A blogger gets it wrong

Blogger Dafydd at Big Lizards got a story wrong. He had reported on an insane position taken by the RIAA – they would be going after people who copied music from CDs they had purchased onto their Ipods. The report quoted, among other things...

[I]n an unusual case in which an Arizona recipient of an RIAA letter has fought back in court rather than write a check to avoid hefty legal fees, the industry is taking its argument against music sharing one step further: In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.

The industry’s lawyer in the case, Ira Schwartz, argues in a brief filed earlier this month that the MP3 files Howell made on his computer from legally bought CDs are “unauthorized copies” of copyrighted recordings.

RIAA’s hard-line position seems clear. Its Web site says: “If you make unauthorized copies of copyrighted music recordings, you’re stealing. You’re breaking the law and you could be held legally liable for thousands of dollars in damages.”

Well, it turns out, upon reading through the complaint, the RIAA was not making that case. Instead, they were objecting to the copying of files to a folder that is then shared over a peer-to-peer network (e.g., Kazaa). Your music ripped to an Ipod, or stored on your computer for playback, is safe.

How did Big Lizard make such a Big Mistake?

Well, it made the Big Mistake of relying on the Washington Post to get its facts right.

It counted on the fact-checkers and editors to catch mistakes like this.

It also naively assumed a reporter might have actually, like, you know, read the complaint.

(Hat tip: Patterico)