Ring Tones in Public Don't Infringe Copyright

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As far back as 10 years ago, we joked about having to pay the RIAA if you heard someone else’s music playing in public. Well, it wouldn’t have been too funny if this law suit was successful.

A federal court yesterday firmly rejected that argument, ruling that "when a ringtone plays on a cellular telephone, even when that occurs in public, the user is exempt from copyright liability, and [the cellular carrier] is not liable either secondarily or directly." This is exactly the outcome urged by EFF, Public Knowledge, and the Center for Democracy & Technology in an amicus brief filed in the case.
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Wow, two victories for common sense and the public over the corporate greed machine, in one day! The US is suddenly getting a lot more consumer-friendly.
 
This is exactly the outcome urged by EFF, Public Knowledge, and the Center for Democracy & Technology in an amicus brief filed in the case.
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How about the Center for Common Effing Sense. Holy crap. I'm looking for a new country to live in.
 
Fucking ridiculous ASCAP.:rolleyes:
article said:
The ruling is an important victory for consumers, making it clear that playing music in public, when done without any commercial purpose, does not infringe copyright. That's thanks to Section 110(4) of the Copyright Act, which exempts public performances undertaken "without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage." In the words of the court, "customers do not play ringtones with any expectation of profit." This ruling should also protect consumers who roll down their car windows with the radio on, who take a radio to the beach, or who sing "Happy Birthday" to their children in a public park (remember, ASCAP once demanded royalties from Girl Scouts for singing around the camp fire!).
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-edit from previous post.

Apparently ASCAP attempted to do this previously in 1996, and their plan was to require all sorts of companies (including Girl Scouts of America) to pay a fee for public performances. This fee was generalized (in that it was for all possible copyrighted songs performed), they would have never known what songs were actually sung (and how many times) at the events, thus the collected fees would never be properly distributed to the copyright holders. Thus this time (ringtone judgement) and the 1996 judgement ARE NOTHING BUT GET RICH SCHEMES THAT VIOLATE THE FEDERAL COPYRIGHT LAW. Section 110(4) to be exact.

Scumbags, all of them.
 
the entertainment industry has went off the f*cking deep end. They make enough money to do what little they actually do.
 
If RIAA'd had it their way, if someone opened up a portable stereo in say, a mall with 50 people in hearing range, all 50 would be sued for copyright infringement.
 
Maybe ASCAP should add another "S" to their acronym...

Hooray for common sense. Now we have to go to court to practice it. We're all going to hell, pack your twinkies...
 
MrLonghair said:
If RIAA'd had it their way, if someone opened up a portable stereo in say, a mall with 50 people in hearing range, all 50 would be sued for copyright infringement.
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If they had their way, they'd charge people royalties for humming!
 
A part of me wished they ruled that ring tones did infringe on copyright, just to show how stupid all this bullshit is.

MrLonghair said:
If RIAA'd had it their way, if someone opened up a portable stereo in say, a mall with 50 people in hearing range, all 50 would be sued for copyright infringement.
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How do you know that hasn't already happened? haha. And the "someone" would be a person hired by the MAFIAA to run down the mall and snag 300+ people for listening to copyrighted songs. Imagine how many they could sue in surrounding neighborhoods of concerts! Time to cash in. ;)
 
Wow! :eek: I never liked RIAA and their methods but this is so unspeakably stupid.
Someone buy that judge a free lunch.
 
Sigh. When did common sense in our legal system disappear? This shit should never have even been allowed the dignity of a ruling. Fuck the RIAA, fuck them in their stupid asses. :mad:
 
If I listen to a song on the radio and copy it into my brain and then play it back, is that illegal music piracy?
 
Do you really thin this economy is going to recover with these types rolling around?
I was looking at a documentary about President FDR on the big depression today. The differences between what happened then and what's happening now are ginormous.
This is a time of promises, not actions.
 
Enduring_Warrior said:
Do you really thin this economy is going to recover with these types rolling around?
I was looking at a documentary about President FDR on the big depression today. The differences between what happened then and what's happening now are ginormous.
This is a time of promises, not actions.
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Hmm, need to see if there is anything on Youtube about this. Could be some good learning.
 
More like ASSCRAP. Seriously, this is why I hate when people bag on the EFF, ACLU and the like. Do you think this news item will get covered on television? Hell no. These non profit groups fight for your freedoms, no matter how stupid or small. If we didn't have them, we would certainly be up to our eyes in dumbass laws and restrictions, instead of up to our necks.
 
In another news, ringtones still infringe on my right to not get annoyed by some stupid chime coming from someones pants when vibrate should work fine.
 
I wonder if this solves the "Happy Birthday" song in public issue.

Yep, at least around here, restaurants no longer will sing Happy Birthday to guests because, and this is no shit, the damned thing is Copyrighted and someone actually got sued somewhere.
 
TechLarry said:
I wonder if this solves the "Happy Birthday" song in public issue.

Yep, at least around here, restaurants no longer will sing Happy Birthday to guests because, and this is no shit, the damned thing is Copyrighted and someone actually got sued somewhere.
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that would never happen to me. if some jagbag threw a copyright infringement at me for singing happy birthday i would end up in jail for assault.
 
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