Glaser claims that the reason people rip music is because Apple has created a closed system whereby people cannot function with their music as they should. They therefore rip music onto their iPods rather than purchase music from iTunes.
My intro comment about US legality comes into play here. I don't see a correlation between not buying music from iTunes and illegal music, but perhaps copying your own CDs is illegal in the good old US of A. Who knows what goes on down there...
The most interesting part of the article is that Glaser points out that the average number of iTunes songs sold per iPod is 25. Given than most iPods can hold...what...hundreds upon hundreds of songs? he's got a point that those songs are coming from somewhere else.
This little conversation is sure to pop up here and there for the next little while.
Via Podcasting News
I can tell you that it's 100% illegal to put any music at all on your iPod in Australia (where I am) unless you bought it from one of the online stores (e.g. iTunes) that specifically license music for MP3 players.
The (same) law in Australia is so behind the times that it is absolutely illegal to video your favourite TV show for personal playback later. Naturally the law is honoured exclusively in the breach.
The fact is, however, that Australia's equivalent of the RIAA (the mob who took on Kazaa in the courts here and won) could pretty much swoop on anyone in the street with headphones in and be pretty much guaranteed a case.
Posted by: Steven Lewis | September 23, 2006 4:30 PM | Permalink to Comment