XM Radio and Sirius are going to be sued

[aeroparrot]

The Recording Industry Group (whatever represents the Music Industry) is threatening to sue both XM Satellite Radio and Sirius because of the technologies of their new radios will have the possibility of recording music. (Sirius' version hasn't been released yet but XM already has the "recorder" out)

I saw this on CNBC this morning but if I find the article I will post it.

[ph4ever]

With total recorder you can record off Sirius anyway

[aeroparrot]

With total recorder you can record off Sirius anyway

Yep. I agree. Who are they going to sue next?

[ragtopW]

If memory serves me correctly....
they tried this in the 70s when the cassette and 8-tracks
were built into the same component as the radios

and in the 80s with VCRs



(great Iron chef tie-in)

[Jason Mason]

Dear God....... what's that line from? "Kill all the lawyers"?

[nomad]

The technology is already out. Just have output cables running from an xm radio thing into a stereo with a cassette deck.

[Lastplaneout]

These RIAA bastards need to pipe down and pull the pole outta their ass....I could see going after this if the entire recording industry was up in arms about it....but just like MP3 sharing..there's really not more than a handfull of folks who want to see this crap enforced....whenever a new lawsuit like this happens it just makes me sick.

[The Lost Manatee]

Let's look at the history of the RIAA and their efforts to "protect" the recording industry. When the radio industry was just starting up and someone decided to broadcast music the RIAA decided to fight this since it had the potential of cutting into sheet music sales. Record sales took off and sheet music sales remained relatively the same for over a decade. Let's see, the downside to broadcasting music was having to pay more taxes because you made more money from record sales!?! Gee, that's a shame.

Next came the fight against people having the ability to record music from their record players to reel to reel tape decks. The RIAA claimed that it would gut the industry. Hmmm, record sales continued to climb.

Next came the cassette tape recorder and once more the RIAA claimed that it would kill the industry. They predicted that people would pirate music and the recording industry would see a drop in income. Sales climb yet again.

Then came the VCR which the RIAA and the MPAA claimed would destroy the movie industry and the related music sales because every one would be pirating movies. While it's true some consumers taped programs off of the air, most video piracy is done on a commerical level in China, Romania and other countries that don't worry about such things. There wasn't a noticable impact on record sales one way or the other.

Then came the Digital Audio Tape and the RIAA screamed loud and long that this would destroy the industry. They went so far as to make a deal with PMRC and the Congress to put ratings on LPs and CDs in exchange for putting limits on recording technology. Frank Zappa testified before Congress and then spoke with the news media and pointed out that the American people had been ripped off by this deal. According to him we gave up our property rights to insure that LPs and such would have some sort of rating system.

Note that during this time the recording industry was enjoy new sales records due to the fact that many of us were busily replacing our LPs with CDs. This is the highwater mark of sales in the recording industry and the most commonly used numbers by the RIAA to show how bad things are now.

Then came the CD burners which the RIAA claims has cost the industry millions in sales however when asked to provide actual documentation of the losses the RIAA can only "estimate" based on the fact that the sales of recorded material is flat. The RIAA doesn't believe that sales are flat due to the quality of material being put out by record labels and/or the fact that they are still aiming at the 13 to 25 year old market and ignoring the rest of the market as much as possible.

The RIAA was successful in getting Congress to pass laws to restrict internet broadcasting and forcing internet broadcasters to pay a higher royalty to the record label, not to the artist. This law also restricts how often a broadcaster can play a certain artist, how many songs from a given CD over the course of several hours and requires a great deal of bookkeeping. The argument put forward is that internet broadcasting isn't promoting an artist or recording, rather it's only purpose is to allow people to pirate music. The RIAA makes little distinction if any between internet broadcasting and peer to peer filesharing.

Now they want to go after the rebels who aren't members of the RIAA or the National Broadcaster Assoc. and to keep them from selling what is already available to the consumer.

As far as I can see, the RIAA has a history of claiming that the sky is falling, just like Chicken Little and with about as much accuracy.

[Ilph]

With total recorder you can record off Sirius anyway

Yep. I agree. Who are they going to sue next?

You. Because as far as the RIAA's concerned, it's not their fault and it has to be someone else's.

[aeroparrot]

With total recorder you can record off Sirius anyway

Yep. I agree. Who are they going to sue next?

You. Because as far as the RIAA's concerned, it's not their fault and it has to be someone else's.