http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/28/AR2007122800693....
By Marc Fisher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 30, 2007; Page M05
Despite more than 20,000 lawsuits filed against music fans in the years
since they started finding free tunes online rather than buying CDs from
record companies, the recording industry has utterly failed to halt the
decline of the record album or the rise of digital music sharing.
Still, hardly a month goes by without a news release from the industry's
lobby, the Recording Industry Association of America, touting a new wave of
letters to college students and others demanding a settlement payment and
threatening a legal battle.
Now, in an unusual case in which an Arizona recipient of an RIAA letter has
fought back in court rather than write a check to avoid hefty legal fees,
the industry is taking its argument against music sharing one step further:
In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale,
Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his
personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who
has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.
