Judge rules in favor of RIAA, XM ready for battle
By Darren Murph 
posted Jan 19th 2007 7:23PM
posted Jan 19th 2007 7:23PM
Not like this is altogether surprising by any means, but a US District Judge has ruled that a lawsuit in which "record companies allege XM Radio is cheating them by letting consumers store songs can proceed toward trial." Deborah A. Batts has decided to not throw out the case which Atlantic, BMG Music, Capitol Records, and "other music distribution companies" filed against XM, and claims that the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 does "not protect the company in this instance." Essentially, the judge ruled that special handheld recording devices, marketed as XM+MP3 players (you know, like the Inno), are not at all like "radio-cassette players," and then proceeded to explain how "recording songs played over free radio doesn't threaten the market for copyrighted works as does the use of a recorder which stores songs from private radio broadcasts." Aside from our apparent inability to understand why source A is less illegal than source B, we're completely on the same page with Ms. Batts, but nevertheless, she also asserted that XM is attempting to be "both a broadcaster and a distributor, while only paying to be the former," but completely disregards the extra fees that satellite radio firms pay to record labels in comparison to "free" stations. But if you think XM is downtrodden, you'd be sorely mistaken, as the company simply stated that it "looked forward to making its case (read: winning) in court." Now that's the spirit.[Via Orbitcast]
the riaa is so bloody disgusting
Screw the RIAA and for that matter screw all the big major labels too. Oh, I'm sorry, the billions of dollars that you are already making just isn't enough? All the power to XM radio to fight this and from the looks of it, they may just win.
They request to lower payments to artists, and then claim to operate in the artists best interest. Hmmm, seems to me they are only concerned with #1, and it isn't their clients.
god, this really pisses me off...
So whats so different about recording songs off of Satellite Radio onto Flash Memory from recording songs off of FM Radio onto Cassettes?
The RIAA doesn't get it, the more they do this, the more people get pissed off at them, so more people result to illegally getting their songs...
May the members of the RIAA burn in the deepest pits of Hell.
It isn't EXACTLY the same as recording off of FM because the songs are stored as separate files and you can create playlists and skip or delete songs you don't like. Of course, you still have songs overlapping each other, meaning the beginnings and end of most tracks is messed up with pieces of other songs or station identification. It is also impossible to copy these tracks over to a PC or any other device, so it isn't like anyone is burning quality CD's from these tracks. In addition to limiting any portability of these tracks, XM encourages users to pay to download any tracks they like using the bookmark feature.
I might just not be listening to the right XM stations, but normally XM seems pretty good about not mixing the end of one song into the beginning of another. I only have XM in my car, so recording isn't an issue, but it seems like in most cases recorded songs would be fine.
What's the bloody difference between paying $13 monthly for my inno, and being able to record music:
-only when it's on the air
-in poorer quality than MP3
-onto ONLY my device with no copying in anyway
-at a maximum amount of 1 GB
and a person who uses Napster and pays $15 for:
-unlimited, on demand music
-"high" quality (high is subjective, but Napster is better quality)
-multiple licenses
-as much data as you can store
XM pays the HIGHEST royalties in the industry, and STILL they're being prosecuted! I pay $13 a month for that inno, with all those limitations, and they want to take it away from me! Meanwhile, millions of people are STILL pirating, using Limewire and Soulseek. (Or even ripping CDs from the local library) I have the MOST legal music of all my friends, and the RIAA calls me a criminal! Disgusting.
Please buy: http://www.jinx.com/scripts/details.asp?productID=285
If XM successfully sticks it to the RIAA I will never cancel my subscription.
If XM successfully gets the RIAA to bow down and suck a little d*ck I will start a subscription, something I vowed never to do because I am ok with commercials and regular radio quality, but their victory would deserve my money :)
Until the RIAA get its head out of its @$$ i'll continue to rip my music, f*ck paying for it if you are going to put limitations on it which I don't get when downloading it for free.
I thought XM already was paying additional royalties for their players that record content? I could've sworn that there was a legal brouhaha when Sirius' first device that records came out, but XM was exempt because they were paying "protection money" to the RIAA?
Err, I take it back. It was Sirius that paid the extra licensing fees.
