New RIAA Video

LawGeek: New RIAA “Scare” Video for college students

Here’s an interesting take on a video for college students recently released by the RIAA. Aside from the production quality (you would think they would have access to decent music), there are a number of points worth mentioning.

First, as the Law Geek says, “They claim that any kind of copying without permission is illegal.” This disregard for fair use defenses is typical, but I would argue that it is also a troubling attempt to sway public perceptions of the law (which are admittedly already not in line with the law) beyond the tenuous balance that copyright already attempts to create.

Second, the video quotes 17 USC 501, 506 as: “Federal law provides severe civl and criminal penalties for the unauthorized reproduction, distribution, rental, or digital transmission of copyrighted sound recordings.” This isn’t a quote from the law–I suspect it’s a quote from the new FBI warning on compact discs. When you use quotes and a cite, most often you take the words verbatim (this is not considered infringement).

Finally, the price paid for a downloaded song is consistently referred to as a “fee.” This is consistent with the view of many digital content providers that as one acquires a license for a copyrighted work, he or she never truly “buys” or “owns” it. I would argue that this goes against the public conception of how the majority of the public thinks about a piece of music that they pay for and “physically” have on their computer.