The Record Industry has changed its tune on personal use of music you own. It used to say that copying songs from your CDs was fine, but now it’s pretending it didn’t say that.
The Washington Post reports:
Sony BMG’s chief of litigation,
Jennifer Pariser, testified that “when an individual makes a copy of
a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song.” Copying a
song you bought is “a nice way of saying ‘steals just one copy,'”
she said.
On Dave Farber’s IP mailing list, Dan Gillmor points out that the recording industry used to have a different opinion on personal use. It removed the following statement from its website (but you can still read it on archive.org):
“If you choose to take your own CDs and make copies for yourself on
your computer or portable music player, that’s great. It’s your music
and we want you to enjoy it at home, at work, in the car and on the
jogging trail.”
Gillmor adds: “Also, from the Supreme Court oral arguments in the Grokster case,
Donald Virrelli, on behalf of the entertainment companies:”
The record companies, my clients, have said, for some time now, and
it’s been on their Website for some time now, that it’s perfectly
lawful to take a CD that you’ve purchased, upload it onto your
computer, put it onto your iPod. There is a very, very significant
lawful commercial use for that device, going forward.”