Where the riaa gets its money
Written by Ernesto on August 14, 2006If it was up to the RIAA, nobody would copy music anymore. The funny thing is however, blank media and media recorders bring a lot of money to the RIAA.
You might probably not be aware of this, but every time somebody buys a cd-recorder in the US, $2 goes directly to the RIAA. And even [...]
If it was up to the RIAA, nobody would copy music anymore. The funny thing is however, blank media and media recorders bring a lot of money to the RIAA.
You might probably not be aware of this, but every time somebody buys a cd-recorder in the US, $2 goes directly to the RIAA. And even more striking, the RIAA cashes 2% 3% of the money spent on blank media like recordable cd’s.
The RIAA thanks the money to the Audio Home Recording Act (link to riaa site). The AHRA forces manufacturers and importers of digital audio recorders and blank media to pay royalties to the RIAA.
The RIAA is supposed to divide this money among artists (40%) and record labels (60%). However, the artists never see a penny.
Update: Note that the money doesn’t go directly to the RIAA, but to the AARC. However, the RIAA and AARC share office space, and some employees. So for the sake of simplicity… ;) (see comments)
But even if they did get their money, it would be a strange construction. The AHRA dates back to 1992, a time where blank media (cd, minidisk, dat) were mostly used to copy music. Today, 16 years later, people use these disks for other (read personal) uses. 700MB is not what it used to be if you know what I mean.
And this puts the AHRA in a whole other light. Because, even if you buy a couple of cd’s to backup some of your documents, or to store your holiday pictures, you’re paying 2% to the RIAA.
A friend of mine recently produced a cd full of educational movies and info about the AIDS problems in Africa. He spent hours making the CD, and distributed 1000 copies for free, to make school children aware of these problems.
Guess what? The RIAA collected 2%….
Some careful readers pointed out that the law only affect blank music CDR’s so the latter reasoning is incorrect.
But still, it’s strange that the RIAA or AARC collect money, but forbid us to copy music on the other hand. Sounds like a double standard to me. And indeed, this bill was supposed to give consumers the legal right to copy music for non-commercial use. AnonEmouse found some interesting quotes in the congressional record of the floor discussion for the “audio home recording act”.
(Mr. MOORHEAD)
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3204 would make it clear that noncommercial taping of music by consumers is not a violation of copyright law. The debate over home taping of records goes back to 1970 when Congress first extended copyright protection for records but this legislation will end the 22-year-old debate and make it clear that home taping does not constitute copyright infringement.
…
I am not aware of any opposition to this bill. It has the support of industry, the Copyright Office, the consumers and the administration.
I urge your support.
(Mr. HUGHES)
H.R. 3204 removes the legal cloud over home copying of prerecorded music in the most proconsumer way possible: It gives consumers a complete exemption for noncommercial home copying of both digital and analog music, even though the royalty obligations under the bill apply only to digitally formatted music. No longer will consumers be branded copyright pirates for making a tape for their car or for their children.
(Mrs. COLLINS)
This compromise solution was reached through difficult negotiations by a coalition of the recording industry; songwriters and music publishers; electronics industry and groups that want consumers to continue to enjoy the benefits of private home taping.
There are three basic provisions of the legislation. First, it guarantees consumers the legal right to make analog or digital copies of musical recordings for noncommercial use. Also it prohibits lawsuits being brought against those that manufacture, import, or distribute a digital or analog audio recorder or medium.
(Mr. FISH)
At the same time, the bill resolves an issue that has been of great concern to consumers for the last two decades and that is the home taping of music. The bill makes clear that the home taping of music is not a violation of copyright law.
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It should be noted that this is NOT completely correct. A careful reading of the Boycott RIAA Site reveals this information:
“Every Music CDR since the AHRA was enacted has a hidden tax built into the price! (2% of the manufacturers sales)”
Notice they say MUSIC CD-Rs. That means the ones that are marked as such at the store, and are almost always slightly more expensive than the other CDs right next to them. Not that there’s anything special about them that makes them great for music. They just get the RIAA tax.
Also, a look at the actual law shows that the amount is 3%, not 2.
US Copyright Act, Chapter 10, Section 1004b:
“(b) Digital Audio Recording Media. – The royalty payment due under section 1003 for each digital audio recording medium imported into and distributed in the United States, or manufactured and distributed in the United States, shall be 3 percent of the transfer price. Only the first person to manufacture and distribute or import and distribute such medium shall be required to pay the royalty with respect to such medium.”
