Group petitions Librarian of Congress to revoke iTunes webcasting license
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Jul 10, 2007 at 4:49pm
Media Rights Technologies, which creates and licenses content management and enablement solutions,has written a “letter of petition” to Dr. James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress, asking for the revocation of webcasting licenses from iTunes, MSN Music, RealNetworks, Rhapsody and Yahoo.
“Every broadcast delivered from these services can easily be stream-ripped by the public, downloaded to a user’s hard drive on a song by song basis and uploaded onto iPhones and P2P networks,” says MRT CEO Hank Risan. “This type of piracy is in clear violation of the performance rights granted to these distributors of copyrighted material under Section 114. MRT believes that the Librarian of Congress will exercise his fiduciary duty and put a stop to this rampant form of digital piracy by immediately revoking their licenses.”
The letter says these webcasters are willfully violating their statutory internet broadcasting licenses by distributing digital content as an interactive download service and by ignoring their statutory obligations under the law. MRT says that all of the webcasters distribute digital content over systems that “avoid existing and effective technical measures designed to protect copyrighted content from unauthorized downloading, copying and re-distribution or use by recipients.”
MRT claims that the webcasters incorporate or accommodate stream ripping capability within their systems and that “literally thousands of different stream ripping devices are sanctioned” by them. By transmitting copyrighted matter through such systems, the webcasters “enable the recipients of their unprotected transmitted sound recordings to select particular sound recordings that can be downloaded and converted into perfect digital phonorecords.” These digital phonorecords are then capable of being used, re-distributed or re-transmitted-all without authority from the copyright owners or payment of royalties, the letter adds.
Of course, MRT makes SeCure X1, copy control technology that eliminates stream ripping and serial copying of digital content. The company wants Apple, Microsoft, Real Networks and other webcasters to implement the technology to protect American Intellectual Property. MRT claims that and that all of the devices from the above-mentioned companies “must either be immediately redesigned or removed from the market.”
Brian Says:
And this is different from radio how? Can’t anyone with a cassette recorder also ‘stream rip’ a *cough* perfect copy that’s being sent to every home via radio waves and then imported. At least as perfect as these internet broadcasters with their 32k-56k streams… loo oo zers.
Posted on July 10, 2007
dave Says:
Why is macsimumnews regurgitating this crap? This company pulled a similar publicity stunt a few months ago, and is just doing the same thing again, not to increase awareness of a problem, but to increase awareness of their lame product that nobody wants to purchase.
Posted on July 10, 2007
henk Says:
yeah, I can see “the general public” easily streamripping line-to-line, tweaking their virtual pre-amps and stuff… (when they can dowload most of it anyway)
gimme a break, is Hank Risan the world’s first software-prostitute?
Posted on July 11, 2007
Mackeyser Says:
First of all, it isn’t a “group”, it’s a single corporation with a specific interest. So this isn’t a ‘Public Interest’ story, it is a corporate grab. It’s lobbying via PR rather than paying expensive lobbyists.
Second, it is NOT just iTunes it is going after, but rather ALL major mainstream media streaming products.
So to title this little piece of internet tripe which made me stupider for reading it (thanks so much for that, btw) “Group petitions Librarian of Congress to revoke iTunes webcasting license” is beyond absurd.
What it should have said is “Corporation with a niche, inferior product uses PR and petition to Librarian of Congress to weasle the major media streaming products to license their technology”
Not as snappy a title, but at least there’s some integrity to that.
Now, if your editor changed your title, then simply redirect the assault to him/her. The reporting is bad, but that title is just irresponsible. It may take 3500 ACTUAL newsworthy pieces to make up for this horrible piece of puppy training equipment.
Posted on July 11, 2007
ReasonableRequest Says:
Well, one asinine request deserves another:
The USA should ban All broadcasts and order the government to provide immediate public execution of recording studios personnel, all Media Rights Technologies employees, and All music industry executives - to prevent any and all duplication of artists performances.
All CDs, DVDs, playback devices, books, lightbulbs, tapes and tape recorders, cameras and video cameras, TVs and Radios should be burned, and learning reading and writing be banned.
Artists themselves should be forbidden from performing, and only permitted to meditate quietly upon the meaning of ‘entertainment’.
Violators singing songs, acting, or dancing are deported to labor camps in deep forest jungles, where they will spend the rest of their natural lives digging holes on even days, and filling them back in on odd days - forever.
Paid performances should fall under the same laws as prostitution, except having all fines and penalties doubled, and then multiplied by the number of viewers / hearers that witness such foul acts.
And pigs, by law, should fly.
Posted on July 11, 2007
brett_x Says:
I’m with Mackeyser on this one. I was severely mislead by the term “Group”. I wouldn’t have wasted my time on the article if it was properly titled.
Posted on July 11, 2007
richard Smith Says:
Misleading Header .If you conitinue this trolling for hits.I will discontinue reading this site.
Too bad,for it once had some interesting writing.
Posted on July 11, 2007
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Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
jsm Says:
Pathetic....I guess this the only way MRT can sell an inferior product.
Posted on July 10, 2007