Technophile
Jonathan Harrop
Issue date: 10/10/07 Section: Life & Style
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I rip CDs. I rip CDs I buy, and I burn music I download, then I rip them back to my other computers. I put music from CDs I've purchased onto my iPod after I've ripped it. Before that, I burned mix CDs so I could make pump-up CDs for swim meets and driving mixes for random road-trips.
Hello, my name is Jonathan; I'm a music thief, and you are, too.
Ars Technica posted an interesting tidbit last Tuesday regarding Capitol Records, et al v. Jammie Thomas. The case in question is the RIAA laying the smack-down upon a single mother who shared 26 songs on Kazaa.
On Thursday, the jury (two of whom did not own a computer) handed down a decision forcing that single mother to pay the RIAA $222,000.
Tragic and despicable as that is, that's not the part of the trial that concerns me most.
During the proceedings, Jennifer Pariser, the woman who lives for making students' lives miserable (that would be Head of Litigation for Sony BMG), was called to the stand to testify by Thomas' lawyer.
Pariser testified, as one might expect, that file-sharing is extremely damaging to the music industry and that record labels are more at risk to the losses than the bands who make the music, since bands earn money from tours, merchandise and sponsorship.
Fair enough, Ms. Pariser, go on.
"It's my personal belief that Sony BMG is half the size now as it was in 2000," Pariser said, ascribing this sizable decrease to piracy. Pariser went on to say, "When people steal, when they take music without compensation, we are harmed."
Do you have something new to say, Ms. Pariser?
That's the line we've been hearing from the music industry for years.
"When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song," she said.
Wait, hold on, stop for a second. What did you just say, Ms. Pariser?
Pariser said, outright, that the standard practice of ripping music from a CD is theft. Making one copy is just "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy'," she said.
Hello, my name is Jonathan; I'm a music thief, and you are, too.
Ars Technica posted an interesting tidbit last Tuesday regarding Capitol Records, et al v. Jammie Thomas. The case in question is the RIAA laying the smack-down upon a single mother who shared 26 songs on Kazaa.
On Thursday, the jury (two of whom did not own a computer) handed down a decision forcing that single mother to pay the RIAA $222,000.
Tragic and despicable as that is, that's not the part of the trial that concerns me most.
During the proceedings, Jennifer Pariser, the woman who lives for making students' lives miserable (that would be Head of Litigation for Sony BMG), was called to the stand to testify by Thomas' lawyer.
Pariser testified, as one might expect, that file-sharing is extremely damaging to the music industry and that record labels are more at risk to the losses than the bands who make the music, since bands earn money from tours, merchandise and sponsorship.
Fair enough, Ms. Pariser, go on.
"It's my personal belief that Sony BMG is half the size now as it was in 2000," Pariser said, ascribing this sizable decrease to piracy. Pariser went on to say, "When people steal, when they take music without compensation, we are harmed."
Do you have something new to say, Ms. Pariser?
That's the line we've been hearing from the music industry for years.
"When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song," she said.
Wait, hold on, stop for a second. What did you just say, Ms. Pariser?
Pariser said, outright, that the standard practice of ripping music from a CD is theft. Making one copy is just "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy'," she said.
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