Ars Technica is reporting on Testimony in Capitol Records, et al v. Jammie Thomas

When questioned by Richard Gabriel, lead counsel for the record labels, Pariser(Jennifer Pariser, the head of litigation for Sony BMG) suggested that what millions of music fans do is actually theft. The dirty deed? Ripping your own CDs or downloading songs you already own.

Gabriel asked if it was wrong for consumers to make copies of music which they have purchased, even just one copy. Pariser replied, “When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song.” Making “a copy” of a purchased song is just “a nice way of saying ’steals just one copy’,” she said.

What do you think?

[tags]riaa, fair use, fairuse, copyright[/tags]