Easy there--the judge didn't make a ruling about the legality of recording songs. Rather, the judge correctly noted that the argument was strong enough to go to trial. The massive difference between the two are astounding. The article attempts to transform the concept of clearing the way for trial as a major loss for XM, but it's a ruling that says there isn't enough evidence to make it so no reasonable person could be in favor of the RIAA.
I know, reasonable people think the RIAA is garbage, and I don't disagree, but the reason ability aspect here really just means there's more questions to be posed and answered before this case can be considered over. It'll cost more, but it could potentially be positive for us anti-RIAA folk. Taking this to trial might create some really good case law that issues a big F.U. to the RIAA. Then again it could totally screw XM and many others, but this is not a case where a judge ruled in favor of the RIAA, the judge just said we need more info.
The XM players don't allow the recorded tracks to be exported digitally from the player to a PC or any other device (and, as 've already posted in this thread, the tracks aren't perfect CD tracks - they often have messed up beginning and endings). I wouldn't be surprised if some resourceful folks have figured out how to get around the inability to copy tracks to a PC, but I really seriously doubt it is anything RIAA has to worry about.
RIAA didn't know when to turn until they crashed into a wall.
And after that, they backup their cars, crash in the same wall again just to make sure it's time to turn.
love the pic
Ok, I am no fan of the RIAA. I hope XM kinks their A$$es. But, I do agree partially with the judge. Over the air "free" radio sucks. You don't even get the full song that they play because the radio DJ's talk during the beginning and the end of the new songs. It is my understanding that they do this intentionally, so that Over The Air recodings aren't nearly as good as the original store bought recordings. Add to that, you get some filtered and sensored versions of songs that have profanity in them (i. e. "I wanna 'LOVE' you"). Plus, FM quality radio pales in comparison the quality of Satellite radio, let alone store bought cassettes.
Also, you have to admit that digitally recorded music from a source as good as Satellite is easily more "distributable" (i.e P2P software, torrents, general digital copies) than the analog cassette recording devices that were mainstream back in 1992. Digital technology has allowed us to copy digital media like songs and video with NO LOSS IN QUALITY to other computers, storage devices and digital media players. So Bob can copy from me, John can copy from Bob, Keith can copy from John, Michael can copy from Keith and so on and so forth. This can go on and on hundreds of times from either source with absolutely NO loss in quality from the original source. Not to mention that it takes less than 3 seconds for a computer (mine anyway) or a storage device to copy a song. Analog recording devices such as Cassettes were incapable of these kinds of feats. So, you see, the judge has a point.
I do believe that the judge was out of line when he said that XM was trying to be a distributer. They are not. They are simply trying to provide their PAYING customers with the same benefits you get with OTA. I suppose its possible to record without their recording devices but it should be as easy as a touch of a button like it is with cassette recording OTA. If XM was smart they'd license their tech to third party companies and let them build satellite recording devices to use on their XM's network ala Apple's iPod (If they aren't already doing this.) They'd make a fortune from licensing fees.
The RIAA is dumb. the more they try to police this stuff, the more people are going to look for "other" (and not all that difficult) means to get their music and other media. They should be trying to work with ISP's, Satellite companies, mp3 and PMP manufactorers, internet music distributers and the like, intead of suing everybody. This makes everyone bitter, hateful, resentful, and defiant. The RIAA should try being more likable, then maybe people would be more willing to be more sympatheitic to their goals. They are going at it like the Greedy, glutonous, monsters that they are.
Now that's the spirit.
Yeah Sirius Spirit!
Makes me so glad to live in Britain. When the RIAA doesn't exist! =D
Here's an idea, let's all buy XM players just to piss the RIAA off! =D
Source A is less illegal than Source B because Ruler C was payed off by Source D so that Source D can sue source E and F and make an example out of them for Source G, H, I, J, and K. Source L is standing by on the sidelines to see how this goes before taking any further actions.
The overlaps are very brief - then (on the Nexus25, anyway), when I play them back, tracks are separated by a silent space, so the musical artifacts left on either track become more pronounced. And when I use random play, skip or delete tracks and create playlists. they are even more noticeable.
FWIW, I record mostly from The System 82 (Dance/Trance), Flight 26 and Hits List 30 (both Hits/Top 40).
RIAA = Reckless, Idiotic, And Absurd