Recording Industry Freaks Out That XM Users Can Record Music

from the oh-no! dept

The recording industry's lawyers never stop looking to squeeze more money out of everyone, do they? The latest, submitted by Petréa Mitchell, is that they're quite upset about XM launching a mobile device that will let subscribers (yes, the people who already pay) actually record music. So (surprise, surprise) the recording industry is suing XM for not paying them another license on top of the licenses they already pay. They're now asking for $150,000 for every song that a user recorded. All this because XM has helped more people listen to the recording industry's music. If some of this sounds familiar, it's because it's related to what's being discussed in Congress to force satellite radio providers to pay more just because the content can now be recorded to devices. Once again, this is about the recording industry looking to squeeze more money out of a dying business model rather than recognizing these new services help make the recording industry's product much more valuable. XM is positioning this as a new Betamax-style case, with them simply providing the VCR -- which clearly has legal uses. The RIAA's best response, it appears, is "well, we convinced other suckers to pay up, so XM should too." Not particularly convincing.