More copyright insanity: Sony BMG claims ripping CDs is "stealing"

Slashdot is reporting that the head lawyer for Sony BMG is claiming that we should not be allowed to copy the tracks from CDs that we buy to our personal MP3 players. Jennifer Pariser says that we should be buying multiple copies of a CD: one for each device that we intend to play it on.

Ars Technica has more on the story, which came from testimony in a court case involving music companies.

As someone on the Slashdot thread has already noted: Sony thinks that it's wrong for us to use CDs on more than one device that we own, but Sony also doesn't have a problem with installing malicious software on our computers without our knowing about it.

By the way, my wife and I each own an MP3 player. Would this mean that we should be compelled to purchase three CDs: one for each player and one for regular use in our home's stereo system?

I doubt it will ever happen anytime soon, but there needs to be a codified right where it's made explicitly clear that consumers are entitled to make a reasonable amount of copies of music or software that they have purchased, so long as it is for personal use. I don't want to see piracy take place here... but it has to be said that when Sony comes out and claims that we should have to buy a CD just so that we can put that on our MP3 players, then something has gone terribly screwy.

Categories: copyright infringement, law, music, sony music