RIAA Argues That MP3s From CDs Are Unauthorized

Via Slashdot:

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes “In an Arizona case against a defendant who has no legal representation, Atlantic v. Howell, the RIAA is now arguing — contrary to its lawyers’ statements to the United States Supreme Court in 2005 MGM v. Grokster — that the defendant’s ripping of personal MP3 copies onto his computer is a copyright infringement. At page 15 of its brief (PDF) it states the following: ‘It is undisputed that Defendant possessed unauthorized copies… Virtually all of the sound recordings… are in the “.mp3″ format for his and his wife’s use… Once Defendant converted Plaintiffs’ recordings into the compressed .mp3 format and they are in his shared folder, they are no longer the authorized copies…'”

WTF? The RIAA is really overreaching now. No reasonable person can tell us that we don’t have the right to listen to the music we buy anywhere and any way we want.

Someone needs to put a stop to this. The RIAA serves no useful purpose. They’re not helping the artists in any way. All they’re doing is trying to preserve an outdated way of doing business that their customers have rejected.