As the RIAA trial gets underway, where the giant record companies are suing individual people for copying CDs, a Sony lawyer made an extravagant claim.
If I copy a CD onto my computer, I'm stealing.
The best part, as observed by Slashdot, is that Sony makes lots of equipment I can use to steal from Sony.
Legally, I don't know. It's clear under Kant's categorical imperative that it's unethical to have copies of software (music, movies, programs, etc.) that are in a format you can't access. Owning Beta tapes without a Beta player, Blu-ray if your player is HD-DVD, is immoral.
Given these are the same lawyers who want to prevent me from lending my books to my friends, I'm inclined to think they're asking for the moon on the off chance an elderly judge who grew up listening to wax cylinders of hootenannies will give it to them.
While it is true that putting my CDs on my computer does constitute copying, it's ridiculous to ask me to buy a separate copy of the CD for my cd player and one for the computer. And one for the iPod I don't have. By that logic, I should need separate CDs for my home and my car.
All this, while I have to download illegal software to tinker with DVDs I'm making at work. DVDs whose content is completely owned by my employer, so I shouldn't have to break the law to copy the files. But I'm forced to, because all DVDs have copy protection.
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