Comments on: RIAA Brief: Washington Post Gets It Wrong

By: Cop The Truth

Cop The Truth — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 20:41:47 +0000

Corporate Greed and the Recording Industry…

It seems that fewer and fewer people are choosing to purchase CD’s these days and are instead opting to download music onto their mp3 players, computers and cell phones, instead, costing the recording industry untold millions of dollars in lost…

By: Outside the Beltway

Outside the Beltway — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 17:39:20 +0000

RIAA Sues Over Personal Use Copying…

It would appear that the recording industry isn?t quite done with its years-long project of immolating itself rather than adapt to changing technology….

By: Patterico's Pontifications

Patterico's Pontifications — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 13:26:59 +0000

Helen Thomas: Vindicated Again!…

Helen Thomas has been proved right ? yet again!…

By: levi from queens

levi from queens — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:15:06 +0000

Daffyd ab Hugh at Big Lizards linked to this post as he completely reversed his position against the RIAA based upon the WaPo. Kudos LaShawn.

By: Big Lizards

Big Lizards — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 06:46:42 +0000

Use an iPod, Go to Jail – UPDATED to the point of being NULLIFIED!…

UPDATE January 3rd, 2008: It doesn’t often happen that Big Lizards is completely, utterly wrong in a post; but I’m pretty sure this is one of those rare times… Commenter Levi from Queens linked to a LaShawn Barber post that……

By: FutureCrush.com

FutureCrush.com — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:26:10 +0000

RIAA CD Ripping Story – Press Gets It Wrong…

By: Karen of Scottsdale

Karen of Scottsdale — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 18:23:30 +0000

According to this article, Howell has no attorney representing him in court.

By: Uncle Ruckus

Uncle Ruckus — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 22:53:29 +0000

Well we are splitting hairs here. The claim is based on once you rip the CD where you place the file on the computer. The RIAA claim is once the file is ripped and placed in a shared folder it is illegal. This tactic is to close the loop hole of some software automatically sharing folders and its contents and the a person claiming ignorance. This is a very smart move by the RIAA, they are looking to remove any possible defense of anyone they file suit against. So, look for a big initiative of lawsuits by them this year.

As a test install a virtual machine then install the latest file sharing software and do a search for *.xls you will find a ton of spreadsheets not intended for public reading.

By: March Hare

March Hare — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 22:19:47 +0000

My question is does the shared file have to be accessible to an outside network, such as Kaaza, in order to be illegal? Or is just the fact of a shared file folder enough?

In our home network, family members have several shared files, mostly Pictures and Music, so that we can easily access them when using one of our four home computers. We each have individual mp3 players as well. Since some of our taste in music overlaps, do we have to have multiple copies of each song–one on each computer and for each mp3 player?

This seems to be a case where, once again, RIAA is playing “catch up” with technology.

By: CW

CW — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 02:59:57 +0000

I don’t believe the RIAA can encroach on the “fair use” policies already established in regards to personal use…

BWDB: http://thecwexperience.wordpress.com

By: Kevin W

Kevin W — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 03:01:47 +0000

LaShawn,

Thanks for clearing this up. I just graduated from law school and even took courses in IP Law and when I read the article it left me scratching my head and searching for the “correct” answer. Thanks for being the ombudsman when the major paper can’t bother getting their facts right.

Score another victory for the citizen journalists!

By: Tyrone

Tyrone — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 02:12:05 +0000

The RIAA has no ground on which to stand other then quicksand. The legal owner of a CD can copy it as long as they don’t plan on selling it for a profit. This is the RIAA unknowingly admitting that they can’t stop peer to peer file sharing. This is their lame attempt to try and stop people from making it easy for people to share the individual music file.

By: Chip Bennett

Chip Bennett — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 22:01:57 +0000

I fell for the same thing (thanks to an engadget post), until I read the actual summary judgement (again, thanks to engadget, who also posted an update).

I still think the RIAA is taking a very unwise course, but being that what it is, this suit clearly centered around the 50-some songs (out of 2,000+) the RIAA identified as having been distributed – by virtue of their presence in a publicly available, “shared” folder. (IIRC, see page 6 of the summary.)

By: Mwalimu Daudi

Mwalimu Daudi — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 18:57:32 +0000

Some blasts from the past:

“The narrative was right, but the facts were wrong.”

“Fake but accurate.”

And now:

“I based my article on a legal brief that I did not read.”

By: DarkStar

DarkStar — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 15:52:48 +0000

Yep. That’s what I thought. I even wrote a post on my blog with a similar title.