Penn Jillette Likes IP Rights and Ripping CDs
Penn Jillette is the taller, louder half of the magic and comedy act Penn and Teller. He is also a research fellow at the Cato Institute and has lectured at Oxford and MIT. Somewhere along the path of being a magician, writer of best-selling books, and producer of a film about a single dirty joke, he developed an affinity for IP rights.
But Penn gets steamed when RIAA members suggest that ripping a CD to your iPod should be illegal. Why would anyone suggest ripping a single file is illegal? Just think how much easier that is to prove than the whole “making available” requirement in copyright infringement.