Errors and Omissions

Pogue gets small item wrong, bigger issue right

From today's New York Times:

The David Pogue column in Business Day yesterday, about the Samsung Helix, a radio for XM satellite broadcasts that can also record, described a "wish list" feature incorrectly. While users can be alerted to a designated band or song playing on another channel, the radio will not automatically tune to that channel to record it; the user must do that manually. The column also incorrectly attributed a quotation about legal objections to lawyers for the Recording Industry Association of America, which is suing XM. They have not said the player is "a tool for copyright infringement." That was the columnist's assessment of the recording industry's position. (Go to Article)

Well, let's see what the lawsuit filed by the record labels against XM (thanks Orbitcast!) says on the matter:

XM is not licensed by Plaintiffs [Atlantic Records, Warner Records, Interscope Records, et. al.] - and pays Plaintiffs nothing - for this unauthorized distribution of Plaintiffs' copyrighted sound recordings. XM's conduct thus amounts to infringement of Plaintiffs' exclusive right under the Copyright Act to control the distribution and reproduction of their recordings.

If Pogue made an error in his attribution, it's an awfully small one. The words he uses and the words in the lawsuit are almost identical. The lawsuit doesn't dwell on the tool (perhaps this is the error the RIAA attorneys pointed out?) but clearly identified XM's service as an "infringement" of their "copyrighted recordings." Perhaps there's a small detail that's incorrect (debatable in my view) but on the larger issue he's absolutely correct.

Pogue also mentions that the RIAA's lawyers are "increasingly busy." He's got that right--see their latest anti-piracy status report!

newspapers, media, errors, piracy, music

posted by Unknown @ 5/26/2006 08:55:00 AM