Apple, the RIAA, and Ringtones

pilsner.urquell writes "Apple's interest in defending the rights of the consumer has cost them a lot of grief in the ringtone market. 'John Gruber of the Daring Fireball cites Engadget, which reported that the RIAA wanted to be able to distribute ringtones of its artists without having to pay them big money to do so. It won a decision last year before the Copyright Office saying that ringtones weren't derivative works, meaning they didn't infringe on the copyright of the songwriter.' The piece goes on to explain the tense relationship between Apple content holders regarding ringtones and other pieces of IP, such as in the recent withdrawal of NBC."

I never knew copyright law was THIS broken

[jonwil]

Playing an audio file from your phone through speakers requires different permissions than playing the same audio file from the same phone through the same speakers in response to a phone call event... How screwed up is that?

Entertainment Cartels Want it All

[Apple Acolyte]

They want to have their revenue cake and eat it too, and they don't even want to cut the original authors in. They are an unnecessary drain on the digital marketplace, a dinosaur of the 20th Century. Eventually these cartels will be replaced, since the goods they offer have little compelling reason to be sold in physical formats. It's a just a question of time before key producers decide it makes sufficient financial sense to bypass them completely.

Re:I never knew copyright law was THIS broken

[Professor_UNIX]

Pretty soon we'll need to buy one DVD per DVD player and they'll have some kind of activation thing where the first time you play it ties it to that DVD player if we keep going down this road.

Re:I never knew copyright law was THIS broken

[j00r0m4nc3r]

Yeah, and neither of those events generates a royalty for the artist. Welcome to CrazyLand.

Re:So, it's free?

[richie2000]

No, it's just a different copyright, one that's owned by the RIAA. The RIAA gets the laws that the RIAA pays for.

Obligatory Link

[Nymz]

The Right to Read [gnu.org]

Re:So, it's free?

[fastest fascist]

A ringtone you download specifically as a ringtone might be copyrighted by some party. But if ringtones are indeed NOT derivative works, and not covered under the original piece's copyright, then, as long as you can legally make a ringtone out of a piece of music you possess, that ringtone you made yourself should be free for you to use and distribute as you please. If the original -> ringtone copyright link is broken, then the only party who can possibly claim copyright over the ringtone is whoever made it.

That said, I find it very hard to believe that is actually the case.

Re:Mod parent funny

[sanmarcos]

Apple did not change the firmware to lock out open source users, they added a simple SHA1 hash to better avoid corruption if a sync is interrupted. The hash was cracked in one day. Furthermore the labels forced Apple to put DRM in its products.

Re:Mod parent funny

[antek9]

Furthermore the labels forced Apple to put DRM in its products.

That may well have been the case with the iPod etc. Concerning the iPhone, did the labels force Apple to put DRM into their products the same way they don't force Nokia, Samsung, Blackberry and so on?

Just curious, because my Blackberry has none of that. Any of my MP3s will do as a ringer.

Re:Weird, that

[GeckoX]

What we need is for the Artists to revolt against this. It goes way way too far. They already get screwed by the MAFIAA, and now the MAFIAA got a legal standing that they are allowed to make money off of the artists work, but have no obligation to pay the artists.

These assholes, in theory, are supposed to be working FOR the artists. The ONLY reason the MAFIAA exists in the first place is because of the artists...No artists...No music...No money to collect royalties for.

The MAFIAA needs to be taken out back and shot. It's the humane thing to do after all.

Re:Derivative

[*weasel]

Yes, No.

If a ringtone isn't a derivative work, then yes, we can make them all we want (provided we have a legit copy of the song to start with). But no, we can't distribute them, for the same reason we can't distribute the original song. Their not being derivatives doesn't mean they aren't covered under copyright, it just means they're covered under the original song's copyright. The RIAA liked this, because it meant they could whore out any track they had mechanical rights to, as ringtone fodder, without having to renegotiate anything with the artists.

Tabs are different because they're a separate fixed form (written vs recorded) reproduced in whole (vs a slice of the original recording); it's the same for sheets in general and lyrics. (something the RIAA has been slow to come down on, but it'll happen. Just as soon as they figure out how to monetize a lyrics database.

Also, I would like to say that the concern about performing rights is a joke. Sure, performance rights have been used by ASCAP to shake down businesses that play music for their customers and the occasional giant outdoor party. (e.g. annual block party) But the idea that someone would use a 30 second ringtone to 'perform' a song for an audience is absurd on its face.

The purpose of the ringtone is to be heard by the phone's owner. In the bizarre edge cases where people make ringtones of entire songs and play them, on purpose, to entertain a crowd is no different than people using an ipod, boombox or music-playing phone to do the same, right now. There is clearly no need to cut ASCAP in on all ringtone sales for the same reason there is no need to cut them in on all CD sales. ASCAP is likely just so used to getting whatever they want with a nasty legal brief or two that they honestly think it's worth their lawyers fees to take a shot.

Re:Weird, that

[GeckoX]

Yes, but at whose choice?

It's one thing for an artist to decide they do not want their music for ringtones...agree or not, it is their right.

But that has nothing to do with the MAFIAA making money off of ringtones without paying the artists. This has nothing to do with whether ABBA is willing to allow their music to be used for ringtones or not.

Also largest non-DRM

[SuperKendall]

You're talking about the same Apple that happens to be the world's largest seller of DRM-infected music, right?

Yes, and also the worlds largest online seller of DRM Free [apple.com] music.

Your point?

Apple and RIAA deserve the bashing

[dont_run]

The article about Apple, RIAA, and ringtones was very informative, but it departs from a premise that's not always true.

And here it is: what if the sounds I want to use as ringtones are my own creation, or public domain, or licensed under a CC license, or cleared by means other than an iTunes purchase?

And what about new business models? What if some upcoming artists (or established ones like They Might be Giants) want to release samples and allow them to be used as ringtones and copied around?

The author mentions that people are used to think they can do anything they want with the "music they own". Well, he forgets that sometimes those people do indeed own that music (or broad rights to it).

The truth is, complicated as Copyright law may be, Apple and the RIAA went too far. Way too far. Those companies behave as if there is nothing other than their rights to look after and I deeply resent them for that (as do most music lovers) and they deserve the bashing.

Why can't I produce my own ringtone?

[rajid]

I play Middle Eastern music and I'd like to use a recording of my own group as my ringtone. Apparently, RIAA has set things up such that I can't even produce my own ringtone! I resent that!

Ringtones are retarded anyway

[Stormwatch]

Why don't people have phones that sound like real phones? You know... RRRRRRING RRRRRRING. Not a crappy-sounding excerpt from some badly composed, poorly played, awfully sung, insanely overcompressed piece of noise that passes as music these days... NOW GET OFF MY LAWN!