RSSRIAA spokesperson denies proclaiming DRM 'dead'
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published July 20, 2009, 3:37 PM
The principal spokesperson for the Recording Industry Association of America -- whose name, for all who are interested, is correctly spelled Jonathan Lamy, not "Larry" -- denied telling an SC Magazine reporter, even off the cuff, that "DRM is dead," calling it a "blatantly inaccurate quote."
Lamy provided Betanews with an excerpt of his actual e-mail with the reporter, Deb Radcliff. As part of a discussion about consumers' continued willingness to bypass digital rights management schemes for digital music, for a story Radcliff was writing for SC, Lamy said, "There is virtually no DRM on music anymore, at least on download services, including iTunes." He went on to state that MP3s today tend to be sold without any DRM included anyway, with the interest of consumers being able to play tracks on any device.
But that's in the music business, which he represents. It's TV networks and movie studios that continue to use DRM for videos that are distributed through services including iTunes -- so for them, DRM is not dead.
According to Lamy, Radcliff sent a protest e-mail to Ernesto, the TorrentFreak writer who originated the misquote, demanding a retraction. "When the most vocal forefighters of DRM say so, it must be for real," Ernesto wrote yesterday.
Naturally, the misquote was repeated by multiple sources this afternoon, none of whom sought Lamy's verification.
Yea.. Whatever. CD to MP3, DVD to AVI. Both MP3 and AVI or mpg to my Archos to play when I go on the airplane or any other kind of trip. No difference at all... RIAA MPAA Whatever the heck you want to think. If there is a device that plays it in existence, which there has been for many many years already, then there are people making LEGALLY use of said device as they see fit. Till you go and rip it out of our dying hands and crush every such device in existence, there is nothing they can do about it. I DARE them to take 1 case to the US Supreme Court and risk another betamax ruling... Even as liberal as it is now. The precedence is ALREADY set for this and THEY KNOW IT. Thats why it never goes that high, and never will again.
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|"If there is a device that plays it in existence, which there has been for many many years already, then there are people making LEGALLY use of said device as they see fit"
Use doesn't dictate legality. Just like using guns to kill people doesn't make it legal, neither does using your archos to play DVD's make it legal. (not that it should or shouldn't be, just that "use" doesn't factor into it)
"Till you go and rip it out of our dying hands and crush every such device in existence, there is nothing they can do about it."
Huh... You aren't by chance a member of a cult or anything, are you? That's pretty much the exact "reasoning" or "rationale" they use... Of course, those always end so well, don't they?
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|As far as I am concerned the RIAA is dead. I won't buy music again, DRM or not. Greedy tossers
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|So providing an excerpt of an email is enough to say he didn't say it? Who's to say he did not edit that out? PR folks say boneheaded stuff all the time -- I'd be more interested in hearing what Radcliff says. Obviously she had to provide Ernesto with some type of information in order for this to happen.
Ernesto isn't Radcliff. Why aren't we asking how he got this information in the first place?
There is often more to the story than what is being told. I don't think anyone here has it right -- from SC Magazine, to Ernesto who somehow got a hold of it, to those recycling the story, to those now trying to shoot it down.
Something just doesn't sound right.
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|I think you pretty much have to live in Bizarro World to believe that when someone informs a journalist that he was misquoted, and then proceeds to show the journalist what he did say, that somehow that's some kind of conspiracy _against the journalist_. I think it goes to show the extent to which we're so quick to demonize certain institutions -- we'd rather go on believing there's a conspiracy around every corner, rather than apply Occam's Razor and realize that the simplest truth is typically the actual truth.
-SF3
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|I didn't realize the RIAA needed any help in being demonized. Seems to me they've done a fine job all on their own.
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