What exactly do they stand to gain with this? All they're doing is pissing people off :-/, it's not like this actually stands a chance in court.

True.  If any judge is stupid enough to rule in the RIAA's favor this will just get overturned further down the line.  I laugh as I watch those bastards go under.  

You're right. This is COMPLETE DESPERATION by the RIAA. Nothing more to it than desperation.

When I bought my iPod classic, it clearly came with instructions telling me to rip my existing CDs to iTunes.

So I'll tell you: the RIAA can f***ing sue Apple for this and not me.  

You know what's also illegal or soon will be? Having a photographic memory and going to the theatre. It's like downloading the movie anyways! Just think, one day we'll be able to pirate movies when we can transfer brain data to other people!

For crying out loud, the RIAA said the ripped from Cd copies were unauthorized. They did not say they were illegal. Unauthorized does not equal illegal.

And unless you have explicit authorization to make the copy from the label, guess what geniuses, THEY ARE UNAUTHORIZED COPIES, even if they are legal under fair use.

Fortunately that's the entire point of fair use. Fair use doesn't ever apply to authorized copies. Fair use ONLY applies to unauthorized copies, and says that its ok to make unauthorized copies provided the use falls within fair use.

So give this a rest, the RIAA said something that's actually 100% fact, and a bunch of forum twits around the world have a collective freak-out about it. If you had a clue how copyright and fair use works you'd realize this.

The RIAA knows they are unauthorized. The lawyers on BOTH sides would agree to this in a heartbeat. At worst they'll disagree whether the USE of those unauthorized copies falls within fair use -- but that's what determines whether the copies are legal or not. But there is no question they are unauthorized.

There is NOTHING to see here.

They're not saying it is illegal. It's protected under fair use. That's simply a fact -- you can make a copy for your own use. You can put it on your mp3 player. You can keep a backup. Whatever. It's "unauthorized", not "illegal".

The RIAA has outlived its usefulness as a cartel.

You (and TheBigFatJ) have no clue what your talking about. They are not just maintaining the copies are unauthorized. They are maintaining they are unauthorized and illegal.

Its Web site says: "If you make unauthorized copies of copyrighted music recordings, you're stealing. You're breaking the law and you could be held legally liable for thousands of dollars in damages."

The RIAA maintains that unauthorized copies of music are ILLEGAL.

I agree with Naznatips here, the RIAA are attempting to argue that those unauthorized copies are illegal.

I don't know what they are trying to prove. I stopped buying cd's years ago because I can't stomach these people anymore. The only label I still support is Nettwerk up here in Canada because the owner isn't a complete Knob.

 edit: Also, it pisses me off when they act like this, because they've already convinced the government up here (not sure in the US) to charge a tax on all new blank CD's, DVD's, music devices like ipods (I think) to help recover piracy costs, simply because if you buy a blank CD you could possibly use it for piracy...total rubbish.  So sorry music industry, if I pay a tax for every cd I buy whether I use it or not, I don't feel one bit bad about pirating music (not that I actually do.  I have over 5k songs on my ipod, why do I need more?).

The funniest part of this all is sales on CD's were UP across the board when Napster came out. I wish I had the article for you guys but that was years ago and finding it now would be virtually impossible but I'll try a little anyway.

But yeah CD sales were up when napster was around because people were exposed to things they'd have never known otherwise. After they went after that there's been a steady decline in CD and music sales because they just keep pissing people off. Now they're gonna tell me I need to keep using their inferior CD's to listen to my music when I can transfer them to my PC and get better sound quality. I'm done I will never buy a CD again.

I dont give a $hit, I do it all the time with my ps3 :D