Car makers sued over HDD storage...

A group representing musicians in the US is suing Ford and General Motors over in-car CD players that allow tracks to be stored on a hard drive.

The entertainment systems can "rip" music from a disc, to save passengers from constantly re-inserting CDs.

The Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies claims the devices are made "for the express purpose" of copying CDs.

......
The AARC is also suing automotive technology company Denso and Clarion, which develops the in-car entertainment systems.

It says other manufacturers of similar devices have complied and are paying royalties.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28547853


I'm sure we'll hit a point in time (if we are not there already) where more money is made from suing each other than actually earning it.

The Music industry needs to get out of the dark ages, If I buy music, I should buy the rights to listen to the music on any of my personal devices, whether it's ripped or downloaded, copied or off a CD itself is irrelevant. The act of ripping the CD should be irrelevant, if you then broadcast it, or rip someone-else's CD and listen to it without buying the music then the area becomes a bit more legally grey.

Yep all fodder for the lawyers...

The musicians et al would complain even more if we stopped buying all forms of recorded music and only listened to the radio or watched TV............... Even better let's make December a worldwide no buying any form of recorded music month and then let us hear them scream!

But that would mean we couldn't buy Cliff's new Xmas single!

.....and the latest "X-Factor" offering....

This week's issue of "TIME" has a good story on the music industry, and how so much of it is obtainable for free. It talks about U-2 giving away their latest album on iTunes (I'm pretty sure Apple paid them amply) in order to bring back the focus on the music itself, not the money, legalities, etc. It seems like a going after the car makers is like James May polishing a scratch on his bumper when his whole car is a wreck (yes, I'm a TG geek). Probably going after deep pockets. Although I'm not a legal expert, it seems that there is such a preponderance of free access to music out there, that any losses due to those who have legally purchased a CD and recording them in their cars would make this lawsuit appear frivolous. Years ago I loaded my whole CD collection into iTunes and sold the lot. Is the music industry going to go after Apple next? Anyways, does anyone still buy CDs?