(Punknews.org) An article in the Washington Post has highlighted a ongoing lawsuit between the Recording Industry Association of America and a Scottsdale, AZ man. The case is significant in that involves yet another challenge to personal use: purchasing a CD and copying it to a computer with no intent to distribute those copies. Now, in an unusual case in which an Arizona recipient of an RIAA letter has fought back in court rather than write a check to avoid hefty legal fees, the industry is taking its argument against music sharing one step further: In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.
The industry's lawyer in the case, Ira Schwartz, argues in a brief filed earlier this month that the MP3 files Howell made on his computer from legally bought CDs are "unauthorized copies" of copyrighted recordings. - more on this story
