Comments on: ‘…if you want my music – download it’ – MUSIC TO THE EARS? http://lawmatters.in/content/%e2%80%98%e2%80%a6if-you-want-my-music-download-it%e2%80%99-music-to-the-ears Things that matter in law and more Tue, 20 Sep 2011 06:31:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Editor.Sidhartha http://lawmatters.in/content/%e2%80%98%e2%80%a6if-you-want-my-music-download-it%e2%80%99-music-to-the-ears/comment-page-1#comment-151 Editor.Sidhartha Tue, 11 Nov 2008 06:15:59 +0000 http://lawmatters.in/?p=504#comment-151 A) Space shifting is a very interesting concept. In RIAA v Diamond (1999 case), the court held space shifting to be consistent with fair use provisions – this case dealt with the copying of music from a user’s hard drive/CD to a portable device. If space shifting were not to be allowed at all, I would have to buy all my Ipod music online since any music on CD’s that I’d own would not be copyable to my hard drive (in order to convert them to MP3 and then load them on my Ipod) So the problem in the above case actually lay with the reproduction of the music and the creation of a library, like you’ve mentioned. This, despite the fact that the music could only be “space shifted” provided the user had an original CD. B) If the incentive to record goes the musician would have to record and distribute the music online – for a fee if he is to make any money. So Steve Jobs would benefit right?? Good thing is that distribution costs would be really low and I’m assuming that the musicians would make a lot more money…plus the recording guys i.e. the intermediary will be jobless. Quite something. For analogy purposes – the e-choupal initiative that did away with/ changed the role of intermediaries who were profiting most from farmer produce i.e. since the farmer had little access to the important markets. Here too the musician is dependent on these recording guys to get his work across to his fans – so in reality is it the fact of copyright infringement that’s irking the recording guys or is it the fear of the internet gobbling up their distribution empires? A) Space shifting is a very interesting concept. In RIAA v Diamond (1999 case), the court held space shifting to be consistent with fair use provisions – this case dealt with the copying of music from a user’s hard drive/CD to a portable device. If space shifting were not to be allowed at all, I would have to buy all my Ipod music online since any music on CD’s that I’d own would not be copyable to my hard drive (in order to convert them to MP3 and then load them on my Ipod)

So the problem in the above case actually lay with the reproduction of the music and the creation of a library, like you’ve mentioned. This, despite the fact that the music could only be “space shifted” provided the user had an original CD.

B) If the incentive to record goes the musician would have to record and distribute the music online – for a fee if he is to make any money. So Steve Jobs would benefit right?? Good thing is that distribution costs would be really low and I’m assuming that the musicians would make a lot more money…plus the recording guys i.e. the intermediary will be jobless. Quite something. For analogy purposes – the e-choupal initiative that did away with/ changed the role of intermediaries who were profiting most from farmer produce i.e. since the farmer had little access to the important markets. Here too the musician is dependent on these recording guys to get his work across to his fans – so in reality is it the fact of copyright infringement that’s irking the recording guys or is it the fear of the internet gobbling up their distribution empires?

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