December 02, 2005

RIAA vs David Byrne

David Byrne

David Byrne get his hand slapped by the RIAA, the Recording Industry Association of America. As per usual, the RIAA got it wrong. From David's journal:

The RIAA issued me a warning based on a previous radio playlist that featured all Missy Elliot, all the time. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which was passed by congress in 1998, was a hastily thrown together measure (in my opinion) which aimed to protect the music industry from the impending apocalypse. While some parts of the law seem reasonable, other aspects went somewhat overboard to protect the interests of the industry, before folks even knew what would be developed, invented or what half the terms actually meant.
In my case the law forbids streaming “radio” that features more than 4 tracks by any one artist in a three-hour period. My guess is that they may have confused streaming with downloading — in the same way that people often confuse downloading with file sharing. They are afraid that even if it’s not downloadable somehow if a fan knows there will be 3 Missy songs at a given time they can prepare their gear and tape them. The assumption being that sale is lost

» More
» riaa.com

No comments:

Post a Comment