When Copying a Purchased CD Becomes a Crime
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080129-statutory-damages-not-high-enough.html
I came across the article above last week and couldn’t believe what I was reading. The RIAA is now saying that even though you purchase a CD you do not have the rights to rip the CD to your computer.
I’m confused. I was under the impression that if you bought a CD you had bought the right to rip it so that you can listen to the music in other media formats. Now this is not the case? There has to be a point when you have paid for the rights to enjoy a song. And exactly what does this do for education and digital storytelling. It has been my policy to show students and teachers how to rip a song down to computer format so they can include 30 seconds of it into a digital story. Copyright allows such a use for the purpose of education. What will have to happen to the copyright laws once this ridiculous act is passed?
I would hope that I am not the only educator upset by this proposed Act. Unfortunately, until we make a stand as a group of individuals (boycott cd’s, picket music stores, write letters to the editor, etc) the RIAA will keep passing ridiculous acts right below our noses.
