The RIAA are once again trying to use legal tricks to extort money from folks, in this case its a device manufacturer.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/18/AR2006071801538.htmlThe prospect that the industry might not extract every last penny out of the new satellite radio services and their customers is simply unacceptable to the Recording Industry Association of America.
The controversy concerns new devices that allow satellite radio's paying customers to record programs they listen to, or would have listened to if they were aired at a more convenient time.
Never mind that the Supreme Court long ago ruled that the "fair use" doctrine included the right of consumers to tape programs off TV and radio as long as they're for personal use.
Never mind that, back in 1992, Congress envisioned the potential clash between fair use and copyright problems in an era of digital radio and came up with a compromise that requires the makers of digital audio recording devices to pay the record labels a royalty equal to 2 percent of the wholesale price of the device.
And never mind that the current devices are set up so you can't transfer tunes to your music collection on the computer or share them with your friends.
The RIAA took its demands for additional royalties to both Sirius and XM. Sirius signed a deal that, by one news report, involved a fee of $15 per recording device. But for reasons that aren't exactly clear, a similar offer by XM was rebuffed. Instead, XM was hit with a federal lawsuit filed by the RIAA and a proposal from the industry's backers in Congress that would effectively require the satellite radio services and their customers to pay "market" rate for music downloads.
So lets get this straight folks your legally allowed to record off the radio, but throw in the word "digital" to confuse idiots in congress and all of a sudden you can play the piracy card to once again levy a substantial stealth tax on consumers.
Who are the stupid legislators who seem not to be able to tell the difference between a mp3 of reasonable quality and a 32-64k non mp3 offering that any P2P user would laugh at, this level of bit rate being only usable for good speech, this is the real heart of the debate I feel, the bit rate used should show its not capable of being used to commit piracy as the RIAA claim, instead it offers the radio listener the use of fair play rights rights that they already have and the RIAA thieves wish to steal, being honest these days is so hard for them.
