LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The recording industry on Tuesday sued XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., alleging its Inno device that can store music infringes on copyrights and transforms a passive radio experience into the equivalent of a digital download service like iTunes.
A spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of America, comprising major labels such as Vivendi Universal's Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group Corp., EMI Group Plc and Sony BMG, said the suit was filed on Tuesday in New York federal court.
The suit accuses XM Satellite of "massive wholesale infringement," and seeks $150,000 in damages for every song copied by XM customers using the devices, which went on sale earlier this month. XM, with more than 6.5 million subscribers, said it plays 160,000 different songs every month.
"...Because XM makes available vast catalogues of music in every genre, XM subscribers will have little need ever again to buy legitimate copies of plaintiffs' sound recordings," the lawsuit says referring to the hand held "Inno" device.
News source: Yahoo News
A spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of America, comprising major labels such as Vivendi Universal's Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group Corp., EMI Group Plc and Sony BMG, said the suit was filed on Tuesday in New York federal court.
The suit accuses XM Satellite of "massive wholesale infringement," and seeks $150,000 in damages for every song copied by XM customers using the devices, which went on sale earlier this month. XM, with more than 6.5 million subscribers, said it plays 160,000 different songs every month.
"...Because XM makes available vast catalogues of music in every genre, XM subscribers will have little need ever again to buy legitimate copies of plaintiffs' sound recordings," the lawsuit says referring to the hand held "Inno" device.
News source: Yahoo News
Stupid RIAA. Now are we are gonna have to pay monthly fees to record music from the radio?
The simple fact of the matter is that the laws surrounding the use of music need to be revised - basically everyone I know is technically a criminal... Whether it's burning a copy of a CD, borrowing from a friend, ripping music, etc. We need new laws that take the "digital revolution" into consideration.
Maybe we could figure out a system where the bands don't get screwed over so badly while we're at it?
It really makes me not want to go out and buy music.
That's what I was going to say.
It's a Tivo for XM. Or a Replay (since that didn't require a monthly fee for a service)
The RIAA is literally trying to make everything we call 'fair use' right now illegal. No ripping CDs? No sharing a CD with a friend? They want us to buy a song one time for each device we want to play it on apparently. Once for a ringtone, once for our mp3 player, once for the car, once to listen to it on XM, once more to timeshift XM, once on the computer, oh wait I have two mp3 players have to buy it again...
Guess what they are aiming for..
You know the rules. Don't post those images here.
-voidunknown
Ban The RIAA.
Last edited by voidunknown on 18 May 2006 - 20:37
All i want to know is...where's all the money gonna go, saying they win some of these 39457830 lawsuits they've had? To the artists...right...!?!? Bull.
It's just going to pad the pockets of the executives even further.
My 1987 "boom box" with its tape deck and FM radio should get Sony in hot water "Because [INSERT FM/AM RADIO CHANNEL HERE] makes available vast catalogues of music in every genre, [INSERT PRODUCT NAME HERE] users will have little need ever again to buy legitimate copies of plaintiffs' sound recordings"
They neeeed moneeeeyyyy...
Why would you download the music if you thought they had no talent?
The only reason to justify illegal music downloading is that, for people like myself who actually purchase music legally, why be chained down with DRM and the such, when stealing the music will give you full control of the music?
Luckfully, I use openSUSE as my main machine, and I'm not running as root, so chances of any DRM/rootkit's running on my workstation is little to none. I rip my CD's to my external HD in FLAC, so I don't lose any quality, because I can notice the difference in quality, that music services like iTunes have caused (as I am a musician).
I just buy my music on amazon.com, wait for it to come via UPS (because I find it a hassle to go to local media stores and discover they don't have what I am looking for, after looking for an excessive amount of time).
Everybody was doing this with 8-Track, cassette tapes or Mini-Disc. Even better is the fact that sometime, FM radio sound better than XM or Sirius.... Depending on the channel you're on.
So the RIAA should sue everybody that got a tape recorder in their lifetime.
