CD burning may not be answer

By Se J. Reed
Summer Forty-Niner

Forget Napster. Forget Scour. Forget MP3.com. They are doomed.

The Recording Industry Association of America has declared war on all three.

So what is a despondent (and broke) college student to do? Unless Mom and Dad are willing to support your music habit, the future seems bleak.

The record companies would encourage reluctant Napster users to head on down to their local mega-music store and (surprise!) buy a CD.

But paying $16 for a CD is an abhorrent thought, especially for those who have grown accustomed to free music. It's like handing someone a blank piece of paper and a pen and telling them to forget e-mail was ever invented.

But wait! There's hope. Three little letters: C - D - R.

Even if college students can get their music fix from the net, at least they can get together with their friends and pay only a few dollars each. Then, with CD-Rs, everyone can have their own copy.

In all the debates about copyrights and the evils of the Internet and the immorality of the thieving college student, the media and the copyright experts seem to have forgotten about this other recent technological wonder.

But it's there, in the back of the minds of record company executives everywhere and they are already planning on ways to thwart it.  The RIAA Website has a whole section on recordable audio devices and how it feels about them.

According to the RIAA website, in the not-so-distant future, "musical recordings may include ‘usage rules,' such as the amount of copying the owner and the consumer have agreed upon."

Translation: After five copies have been made of that new Eminem album, no more.

Implementing this technology will not be easy, the RIAA admits. The best bet it has is getting consumers to use a standard interface. The RIAA is betting on an interface "developed by Apple Computer as FireWire, and marketed by Sony as i.LINK."

Once an interface is standard, the RIAA predicts that the "usage rules" for each disc will be easily transferred to the con-sumer's hardware, securing "music content from unauthorized use."

But right now there is no standard interface, and CD burning and ripping (converting audio files to MP3 format) are rampant. The record companies have only found little ways to make this more difficult.

A CD from a Doors boxed set, for example, includes a small data file. When trying to read the disc, the CD-R drive can only read the data and not the music. There are ways around this, however, included upgrading the CD-R software or converting the music to a .wav file while playing the CD. It's a more time-consuming process, but it will work.

The RIAA isn't yet worrying about the average college student copying CDs for her friends. According to the RIAA website, "CD-R factories have not yet been able to manufacture the volume of CDs that traditional CD replicators are capable of producing."

"But," the description continues, "they are still generating big numbers."

Students aren't just recording music. Under an agreement with Microsoft, students at Cal State Long Beach are allowed to rent premium Microsoft software from the University Bookstore for only $50 and a refundable $25 deposit. So what measures have been implemented to stop students from burning copies for all their friends?

According to Miko Ingrem, a sales representative from the bookstore's computer store, students "sign a paper that says they won't pirate." However, there is no way to enforce the agreement, Ingrem said. "It's just their word. We can't police it so whatever they do, they do on their own."

The penalty for breaking the agreement could be harsh. Upon notification of students pirating software, Microsoft could cancel the contract with the bookstore.
 
However, Ingrem said, there really isn't a need for students to burn copies of the software they get from the bookstore.  Once software is installed, it is on the computer and usually doesn't require the CD to run. The software industry's problem is people trading the original CD. Illegal copying is therefore less of a problem to the software industry.

Music, however, can only be played from a CD, or on MP3 files stored on a hard drive, which makes music CDs perfect targets for unauthorized copying.

In the music industry, the RIAA says once the interface is established, techniques will be established to prevent unauthorized CD burning and ripping. But isn't that illegal? Aren't people allowed to make personal copies of music they bought? The answer: We don't know yet. That's one reason why the battle over Napster is so important. It will determine the future of the CD-R, too. Here's why: The legal case in the Napster suits involves the seeming contradiction between two federal acts: the Audio Home Recording Act and the No Electronic Theft (NET) Act. The Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 is Napster's main defense. While the Act has many sections and lays out a plan for payment of royalties to artists, it also has a key section that states: "No action may be brought under this title … based on the noncommercial use by a consumer of such a device or medium for making digital musical recordings or analog musical recordings."

The RIAA, however, is citing the more recent NET Act. The 1998 NET Act states that digital copying and sharing is a criminal act even when not for commercial purposes or for monetary gain.

That's bad news for anyone who uses MP3s or CD-Rs as a primary source of music.

So there is a new mantra for the 21st century college student: Audio Home Recording Act. It protects the right of consumers to make copies of their own CDs. But if the courts decide not to uphold it in favor of the NET Act, then for college students across the nation, the musical future really will be bleak.