This was originally posted 18 years ago. Opinions, facts and reality may have changed.
You’re a thief. And so am I. Well, more than likely you are anyway because in the UK it is technically illegal to format shift; that is, take your CDs and put them onto your iPod as you’re effectively copying the music and duplicating copyrighted material. Naughty. Naughty. So, we’re all off to chokey then.
Hardly. The idea is so ludicrous – you’ve bought the CD and it’s not like you’re selling the copies for a profit – that it’s never enforced. But trust the good old music industry to spot the opportunity to make a quick buck.
Enter stage left: the proposed “iPod tax” which would find all buyers of MP3 players and the like paying a levy to cover the duplication of the content – to reimburse the rights owners.
Now don’t get me wrong: if someone buys a CD, puts it into iTunes/their iPod and then sells the CD, that’s obviously taking the mickey and I (and I can’t believe I’m writing this) have sympathy for the record industry.
Yuck I feel dirty now…
But in the vast majority of cases that’s not what’s happening. Take me for example; at home I use an old Apple Mac as my “iTunes machine”. Over the years I have converted every CD I own to AAC format and now have in the region of 30,000 songs on this baby, ready to listen to around the house. My CDs? Stacked in the top of a wardrobe, for safe-keeping. Why should I have to pay a iPod tax for the right to do this?
The fundamental problem with the music industry isn’t the dearth of talent coming through – too many Simon Cowell-types looking for short-term gain instead of long-term profit – it’s that they treat their customers like criminals.
Two years ago, the chairman of Universal Music Group said of iPods: “These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it.” And the attitude has changed little.
Treat your customers like criminals and they’ll become them. If the record companies continually treat their customers as thieving scum, then they’ll start resembling the accusation, get fed-up with the restrictions the records companies attempt to impose and go to the peer-to-peer networks to get their music fix for free.
The idiots who are proposing this haven’t – of course – thought it through. Nothing new there then.
If in the near future I stop buying CDs at all, and get all my music from the iTunes Music Store and its ilk, do I get a rebate on the “format shifting” tax as my digital tunes won’t have “passed through” the physical stage?
Or how about this: Sony is both a publisher and a manufacturer of MP3 players. And those MP3 players come with software to convert CDs to the digital format. In effect, Sony provides its customers with software to break the law – a law it is now seeking to clarify/change/enforce to its own benefit as a music publisher.
In law this is known as estoppel; I’m no lawyer, so please take this broad definition with a large pinch of salt.
In this instance – estoppel says you can’t give someone the tools to do something (such as create MP3s from CDs) and then complain when they do it.
So, Sony could ultimately be the reason why this will never come to fruition. They can hardly complain that damn customers are creating MP3s from CDs when they provided the software to make it possible.
That said, the law has proven to be an ass on many occasions in this arena, so who knows eh.
Note: When looking up some quotes/definitions etc. for this entry I discovered that “technically” the following laws are still in place:1. It’s illegal for a Welshman to enter Chester before sunrise and from staying after sunset.2. It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament.3. In England, all men over the age of 14 must carry out two hours of longbow practice a day.4. In the city of York, it is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow.5. In the UK, a man who feels compelled to urinate in public can do so only if he aims for his rear wheel and keeps his right hand on his vehicle.
All according to The Times.