How brainless is the music industry?

This has to be one of more dramatic instances of self-destructive bad business thinking of the year, rivaling even the subprime lending mess in just plain bad judgment, Download Uproar: Record Industry Goes After Personal Use by Marc Fisher Washington Post 12/30/07:

Now, in an unusual case in which an Arizona recipient of an RIAA letter has fought back in court rather than write a check to avoid hefty legal fees, the industry is taking its argument against music sharing one step further: In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.

The industry's lawyer in the case, Ira Schwartz, argues in a brief filed earlier this month that the MP3 files Howell made on his computer from legally bought CDs are "unauthorized copies" of copyrighted recordings. ...

The Howell case was not the first time the industry has argued that making a personal copy from a legally purchased CD is illegal. At the Thomas trial in Minnesota, Sony BMG's chief of litigation, Jennifer Pariser, testified that "when an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song." Copying a song you bought is "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy,' " she said.

If they keep on with this kind of Luddite nonsense, the recording giants are likely to wind up facing stiff competition digital-only recording companies that aren't technology-phobic and actively seek out ways to make money using the digital technology. Man, talk about "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic"!

Tags: music industry