Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc can go ahead and ship its Rio portable music player, following the denial of a preliminary court injunction taken out against it by the Recording Industry Association of America (CI No 3,520). The RIAA’s suit was denied by the US Central District Court of California in Los Angeles on Monday. The Association – backed by the many of the largest record companies – claimed the device violated the Audio Home Recording Act, which imposes restrictions on consumer recording audio devices. But Diamond said that Rio is incapable of independent recording or serial copying, and so should not be governed by the AHRA. The device is aimed at musicians interested in distributing music over the internet using the MP3 compressed music format. It can be used to mix and store up to 60 minutes of digital quality music or eight hours of voice quality audio from the internet or a PC for playback. We believe it enables musicians, other than just those with big record company contracts, to achieve broad distribution for their music said Ken Wirt, VP of corporate marketing at Diamond. The company said it would begin shipping the device, which cost $200, in time for the holiday season. The case continues.
