Recording industry ups ante for downloads

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Dec. 30 (UPI) -- The U.S. recording industry has intensified its fight against illicit downloading, saying it is illegal for someone to transfer music from a CD onto a computer.

As part of the industry's ongoing legal effort against Jeffery Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., resident accused of sharing nearly 2,000 songs, industry officials said even legally owned discs should not be copied onto one's computer, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

The Recording Industry Association of America's position that Howell broke the law when he copied a legally purchased disc to his computer was immediately attacked by a lawyer familiar with such charges.

"The basic principle in the law is that you have to distribute actual physical copies to be guilty of violating copyright. But recently, the industry has been going around saying that even a personal copy on your computer is a violation," said Ray Beckerman, a lawyer who has represented several of the association's targets in the past.

The Post said the industry's announcement comes in the wake of October's federal jury case in which a Minnesota woman was ordered to pay $220,000 to record companies for downloading 24 songs.