Sony BMG's chief anti-piracy lawyer: "Copying" music you own is "stealing"

[SUBMAN1]

Can Sony go bankrupt or something already? THis is getting rediculous.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...-stealing.html

-S

...Gabriel asked if it was wrong for consumers to make copies of music which they have purchased, even just one copy. Pariser replied, "When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song." Making "a copy" of a purchased song is just "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy'," she said....

[HunterICX]

yeah....right
doesnt these kind of text makes you wanna beat this Pariser in the face....

[CB..]

and what do they call re-releasing their entire back catalogue in a new format every couple of years..if they haven't made enough money from scrapping traditional records and going entirely over to cd's ....then maybe they're the pirates eh?? you just know they'll keep on doing this everytime a new format comes around....course no-one forces you to buy the new format but they know that sooner or later nearly every-one will....i'm no fan of pirated music in any form..(well the odd bootleg or two perhaps from a record fair..)...but just who is kidding who with this stuff?

[Dowly]

They just dont know when to stop... oh well.. their loss.

Real numbers about RIAA anti-p2p campaign

Originally Posted by SUBMAN1

Can Sony go bankrupt or something already? THis is getting rediculous.

I'd rather put a copy of a CD in the car than the original, since if it warps due to heat, I don't end up destroying the original. The guy obviously don't understand (or doesn't want to understand) the concept of "fair use".

Also, considering their foray into the world of rootkits, this clown has nothing to say about doing things that might be "illegal."

[VipertheSniper]

Originally Posted by Dowly

They just dont know when to stop... oh well.. their loss.

Real numbers about RIAA anti-p2p campaign

Sony doesn't get anything for a song each time it's played on the radio? I just wonder why people around here have to pay for public playing of those records to something like an equivalent of the RIAA? I'm pretty sure this stuff goes back to the record companies. Sure I guess with the thousands of radio stations in the USA it might pose a problem to actually employ a model like that.

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Zayphod

I'd rather put a copy of a CD in the car than the original, since if it warps due to heat, I don't end up destroying the original. The guy obviously don't understand (or doesn't want to understand) the concept of "fair use".

Also, considering their foray into the world of rootkits, this clown has nothing to say about doing things that might be "illegal."

You are totally wrong here! How else will they get you to buy multiple copies every time you scratch your CD or have someone steal it? I mean come on already. They aren't making any profit when you aren't buying 10 copies of the same disc now, so this is totally unacceptable and you should not be able to copy CD's at all!

-S

Originally Posted by SUBMAN1

You are totally wrong here! How else will they get you to buy multiple copies every time you scratch your CD or have someone steal it? I mean come on already. They aren't making any profit when you aren't buying 10 copies of the same disc now, so this is totally unacceptable and you should not be able to copy CD's at all!
-S

They'll have their way once Vista comes out on every PC in the world, allowing no computer to copy anything until you put money in the slot provided by M$. Some guy will collect it and hand it to their masters once a month.

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Zayphod

They'll have their way once Vista comes out on every PC in the world, allowing no computer to copy anything until you put money in the slot provided by M$. Some guy will collect it and hand it to their masters once a month.

Hogwash - Enter Linux - Enter Dual Boot. As long as these capabilities exist, you need not worry about the Redmond giant.

-S

Originally Posted by SUBMAN1

Hogwash - Enter Linux - Enter Dual Boot. As long as these capabilities exist, you need not worry about the Redmond giant.

-S

Until M$ adjusts Vista to exclude any ability to dual-boot anything other than Vista and XP. Yes, give them that opportunity, and I guarantee that they'll try setting it up that way. (just my cynical self speaking here, of course)

[Skybird]

What a company lawyer thinks is irrelevant. What the law in the customer's country says - this is what is relevant. In Germany, the law-maker under pressure by the music lobby tried to make things a bit messed up, and tried to sow doubt and to trouble the water, however there is no law backing the claim of this man, as to my best knowledge. Exactly the oppposite, the GEMA fees (includinded in the sale price of the CD) include compensation for small scale copying on private level and for private use - which even includes to make a copy for a close friend, and of course family members. This is perfectly legal by law, and is not different to recording radio programs on cassette like the older ones of us without doubt have done in the 70s and 80s, which also was perfectly legal (at least in Germany).

The hiding manouver has been to declare the cracking of a copy protection illegal, even if it is done automatically (by Nero, for example), and only to secure a copy for private use in the above mentioned sense. So, there may come a controversy from music companies attaching copy protection schemes to their CDs, but I would dare to challenge it at court if some freak company would dare to attack me for making a copy in the above mentioned understanding. The recommended counter strategy is to question the legality of copy protection by the company, if this limits/makes it impossible for the customer (who legally bought the CD) to make a private copy for private use. They are hindering you to practice your perfectly legal freedom, you see.

This is advise that I got from a lawyer while having to meet with him on a totally different issue.

Also, what many people do not know, foreign companies often try to sue a "criminal customer" on terms of the laws valid in the company's home nation. but that is illegal by international law agreemtns to which practically all european countries, Canada and the US (their governments) have agree to, thus making them binding. These agreements on software and disc copying issues say that in case of a dispute the laws and court rules apply that are valid for the nation of the customer, not that of the company. This has been advise from an Austrian lawyer who published a longer essay in an flightsim print magazine some years ago, about the problems on online buying and o line registration procedures that allow only a limited number of registrations, and such things. These things had been a great problem for some some time, years ago. - I tend to stay away from buying downloads as much as possible.

Originally Posted by Skybird

The hiding manouver has been to declare the cracking of a copy protection illegal, even if it is done automatically (by Nero, for example), and only to secure a copy for private use in the above mentioned sense. So, there may come a controversy from music companies attaching copy protection schemes to their CDs, but I would dare to challenge it at court if some freak company would dare to attack me for making a copy in the above mentioned understanding. The recommended counter strategy is to question the legality of copy protection by the company, if this limits/makes it impossible for the customer (who legally bought the CD) to make a private copy for private use. They are hindering you to practice your perfectly legal freedom, you see.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Sony the ones who first came out with the Betamax designed to perform this exact same function? Were they not sued in court over this same process? Did they not win the lawsuit using this exact same type of arguement?

[Skybird]

Can't tell you, don't know anything about Betamax, only that it was there, long ago . I just repeat two statements of a german lawyer (whose comment I read to be confired in one or two print magazine articles, and on TV over the last twenty years, too, as far as I remember it), and an austrian lawyer who commented on the status of international law agreements. the industry tries to trouble the water, and in oparts is extremely successful in that. As to my (amateur) knowledge, no person in Germany ever has been sued for recording public music programs on cassette for his private use, and the regulations for that process have not been chnaged since the CD market broke down (note that the company became so eager to stiop any copying at all since it'S incomes fell into the cellar, which is only in parts due to illegal copying, but according to market observes is more caused by chnaged medias, distriution models and generally chnaged consummation behavior of music-consuments. the business simply slept too long and missed the starting shot for the changes to come. Now they want to take bake ground that was lost due to simply incometent buzsiness management, and they partially use illegal means, imo, intimidations, and unjustified claims of skyrocketing pirating, and exploiting the status of lacking valid information on the legal status.

Also, a certain percentage of the price for every CD you buy is going to the GEMA, and of this percentage a certain ammount already is reserved for regular "compensating" for legal copies that do not produce an income (by regular sale processes) for the copyright holders. so, the copyright holder already gets payed from this fund, no matter if a copying takes place or not.