![]() ![]() Because of its tighter compression technique, a song encoded in the AAC format sounds better (to most ears, anyway) and takes up less space on the computer than if it were encoded with the same quality settings as an MP3 file. What’s so great about AAC on the iPod? For starters, the format can do the Big Sound/Small File Size trick even better than MP3. Downloading MP3s offered freely by bands and musicians just wanting to be heard is also legal.Ĭopying copyrighted music that you didn’t pay for is not legal, and that’s why you can be sure we haven’t heard the last from the RIAA. Ripping tracks from CDs that you’ve purchased over the years for playing on your iPod is legal. Mind you, MP3 files themselves are not illegal. RIAA has recently begun filing lawsuits against Internet service providers to find out the names of customers who use file-sharing services or host music-swapping sites and suing the individuals directly. In a further effort to ape Apple, Napster 2.0-as this Windows-only, pay-to-play service was dubbed-even began selling its own iPod clone.)Īlthough early attempts to squash other file-sharing services like Grokster and KaZaA in 2003 were first rebuffed by the courts, the RIAA succeeded in shutting down Grokster in 2005, and the group is looking into a new technology that can prevent CD tracks from being copied onto computers at all. But in October 2003, it returned in the form of an iTunes Music Store wannabe where music shoppers could legally download tracks for less than a buck apiece. (Napster, in its original form, died that day. RIAA eventually prevailed, and in 2002, Napster went to that great Web site in the sky. While Napster gave people a chance to sample a wide range of music for free, it also sent RIAA on a legal mission to shut down the file-sharing service. Napster traffic became so heavy that at some universities, it actually created a drag on their networks, and resulted in a Napster ban. ![]() The Napster software, authored by a teenager named Shawn Fanning, let music lovers search out and share MP3 files with anybody else on the Internet running the same program-which turned out to be millions of people. In 1999, a file-sharing service called Napster got a lot of attention from music fans and lawyers alike. ![]() They’re also taking a highly litigious interest in Internet services that make sharing MP3 files easy. With music being passed freely all over the world and CD sales dropping (maybe as a result of MP3 sharing, maybe because of unrelated factors), industry groups like RIAA have begun looking for new ways to block digital music copying. (After all, the exchange of the mix tape/CD has been an important part of the young American courting ritual for years.)īut the small size of MP3 files, mixed with the power of the Internet, ripped the lid off of a 55-gallon drum of worms. Before MP3, nobody thought much about copyright law when they dubbed a song mix to give to a friend or a romantic prospect. The arrival of the MP3 format changed the way people listened to-and shared-their music. Even though MP3 players didn’t exist yet, the court ruled in the Rio case that consumers have the right to move the music they own onto a playback device-as long as it’s for personal use. The Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 says that you can make copies of your own legally purchased music for your personal (noncommercial) use. The court found that the Rio itself violated no federal music-piracy laws, paving the way for dozens more MP3 players to hit the market. RIAA felt that the player-the soon-to-be-released Rio PMP300 from Diamond Multimedia-could serve as a tool for pirating copy-righted songs. Years before the iPod was even a twinkle in Steve Jobs’s eye, the Recording Industry Association of America sued the makers of the first portable MP3 player. NOTE FROM THE LAWYERSThe Law of the Digital Music Land
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