Saturday, May 20, 2006
XM Strikes Back at the RIAA
Posted by Chris Gohlke in "CONTENT" @ 06:00 AM
As we reported earlier this week, the RIAA is going after XM for some of their newer products that allow the radio stream to be recorded and played back at a later time (like a Tivo for radio). Well, it looks like XM does not plan to take this lying down as they said this in a statement posted to their website:
"The music industry wants to stop your ability to choose when and where you can listen. Their lawyers have filed a meritless lawsuit to try and stop you from enjoying these radios. They don't get it. These devices are clearly legal. Consumers have enjoyed the right to tape off the air for their personal use for decades, from reel-to-reel and the cassette to the VCR and TiVo. Our new radios complement download services, they don't replace them. If you want a copy of a song to transfer to other players or burn onto CDs, we make it easy for you to buy them through XM + Napster. Satellite radio subscribers like you are law-abiding music consumers; a portion of your subscriber fee pays royalties directly to artists. Instead of going after pirates who don't pay a cent, the record labels are attacking the radios used for the enjoyment of music by consumers like you. It's misguided and wrong. We will vigorously defend these radios in court and before Congress, and we expect to win."
Nice to see somebody standing up the the RIAA. Stay tuned as this should be interesting.
"The music industry wants to stop your ability to choose when and where you can listen. Their lawyers have filed a meritless lawsuit to try and stop you from enjoying these radios. They don't get it. These devices are clearly legal. Consumers have enjoyed the right to tape off the air for their personal use for decades, from reel-to-reel and the cassette to the VCR and TiVo. Our new radios complement download services, they don't replace them. If you want a copy of a song to transfer to other players or burn onto CDs, we make it easy for you to buy them through XM + Napster. Satellite radio subscribers like you are law-abiding music consumers; a portion of your subscriber fee pays royalties directly to artists. Instead of going after pirates who don't pay a cent, the record labels are attacking the radios used for the enjoyment of music by consumers like you. It's misguided and wrong. We will vigorously defend these radios in court and before Congress, and we expect to win."
Nice to see somebody standing up the the RIAA. Stay tuned as this should be interesting.
