mp3tunes, EMI and the RIAA

Like most people who use a pc I have ripped all my songs onto a digital format for storage and convenience. When I buy a cd the first thing I do is to rip it and make a copy. Then I take the copy in the car to listen to. I do this because I know that the cd is likely to get damaged in the car. CDs don't get put away, they get dropped, picked up with dirty hands etc. When the cd becomes so damaged it doesn't play properly I put it in the bin and burn another copy. This way the original remains in good condition.

What I also do is to store the ripped copy in an online storage facility. This means that should my hard drive go bang I won't lose all my songs which I've paid for. This online storage is provided by mp3tunes.com and is a commercial service which uses password protected access to my files. The password is known only to me and no-one else. mp3tunes.com allows me to play my music through a web based interface or other players. I can even play it through a Squeezebox without involving my pc! I believe that mp3tunes.com also limit concurrent connections to an account to 2 so it's not really much use in distributing pirate copies of anything.

And this setup suits me fine. I buy music, I listen to my music where and when I want. Everybody's happy. Almost.

It seems that someone wants to shut mp3tunes.com down, or at least relieve them of serious amounts of cash for, well I'm not quite sure what yet. You can read the request to the courts here. The Exchange Morning Post puts forward an excellent understanding of the issues here.

On a positive note a judge has denied EMI's request for mp3tunes to hand over copies of the 100 million files that users have submitted to their personal, password protected lockers. I really cannot understand why a major record label would want access to my personal private files, I really don't. Hopefully this episode will be the death rattle of a dinosaur unwilling to work in the modern age. DRM is now all but dead and the music industry should be working to create new channels to reap the benefit of digital music. Unfortunately they seem to be trying to screw as much money as possible from companies and individuals before they collapse.