On Mon, 8 Aug 2005 10:35:01 -0400, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

wrote in message
roups.com
While I wasn't looking, someone slipped a new term into
the hifi lingo - "rip" as in copying something from some
source media.

Exactly what does it mean, what media is referenced and
what is its history?

ripping is the process extracting bit-perfect digital audio
data directly from audio CDs.

I've also heard it used for digitizing/digitally recording LP's
into a computer, though that may be a more recent and less "correct"
usage. OTOH, usage is what defines a word as much as anything.

The term was *old* when I first learned of it, which was in
the mid-late '90s.

So what's the origin? I can easily think up a folk-etymology origin
(thus it's very likely to be wrong) that "ripping" a CD means doing
copyright infringement, from "ripping off" the rights owners of their
earnings. But I have no evidence from that.

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