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Creative Boycotts CeBit Over MP3s

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the stand-up-to-the-man dept.

underwhelm writes "According to ZDNet, Creative Labs is boycotting CeBit because the trade show has banned all MP3-related devices, presumably at the behest of the 'content industry.'"

4 of 195 comments (clear)

  1. CeBIT did *not* ban Creative or MP3. by Hanno · · Score: 5

    CeBIT and Creative were argueing about the target audience. MP3 and copyright issues were *not* the problem, a very loud consumer-oriented booth was. CeBIT wants to become a business fair (again), but Creative wants to attract consumers.

    As someone who has worked on CeBIT as booth personnel, let me tell you that multimedia booths are a real problem. There are regulations against too loud exhibitors, but many companies on CeBIT don't care. The organizers are now trying to enforce these rules a little bit more.

    CeBIT did *not* ban Creative, but *Creative* decided not to be there. Instead, Creative will be on next years' largest German consumer fair, the "Funkausstellung". This fair is not a specific IT business fair, but targets your average TV / vcr / dvd / stereo / videogame consumer.

    I *am* getting a bit nervous about Slashdot's namecalling recently.

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    You may like my a cappella music
  2. MP3 we love thee by nihilogos · · Score: 5

    I recently attended a conference and the Australian Online Musics industry. There was one panel on 'Digital Downloads' that demonstrated just this sort of mentality on the part of high-moment-of-inertia-type music executives, most of them were talking about how MP3 wasn't the appropriate format and then proceeded to plug their own ideas on the subject. One proposal even involved encoding the music with "unbreakable" encryption and requiring a user to log on to a central server for the key.

    Finally one of the panel stood up and said. I'm sorry, MP3s are here you're too late. There is hardware available, consumers like it and it has already been adopted as the defacto standard. You have no place to decide whether it gets adopted or not.

    I stood up and clapped.

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  3. Re:MP3's are like guns by Kris_J · · Score: 5
    Guns are inherently dangerous; mp3s are not. Don't confuse that with a moral issue.
    Indeed. MP3 players don't kill people, Metallica kills people.
  4. According to the local press... by kris · · Score: 5

    According to the local press, the differences between CeBit and Creative are not about MP3, but about their conduct on the last CeBit.

    CeBit is currently a large fair, in fact it is the larges computer trade show on earth. Hannover cannot longer take all the people.

    CeBit tried to split the show into a consumer show called "CeBit Home" and tried to promote the curent CeBit as a strictly business tradeshow. They have not been doing well: CeBit Home is actually shrinking, and many consumer product specialists are showing on the main CeBit.

    Specifically: Creative undermined their marketing strategy at the last CeBit by having a loud and gaming oriented booth at the supposedly business oriented main CeBit. CeBit directorate wanted Creative to switch over to CeBit home, but Creative was not interested into a shrinking low profile fair.

    © Copyright 2000 Kristian Köhntopp