According to the HRRC, a new lawsuit brought by the recording industry's bulldog, the RIAA, is treating law-abiding consumers as "pirates" and violating the implied promise that they would not go after consumers who rip their own recordings for personal use. At the heart of the lawsuit is a new device released by XM Satellite Radio, the Inno, which allows consumers to record the programming broadcast over its network.

The RIAA seeks $150,000 in damages for every song copied by consumers onto the Inno. The suit is roundly being attacked as a desperate and evil move by an industry association that has already placed itself on everyone's most-hated list. The most succinct analysis, though, comes from Mike at Techdirt: "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."

Either way, this could be very critical for XMSR (and similar products that Sirius might have in development) if it's taken at all seriously by the courts. The stock is down $0.12 in intraday trading, which saw the stock dip to its 52-week low, to $16.50, after a relatively huge drop yesterday.

XMSR being squeezed by 'dying' recording industry originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 18 May 2006 15:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.