Sony BMG: 'Making a Copy of Purchased Music is Considered Stealing'

Chief RIAA anti-piracy lawyer proves just how silly the recording industry really is.

Yesterday was day 1 of Capitol Records, et al v. Jammie Thomas, the first trial concerning illegal file-sharing to ever make its way into a courtroom, and already the RIAA is making itself out to be a true enemy of the people. In a stunning bit of testimony, Jennifer Pariser, head of litigation for Sony BMG, actually testified that "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.Doesn't she know that there's a built in tax for all forms of recordable media and media players, the whole point of which is to go towards offsetting the costs of this mild-mannered "piracy?" Is she implying that we can never make a copy of something we purchased for own personal use?What's also an interesting point to make here is that certainly this can't be true for digital music, thus making physical CDs an even more worthless commodity than they already are. If the recording industry is so adamant about shoring up declining CD revenues then why does it do all it can to make people hate CDs even more? It's bad enough to charge $20 bucks a pop, but then to be so bold as to say that burning a copy is technically piracy has got to be one of the most egregious claims I've ever heard. To boot, what about the fact that portable media players require one to rip CD tracks into MP3s or other compatible formats in order to be able to listen to them. Is this "ripping" then illegal as well? Praiser also testified that piracy has "...caused billions of dollars in harm in the past four or five years" and that it's her "...personal belief that Sony BMG is half the size now as it was in 2000." But, as is evident from her testimony, I'd argue instead that sheer stupidity is to blame for the recording industry's woes. No other industry could expect to survive if they were to do as the RIAA has done and go out of its way to sue its customers, charge outrageous prices, and do everything it can to limit what its customers can actually do with their purchased product.

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