If you do not have legal permission, and you go ahead and copy or distribute copyrighted music anyway, you can be prosecuted in criminal court and/or sued for damages in civil court.
Criminal penalties can run up to 5 years in prison and/or $250,000 in fines, even if you didn’t do it for monetary or financial or commercial gain.
Having the hardware to make unauthorized music recordings doesn’t give you the right to steal.
January 25, 2005
NARM Files Amicus Brief In Supreme Court Urging Reversal Of Decision In Grokster Case
The National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) yesterday filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief supporting the Petitioners—various music companies, motion picture studios, music publishers and songwriters—in the MGM v. Grokster case to be argued before the Supreme Court on March 29.
The appeal seeks to reverse a ruling last summer by the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which held that Grokster and StreamCast’s file-sharing network services do not constitute contributory or vicarious copyright infringement under the Supreme Court’s 1984 Sony-Betamax decision. In that case, the Supreme Court held that Sony was not liable for contributory copyright infringement because its video recorders were predominantly used for non-infringing uses (i.e., time-shifting).
NARM’s perspective is unique because its members have an important stake in protecting the legitimate interests of copyright owners, as well as in preserving the freedom of companies to develop innovative new technologies that may interact with copyrighted works.
NARM’s brief argues that Grokster and StreamCast’s services are overwhelmingly and knowingly used for infringing purposes, and for that reason, among others, constitute contributory and vicarious copyright infringement that is not shielded from liability under the Sony-Betamax precedent. At the same time, NARM is also urging the Supreme Court not to disturb the careful balance it struck in the Sony-Betamax case—a balance that has served copyright owners, technology companies, retailers, and consumers well for two decades.
“NARM has publicly condemned and strongly opposes the copyright infringement that is harming all segments of the entertainment industry, whether through physical or digital means,” said NARM President Jim Donio. “Piracy cannot continue unchallenged, so it is essential that companies operating in violation of the law be stopped. Businesses and new technologies providing legal alternatives for bringing entertainment to the consuming public must be able to compete in a lawful marketplace so that they may provide the widest possible dissemination of creative works.”
About NARM:
Established in 1958, the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) is a not-for-profit trade association that serves the music retailing community in the areas of networking, advocacy, information, education and promotion. The Association's membership includes music and other entertainment retailers, wholesalers, distributors, record labels, multimedia suppliers, and suppliers of related products and services, as well as individual professionals and educators in the music business field. Our retail members operate 7,000 storefronts that account for almost 85% of the music sold in the U.S. market.
# # # # #
Contact:
Susan L’Ecuyer, NARM, 856.596.2221
Nicole Hennessey, NARM, 856.596.2221