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Rock
News: MP3 player wins legal victory.
One the
hot bed issues on the internet is MP3's. The recording industry hates the
compressed file format, because fans are able to make near perfect copies
of songs and distribute them to other people. Last year Silicon Valley
computer component maker Diamond Multimedia released the Rio Player. With
the Rio, MP3 enthusiast can listen to the high quality songs away from
their computer with the small walkman type device.
The
Recording Industry of America Assc. (RIAA) quickly filed suit against Diamond
claiming the player violated the 1992 Audio Home Recording Act. This
week the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco found that
the player did not qualify as a primary "digital audio recording device"
and therefor the 1992 act does not apply. The player does not record
MP3's, the user must first either record the tracks on their home PC or
download them from the internet, then transfer them into the Rio player.
Needless
to say the RIAA was disappointed with the decision. According to
a press release issued after the court made it's findings the RIAA stated,
"We filed this lawsuit because unchecked piracy on the Internet threatens
the development of a legitimate marketplace for online music, a marketplace
that consumers want,"
Diamond
on the other hands thinks that the decision will help open up a whole new
world of opportunity for the MP3 format. There are a few more hardware
vendors that will jump into the market place with their own version of
MP3 players.
The
RIAA and Hardware vendors are working together on developing the
Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) which would provide guidelines for
a format for legal distribution of MP3's.
What
do you think? Share you comments and thoughts on this news item.
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