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap10.html#1004
Careful reader was right to point out that your regular CD-R doesn’t result in any AHRA royalty fees being paid at all. There is a few more inconsistencies in this article. You wrote:
“The funny thing is however, blank media and media recorders bring a lot of money to the RIAA.”
It’s actually not that much. In 2004 all AHRA royalty fees from recorders as well as recordable media combined resulted just in 3.1 million US-dollars. And it wasn’t paid directly to the RIAA but to the US Copyright Office, which in turn hands it over to the Library of Congress, which then redistributes it – no, still not to the RIAA, but to songwriters, publishers, the AFM and AFTRA fund, and finally the AARC. Fore more details see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Home_Recording_Act
http://www.raroyalties.org/index_noflash.html
http://www.aarcroyalties.net
Thanks careful reader(s)
I based the info on another site, but that was probably “incomplete”.
The info on the RIAA site is probably not completely up-to-date.
Updated the story..
If you really want to blow your mind.
Search the congressional record for the “audio home recording act”
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/r102query.html
Then look for the floor discussion of September 22, 1992.
You will find lots of stuff like this:
(Mr. MOORHEAD)
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3204 would make it clear that noncommercial taping of music by consumers is not a violation of copyright law. The debate over home taping of records goes back to 1970 when Congress first extended copyright protection for records but this legislation will end the 22-year-old debate and make it clear that home taping does not constitute copyright infringement.
…
I am not aware of any opposition to this bill. It has the support of industry, the Copyright Office, the consumers and the administration.
I urge your support.
(Mr. HUGHES)
H.R. 3204 removes the legal cloud over home copying of prerecorded music in the most proconsumer way possible: It gives consumers a complete exemption for noncommercial home copying of both digital and analog music, even though the royalty obligations under the bill apply only to digitally formatted music. No longer will consumers be branded copyright pirates for making a tape for their car or for their children.
(Mrs. COLLINS)
This compromise solution was reached through difficult negotiations by a coalition of the recording industry; songwriters and music publishers; electronics industry and groups that want consumers to continue to enjoy the benefits of private home taping.
There are three basic provisions of the legislation. First, it guarantees consumers the legal right to make analog or digital copies of musical recordings for noncommercial use. Also it prohibits lawsuits being brought against those that manufacture, import, or distribute a digital or analog audio recorder or medium.
(Mr. FISH)
At the same time, the bill resolves an issue that has been of great concern to consumers for the last two decades and that is the home taping of music. The bill makes clear that the home taping of music is not a violation of copyright law.
The MUSIC CDRs are the only CDRs that some stand-alone CD players will play. I know, my sister had a CD player that wouldn’t play my CDRs and would only play “Music” CDRs, so the discs are not identical. As I recall, the “Music” CDs have some bytemark in the unrecordable portion that acts as a sort of copy-protection, allowing players to play those CDs for which the tax has been paid.
They consider all blank CD media as “music CD-R’s”.
Thanks for playing.
So if I use music CDR’s to record truly pirated music then it’s ok since they have recieved payment via their tax?
Again and as always, copying music is not illegal. If you bought it, you can copy it until you are blue in the face.
Distributing the copied music is where the “problem” is.
Well[quote comment="9894"]Again and as always, copying music is not illegal. If you bought it, you can copy it until you are blue in the face.[/quote]
Well, according to the RIAA it is:
If I may take a quote from the MGM v. Grokster case..
They only take money from Audio CDs which cost loads more but are pointless. You can burn audio onto Data CDs which don’t involve royalties.
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nice thanks
none of this mentions the analog hole.
in the 70’s when the home taping act was passed, the only means to record was magnetic tape. when the first VCR’s came out they too were analog.
today, DVD’s are produced digitally, and the means to rip/record are alos digital. HDTV is also bradcast digitally, which means that contnet can be digitally reproduced to another digital medium with little degredation in the resulting copy.
the media industries (mafIAA) want to make a distiction between analog copying and digital. their justification is that a digital copy is and exact duplicate of the original and therefor copyright infringement.
in the industry this is called the analog hole.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_hole
just watch, there will be legislation passed to stop recording of HDTV content and mandatory DRM on all digital media.
I believe this one applies “Unless each man prodiuses more than he receives, increases his output, there will be less for him than all the others”, doesn’t it?
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