In reply to:
I mean, Hugo and Mac have been very nice to give the BBS'ers hints where necessary. But to me, even that is dangerous. What if the RIAA decided to sue them?
Funnily enough, I wrote the following piece as a reply to Doug Linder's comments on Empeg (company) not allowing the Empeg (player) to act as a removeable storage device. I forgot to post it then, but it may be apropos now:
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Whilst I don't want to get involved in the argument over whether
Empeg did the right or wrong thing (just for the record though, I
think they were right), the concept in general is worthy of some
discussion (as long as it's not classed as off-topic).
Even though Empeg are protecting their backsides as best they can, I
am becoming more and more worried about the increasingly litigious
RIAA and their associates in other countries.
The recent Napster case is a good example of how rules, morals and
just plain logic is bent out of all recognition in order that the
recording industry en masse maintain the status quo.
By way of example I will use an analogy. Motorways were built so that
people could get quickly from point A to point B (we'll excuse the
case of the M25, which was built so that people would have somewhere
to park their car). If I speed on the motorway and I am caught, I get
into trouble. If I cause loss of life on the motorway by speeding,
I'm in deep trouble. At no point is the Highways Agency ever taken to
court for providing the means for me to speed/kill.
Logic dictates that Napster per se are not breaking the law - it's
their users who are. Of course going after the blue whale is a damn
sight easier and more productive than fishing for plankton. I believe
the argument is that Napster was built with illegal copying in mind,
but I can't see how this is relevant (if it was, you wouldn't be able
to buy VCRs, cassette recorders, mini-disc recorders etc. etc.).
The worrying aspect of this logic-bending (and the point of this
whole piece) is that I suspect whether or not Empeg coded the
facility to copy files off the unit or left it to third party
developers will matter not a jot. The fact that the unit itself
posesses the functionality to allow copying of files from itself is
the problem. Despite Empeg's best efforts, I wouldn't be surprised if
they found themselves in court as organisations like the RIAA twist
reality even more.
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In reply to:
And if it's a music copier, that's when they have to get in bed with the RIAA and start paying the AHRA tax...
Or just stop selling the player in the USA 
Nick.
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