p2pnet - rss feed: XM satellite app raises ire
p2pnet.net News:- The RIAA is hot under the collar about Canadian radio subscriber Scott MacLean who came up with a way to record straight to his PC in WAV or mp3 format from XM Satellite Radio’s PCR receiver.
His application was so handy, in fact, that he decided to start selling it online for $29.95 a throw.
MacLean’s TimeTrax records individual mp3s, each tagged with the artist and song name and with the ID3 written with the same information and, “Leave TimeTrax recording overnight, and in the morning you will end up with a directory full of several hundred mp3 files, each perfectly cut and edited.”
“Using TimeTrax’s 10-event scheduler, you can time shift programming,” states his site here.
“Is there a concert being broadcast at 2:00 am that you really want to hear? No problem, use TimeTrax to record the concert and listen to it at your convenience! Your favorite talk show on during work hours? No problem ….”
But - problem.
RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) spokesman Jonathan Lamy said the Big Four record label enforcer hadn’t reviewed the software but in principle, was disturbed by the idea, according to a USA Today story here.
“We remain concerned about any devices or software that permit listeners to transform a broadcast into a music library,” Lamy states, says the report, going on to quote MacLean as explaining that he’s just trying to make a little more user-friendly.
“The larger issue here is they came out with one lock and another creative person goes out to create a key,” the USA Today report has Gartner analyst Michael McGuire stating. “It’s very hard for policy and copyright law to keep up with the pace of technological change.”
It also says, “in a letter seen by Reuters, XM’s lawyers told MacLean to discontinue his sales and provide the company with a list of purchasers”.
Will MacLean, an Ottawa programmer, do either?
“I basically told them to get stuffed,” he told p2pnet, “and that I did not have a list of purchasers. I did have a list of purchasers’ email addresses, but as there was some worry about this on the part of purchasers, I deleted that as well.
“I keep no information about the purchasers.”
He says he’s sure the RIAA is behind XM’s nervousness, “but it has no jurisdiction in Canada”.
What about its Canadian clone?
“I doubt the CRIA CCanadian Recording Industry Association) is going to care,” he adds, “but we will see.”
August 28th, 2004 at 4:37 am
Hell yeah time shifting is the backbone of fairuse!!!!! Looks like the goodguys won this one!!!!!! How is the Riaa gonna sue you if you get it off the airwaves?????? They can’t!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
August 28th, 2004 at 5:32 am
RIAA does not have to win its lawsuit on merit - it can win because they can outspend and outlast any private citizen. Unless a targeted person can get substantial financial assistance, maybe from EFF or other group, the RIAA will just chew him up in the legal process, especially because something like this is such a landmark case.
This guy is lucky to be Canadian.
August 28th, 2004 at 2:53 pm
Sony Betamax. Converts a television broadcast into a video library (although they are trying to circumvent this via FCC broadcast flags currently). But if the greater data format of a VIDEO broadcast can legally be saved / copied onto a tape or your PC, certainly lesser data formats like audio should as well.
August 30th, 2004 at 10:29 pm
“”"We remain concerned about any devices or software that permit listeners to transform a broadcast into a music library,” “”
OMG…then why not go after sony for providing the consumer with a TAPE DECK, or a VCR, or a MP3 player. Isn’t that what these devices do..??
Wake up and smell your own BULLSHIT RIAA.
September 1st, 2004 at 12:09 pm
Check out Replay Music. This app does what Time Trax does, but for streaming music, including online radio stations and streaming jukebox services. It makes perfectly split MP3 files, tagged with the artist and song title, and will even burn CDs, too.
The Replay Music web site is here:
www.replay-music.com
November 6th, 2004 at 1:59 am
I bought the software and it worked for about two days. Then it started locking up and there seems to be no fix. So, I just deleted it. I guess I’m out of $35. Poo on Timetrax.