CEA smacks down "thinly veiled attack" by RIAA on fair use

Sounds like consumers (and random people in toxic waste suits) aren't the only ones getting tired of the RIAA's antics. Consumer Electronics Association chief Gary Shapiro had some harsh words for the music industry the other day. He's particularly miffed at the RIAA's wild and fairly unrealistic expectations for an audio broadcast flag. Not only did they start pushing for the spec rather late in the digital radio game, potentially making current investments by broadcasters worthless, but they're not offering any help on the actual spec itself. "In short," says Gary, "the RIAA wants to stop consumers from doing what they've been doing since a tape recorder was first used to capture a song played over the air for private use." Shapiro says the CEA is plenty willing to play the DRM game, and limit "the mass indiscriminate redistribution of music over the Internet," but he says "The game of crying wolf [over piracy] is not only tiresome; it's harmful to consumers and innovation." We couldn't have put it better ourselves.

[Via Ars Technica]