RIAA Says Ripping CDs to Your iPod is NOT Fair Use

As part of the on-going DMCA rule-making proceedings, the RIAA and other copyright industry associations submitted a filing that included this gem as part of their argument that space-shifting and format-shifting do not count as noninfringing uses, even when you are talking about making copies of your own CDs:

“Nor does the fact that permission to make a copy in particular circumstances is often or even routinely granted, necessarily establish that the copying is a fair use when the copyright owner withholds that authorization.

EFF: DeepLinks – RIAA Says Ripping CDs to Your iPod is NOT Fair Use

In corporate or organization situations, non-enforcement or selective enforcement of bylaws has been a grounds for invalidating that bylaw. I don’t think the RIAA should be able to selectively assert their copyright.

For those who may not remember, here’s what Don Verrilli said to the Supreme Court last year:

“The record companies, my clients, have said, for some time now, and it’s been on their website for some time now, that it’s perfectly lawful to take a CD that you’ve purchased, upload it onto your computer, put it onto your iPod.”

So now if they say that it isn’t legal, am I suddenly a criminal, because the RIAA changed its mind?

Hopefully our legal system will start to act based on common sense and the best interest of the public at large, instead of in the interests of a desperate group violently grasping at a dissolving business model.

Via Boing Boing.