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DRM IS RUINING INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMACY
ITEM: President Barack Obama gives Queen Elizabeth II a personalised iPod loaded with 40 songs from popular Broadway productions, including The King and I, West Side Story and Dreamgirls.Which, according to the current position of the Recording Industry Association Of America, is a violation of national and international copyright law.
Why? Because – as the Electronic Frontier Foundation helpfully (and truthfully) points out – in every court case the RIAA is involved in, they have argued that you are not legally entitled to rip music to yr hard drive even if you paid for the CD. And even if you downloaded them legally on iTunes, you can’t legally make copies of those files or even give them to anyone else (on account of you downloaded them for “personal use”).
Scandal! Obama is a copyright infringer! And everyone knows that copyright infringment is no different from stealing a car or blowing up the Twin Towers. Because the RIAA and the MPAA say so. Oh he is SO busted! Impeach!
Okay, not really. But it’s worth bringing up, because it’s probably the most high-profile example you’ll see of someone using music in ways that shouldn’t be illegal, but will be if the RIAA gets its way.
See also: Obama’s gift of 25 DVDs to PM Gordon Brown, who can’t watch them because of the MPAA’s stupid regional coding scheme.
FUN FACT: The iPod Obama gave the Queen did NOT include "God Save The Queen" by the Sex Pistols. Which would have been awesome. It did however include a song from La Cage Aux Folles. I look forward to Jim Dobson using this as proof of Obama's Homosexual Agenda to make the Queen gay.
Infringed,
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