An artist-backed copyright protection arm of the music industry, called AARC, has filed suit against Ford, GM and others over a CD ripping feature that can store the contents of a CD on a vehicle's hard drive. The Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies (AARC) that represents more then 300,000 artists and musicians is suing the automakers as well as partner audio system manufacturers, Denso and Clarion.
The AARC is claiming the Ford in-vehicle entertainment feature called "Jukebox," which downloads the contents of a music CD to a vehicle's hard drive, specifically violates the "Audio Home Recording Act" of 1992, that prohibits the sale of devices with the ability to rip copyrighted recorded media to local storage. The filing, picked up by TorrentFreak, notes that the "defendants designed these devices for the express purpose of copying music CDs and other digital recordings to a hard drive and they market these devices emphasizing that copying function." However the claim goes on to detail that the automakers and electronics manufacturers are safe from the AARC so long as they incorporate "certain copy control technology" and of course, if they pay a modest royalty per device sold.
For this alleged breach of the Audio Home Recording Act, the AARC is seeking damages in the amount of $2500 per device installed and sold in a vehicle. Some of the car, truck and SUV models involved in the suit are the Lincoln MKS, Ford Explorer, Ford Taurus, Buick LaCrosse, Cadillac SRX, Chevrolet Volt, and GMC Terrain. However, I can personally think of more than a few vehicles that have this capability, including cars from foreign manufacturers like Acura (Honda) and many others.
If successful in its efforts with this suit, it could have broad sweeping affects across the automotive industry and put other manufacturers at risk as well. Frankly, I think this move stifles innovation and convenience for the consumer but admittedly I'm unclear as to what the specific requirements are of the "certain copy control technology" that is cited, or if the amount of that "modest royalty" would make the feature not reasonable or feasible to offer for the manufacturers. All I know is I love the feature in my Acura (not cited in this suit or claim) and I use it specifically so I don't have to load all those bulky CDs into my car in some briefcase-sized container, switching them out of a multi-CD changer/player.
Further, as the saying goes, where there's a will, there is a way. A lot of vehicles have USB and Bluetooth connectivity now. Everyone is ripping songs into iTunes, Windows Media player, etc. The convenience of the systems that offer this ripping functionality are just that, "convenience." You can try to stop it and shut it down but folks will find a way to take the music they rightfully own with them, and in this day and age, CDs are simply obsolete.
A few short years from now we'll all be streaming music for the most part anyway. This suit just smacks of copyright trolling to me, as we bridge the gap and make the transition from old media storage to legally owned, digital media distribution.
