An Engadget scoop notes that the Washington Post RIAA composition we discussed earlier today may have been poorly phrased. The original commentary implied that the Association’s suit stemmed from the music ripping. As it actually stands the defendant isn’t being sued by CD ripping, but for placing files in a shared directory. Engadget notes that the difference here is that the RIAA is intentionally describing ripped MP3 backups as ‘unauthorized copies’ … “something it’s been

doing quietly for a while, but now it looks like the gloves are off. While there’s a pretty good argument for the legality of ripping under the market factor of fair use, it’s never actually been ruled as such by a judge — so paradoxically, the RIAA might be shooting itself in the foot here.”

Read more of that story at Slashdot.

Orginal post by Zonk