Answer: Offer something that can't be downloaded, or something that people actually see value in buying.
If I saw value in buying anything, I would do so.
- Illegal download - Free of DRM and all those crazy ass restrictions, do whatever you like, get them at any bitrate
- Purchased - DRM with dozens of restrictions, your MP3 player blows up, comp fooks up, all your music is gone, mostly available at 128kbps, costs a lot, etc etc
So basically, it's like either getting a full version of the game for free or buying the trial version, and only capable of installing on one machine. What would you get?
I get my stuff from allofmp3.com lol
You *used* to get your stuff from allofmp3.com
how can RIAA even think of claiming $150K PER SONG?
somebody over there has just lost it, or has been taken over by space-faring aliens who want all music on earth to end before their final take-over bid!
Where the hell does the RIAA get $150,000 a song from ? (Apart from pulling it from their stupendously flabby white hairy butts?)
Stealing one song causes $150,000 damages to who, exactly?
Or perhaps that is what it costs the RIAAstapo in lawyers for each song ...
Nuke the RIAA from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
A RIAA employee must visit your house and all houses in your neighborhood in order to limit your stereo's dB so that no neighbor can listen tothe music you are playing since he has not paid for it.
For every family member you must purchase a new biometric license. The license is installed analy and it itches like hell.
All new cd's will feature a micro-device that blocks all cell-phone signal to prevent listening of the music you play from the person at the other end of the line.
After having listened to a track 80 times the track will get blocked. Having listened to a track for 80 times means you really liked it so you should purchase the special edition of the album that enables 40 more listenings.
All new cd's will not be playable in normal stereos. You have to purchase the RIAA ethernet-enabled stereo that is 24/7 connected to RIAA that monitors what you listen-to.
All RIAA portable music players will feature a mandatory hat that has a mini satellite dish attached to it so that you are always connected to RIAA's servers. If you enter a tunnel and the signal gets weak, an automatic power increase occurs in order to maintain the connection with RIAA. That increase will decrease your IQ by 2 point every time it occurs. After 40 times you have the right to sue RIAA but it won't really matter as your IQ will be between 20 and 40 and you will behave as a monkey so you are not a threat anymore.
The biometric license that was installed previously will cause a small electric shock every time you are caught whistling a song's tune in public spaces.
In every club, lounge or other entertainment facility music will be transmitted to personal headphones and it will not be played out loud. This way if a person has not purchased a song the DJ decided to play headphones will auto mute.
PS: Excuse my English...
i agree with nuking the riaa from the face of the earth. come get some u pieces of sh*t!
Ugh...
RIAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm telling Mum!
apparently, the RIAA is trying to be a fireman.
...and PLEASE, someone make me an RIAA filter for my browser!!! I'm fed up with seeing articles about them!! They just waste bandwidth!!
Thanks for giving it a ton of publicity!
Do they NOT UNDERSTAND that everytime they start a new lawsuit or go after some company they are drawing attention to the fact that you can get music for free without having to pay for it. Sure, I have known since before napster was even thought of that you can get music on IRC and AOL (AOL was THE place to get music since it first came out), but not everybody is a computer nerd. Ever since the lawsuit against napster people are beginning to relise that the RIAA is just a joke and you can download music for FREE. Before all the lawsuits and media attention, maybe 15% (rough estimate) or so of the worlds population knew about downloading music. Now everybody and their mother knows that you can get music for free on the internent. Even if you don't know a thing about computers, the answer to getting free music is just a google search away.
I buy maybe 10 CD's a year from artist that actualy put out a good cd. 90% of the people that are bitching about this put out ****ty music to begin with and the other non-mainstream artists encourage it to a certain extent because it gets their music out there. Not to mention, in all honesty, the compact disc is NOT a reliable piece of material. It's extremely sensitive. Touching it the wrong way or sliding it in a cd case or book can ruin it.
The RIAA is a complete and total joke and waste of money. The more attention they draw to the ability of being able to get music for free the MORE money they are going to loose.
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