# Manhattan, do you know crap about ripping music?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-do-you-know-crap-about-ripping-music/156981
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [February 23, 2003, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-do-you-know-crap-about-ripping-music/156981 "2003-02-23T15:30:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2003, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-do-you-know-crap-about-ripping-music/156981/81 "2003-02-24T20:07:26Z")
Can i just say, to all those who are ridiculing people who are criticizing this rule, that you need to lighten up a little.
As i said in my first post on this thread, i’d never even come across this issue on SDMB before, so i decided to give my opinion. I also said, in a later post, that the rule didn’t really worry me that much, and nor did it affect me, because:
a) i haven’t participated in threads on the issue
and
b) i already know how to use my own CD burner.
And i also conceded that my opinion was unlikely to change the SDMB rules.
But the reason i stayed to argue my case is the same reason i stay to argue my case on so many other SDMB threads - because debate is fun. I don’t care if you don’t agree with me, or if my opinions aren’t going to change anything. I still want to argue.
I just had a look at some of the GD threads currently under way. It would be possible, in just about every one of those, to go into the thread and say “Well, your opinion isn’t going to change anything, so why not shut up about it already?” But how much fun would that be? Jeeeeeeeeeez.
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### Author:  [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2003, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-do-you-know-crap-about-ripping-music/156981/82 "2003-02-24T23:26:10Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by mhendo \*
> \*\*Can anyone tell me how to use a photocopier? \*\*
No, but Unca Cecil can give you the [recipe for hashish brownies:](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_234.html)
> [@](#):
>
> Just so you can see what all the fuss was about, here’s the recipe:
>
> Take 1 teaspoon black peppercorns, 1 whole nutmeg, 4 average sticks of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon coriander. These should all be pulverized in a mortar. About a handful each of stone dates, dried figs, shelled almonds and peanuts: chop these and mix them together. A bunch of canibus sativa can be pulverized. This along with the spices should be dusted over the mixed fruit and nuts, kneaded together. About a cup of sugar dissolved in a big pat of butter. Rolled into a cake and cut into pieces or made into balls about the size of a walnut, it should be eaten with care. Two pieces are quite sufficient. Obtaining the canibus may present certain difficulties. . . . It should be picked and dried as soon as it has gone to seed and while the plant is still green.
>
> Cecil must sternly advise that you shouldn’t try this at home. If you do anyway, it hardly seems necessary to add, “Bon appetit.”
See, the Straight Dope used to be kind of cool and countercultural, showing up in magazines like the Austin Chronicle. But now, puckery-assed hysterics over even mentioning the _word_ “mp3”, and perpetually reciting the mantra _the-rules-are-the-rules-and-if-you-don’t-like-them-get-out-of-our-house_ makes the Straight Dope look like it’s transmogrified into Niedermeyer from Animal House.
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### Author:  [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2003, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-do-you-know-crap-about-ripping-music/156981/83 "2003-02-24T23:40:44Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Doghouse Reilly \*
> \*\*No, but Unca Cecil can give you the [recipe for hashish brownies:](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_234.html) \*\*
Great link. Maybe we should call the “all-drug-buying-funds-terrorism” types in Washington and ask them to take a look. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Will\_Repair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Will_Repair)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2003, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-do-you-know-crap-about-ripping-music/156981/84 "2003-02-25T00:32:08Z")
The issue is not should this or that discussion be allowed because it could be construed as illegal. It is a matter of moderating the board in a timely manner. It is easier to paint in broad strokes. There might not be much detail but the work gets done quicker.
I have issues with an editing of one of my posts. But I realize the SDMB isn’t going to spend time editing for fairness. They’re going to edit for speed.
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### Author:  [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2003, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-do-you-know-crap-about-ripping-music/156981/85 "2003-02-25T04:10:25Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by UnuMondo \*
> **Please scroll up to my first post, and look at what I said about space-shifting and time-shifting. They are considered the core of fair use in the United States (Britain doesn’t have the same tradition, however). Burning a mix of songs to a CD is traditional space-shifting, which has long been permitted. Has the RIAA succeeded against manufacturers of cassette recorders? Nope.**
Sigh. Would you please read me the statute’s fourth factor in light of the changing technology, and get back to me? It’s the main reason the RIAA still has an argument. It’s why they can claim, colorably, that the existing Supreme Court precedent simply doesn’t apply - because no set of facts that the Court has considered has posed anywhere near the financial threat.
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*The RIAA is not a public magistrate. Perhaps we shouldn’t act as if the whims of special-interest groups are law.
\*\* Taint “whims” when they’ve got a colorable claim and virtually limitless cash to fight it with. Yes, in some sort of alternate universe that isn’t a “right” way to behave, but in ours, them’s the breaks. Suck it up, or find another planet.
\*\*
> [@](#):
>
> Just to add my response to the moderators’ chiming in, I can understand that the Reader may not want discussion of copying matters on the board. That doesn’t give the moderators an excuse to be hardasses who act as noble sheriffs shooting down cattle rustlers left and right. Instead of phrasing their posts they way they do, they need to be more polite on that, and perhaps the criticism will lessen.
>
> UnuMondo \*\*
Look, you’ve been around here long enough not only to realize that the Mods can get snippy from time to time, but to recognize that they’re completely entitled to when they’re having to use very small words to explain their policies for the gazillionth time! It’s not like it’s a big secret. And **Manny** , bless his sootblackened, shrunken heart (still three times the size of mine), was pretty damn nice in his response to this thread.
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### Author:  [@Nightime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightime)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2003, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manhattan-do-you-know-crap-about-ripping-music/156981/86 "2003-02-25T04:25:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Taint “whims” when they’ve got a colorable claim and virtually limitless cash to fight it with. Yes, in some sort of alternate universe that isn’t a “right” way to behave, but in ours, them’s the breaks. Suck it up, or find another planet.
Well, yeah, another planet might work. Or you could just go to Best Buy, because they haven’t heard yet that cd burners are illegal on Earth.
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