We Only Think We Own The Music We Buy...

I just hopped on the computer for a moment, and I find this over on Drudge: Download Uproar: Record Industry Goes After Personal Use. This article should be on the front page of every newspaper in the country. The record industry has been figuratively raping its customers for decades, and the bill for all of that has finally begun to come due. - They're losing more and more money, and they can't do anything to stop it.

So, realizing that they're going down the tube, they've decided to take their old customers down with them. Why? Just because they can, apparently. They record industry has now decided that anybody who transfers their entertainment CDs to their own computer is breaking the law, even if he or she legally owns the CDs.

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.

I'm Joe Capitalist, but this is ridiculous. I've copied most of my music CDs (that I've bought) to iTunes on my computer (which I own) because I no longer have a stereo system. Furthermore, the way I have it set up is so that I can listen to iTunes while I work and not have to worry about getting up and changing CDs. I don't even have an iPod, or any other MP3 player. The record companies are now saying that I am a criminal, many times over.

If this stands, I will throw away my CDs and never buy another one again. Someone has to perfect the new "iTunes" entertainment paradigm very soon just to kill off these record company idiots. They give capitalism a bad name...