So the music industry is still pissing me off, in new and creative ways. A Sony BMG lawyer said under oath that in her opinion, a consumer who buys a CD and makes a single copy for personal use, or rips the CD and puts it on their iPod, is stealing.
I can't imagine this stance would hold up in court, but it's still telling that Sony's legal department thinks it would. I sometimes wonder if the music industry is really this stupid, or if they have some subtle scheme for the future which requires driving away all their customers in the short term. As another blogger pointed out, if my choices are to buy a CD, put it on my iPod and be a criminal, or to illegally download the MP3s and be a criminal, then I might as well save the $15.
I buy a fair amount of music for my show, probably much more than the typical music consumer. I have been buying mostly used CDs just to save money. I think in future I'll try to buy only used CDs, so as not to give any more money to those leeches. When I read about this story last night, I actually felt regret at having paid for a new CD (a 2-CD set of Edith Piaf, to be precise) earlier in the week. At least it wasn't Sony. Not that Capitol is probably any better.
(thanks to Starcat for the link.)
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