The RIAA Vs. The CEA

According to Digital Music News at NARM the RIAA was qouting "….research showing that 29 percent of all recorded music obtained in 2004 was either burned or ripped from others…But Consumer Electronic Association President Gary Shapiro saw a misguided focus. "There they go again," Shapiro responded. "The recent news that the recording industry now considers casual, non-commercial CD burning as a threat to be stopped comes as no surprise. We are concerned that the record industry is targeting consumer place shifting and CD burning, even as they admit that it is legal conduct. The fact is, making a backup or mix CD for personal use is not copyright infringement, and Americans who enjoy personal CD burning are not lawbreakers…"

"…One is the issue of fair use, which allows consumers to burn personal copies of legally-acquired music for use in other environments. In a typical example, a consumer burns a copy of a digitally-purchased album for use in the car. But the second issue involves the illegal sharing of content via CD-burning. In that case, one individual illegally shares a collection of music with another, using a CD-R to make the transfer. That was most recently the focus of the RIAA at NARM, with Mitch Bainwol pointing to data that specifically showed a great deal of music was illegally obtained from burned CD copies. Now, the big question for the industry whether copy-protected CDs are the way to properly restrict this activity, or if the altered discs will serve to discourage overall CD-purchases…"