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Record Companies Sued Over Charley Pride CD
DevNova writes: "This posting describes a woman in California suing Fahrenheit Entertainment, Inc. and its label Music City Records over CDs she has purchased which use a proprietary music encoding scheme that prevents them from being listened to without the user identifying themselves. These CDs won't play on standard CD players, are not encoded in the popular MP3 format, and will not play on a computer until the user enters personal information. A large part of the suit is that Fahrenheit discloses none of this information on the packaging."
There is definitly no way that any company should be able to collect information about a person that has purchased their CD. If this was a promotional CD I could see the point but if you purchase something it becomes yours (and you are free to do w/it whatever you wish) you paid a fee to give you rights. They are invading your privacy.
The fact that they are hiding this from view is an obvious attempt at actually selling the CDs. No one is going to buy the god damn things b/c of this crap. Hell, I hate to shop at Radio Shack b/c of the fact that they ask for my private information and seem to feel it is their god given right to have it. (No, I will NOT give them any of my info even if I purchase my items w/a CC -- this usually really irritates the clerk -- the information they need is how much the item costs, how much I paid, and that's it)
I am sick and tired of this crap. If I don't want to be known I don't have to be. Once you buy something you own it. That's it. Their ownership of the item stops when money exchanges hands.
Fuck that.
Chuckie is well known in his own field (blues/country, if I recall correctly). This isn't a mix CD or a giveaway, and Mr. Pride himself agreed to be the guinea pig for this CD format a while ago. I hope it costs him dearly in terms of sales.
Virg
Wow, who would've thunk it?! Copyright control and protection mechanisms might hurt sales? While completely unrevolutionary to anyone who has actually USED Napster or other file sharing P2P networks, I'm sure this will just be an extraordinary revolution to Hillary Rosen and her cronies. Don't want to screw yourselves out of a bunch of extra profits? - just screw the customer out of their legally provided rights...
not the point. It would be like having a DVD not work just b/c you are playing it in a PS2. Before this year I *rarely* used my stereo (I had nothing more than a shitty old boom-box) and I *always* used my computer to play my music CDs.
This is my right as a consumer to use whatever device I want. Doesn't matter if I can use this device to copy it (remember? I own the CD)
Tough noogies.
The judge could aware punitive damages of hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is over and above the compensatory damages (which could include not only the original purchase price, but legal fees, lost wages while in court, etc.)
Besides, some lawsuits happen because someone feels that there is an injustice in the world, not out of some sense of personal greed. If you don't understand this, ask some of your Democratic friends to explain it to you.
(Not to right-wing moderators: I have 50 Karma points, so I can afford to lose two or three for being honest here.)
I'm worried that all the recording companies will do is add in the fine print at the bottom of the back side cover that says something like "This CD is protected by the use of the FairUseSucks System and may not play on computers without entering personal information. Please visit www.weownj00.com for our privacy policy; opening of this package indicates your agreement to this policy". Bingo, they have just gotten out of a lawsuit.
At this point, one would then need to envoke the infamous time-shifting case to fight back for fair use.
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
I noticed the complaint letter doesnt list a dollar amount for damages. This is good because the defendants wont be able to offer a cash settlement very easily, like in many other cases. The woman here wants them to fix the problems for the better of the public and doesnt appear to want money in return.
Reminds of a case several years ago when families were suing automakers for problems with airbags killing loved ones. People were suing for tremendoesly large cash settlements, and getting them, but the airbag problems were going unchecked, as newer cars still had the same problem. One man (who himself was a lawyer) lost his wife in an accident because of the airbag in one of those newer vehicles. He sued, but emphasized that settlement would only be reached if the auto makers fixed the airbag problems and refused cash settlements. The judge ruled in his favor and ordered the automaker to repair the problem.
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
Day One
"Hi, I bought this CD yesterday but cannot get it to play on my PC at home. The other CD I bought yesterday plays fine, so this must be defective. Can I get a replacement?"
Day Two
"Hi, I got this replacement for a CD that wouldn't play on my PC yesterday and this one seems bad, too. Might be a bad production run of CD's. Can I try another?"
Rinse well, repeat as necessary until all CD's of that recording are sent back to label marked "defective".
No, the DIVX player required a phone line and had a modem that dialed in to grant permission to play the discs.
You could pay per view as often as you liked.
Actually, it may be better that it's a low-key country artist with a fairly mature listener base ... Courts are probably going to be a lot friendlier to a middle-aged Charly Pride fan than to a teenage Limp Bizkit fan. Let the grown-ups fight these battles; ultimately the kids will also benefit.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Whatever format this CD uses, I can't see Sony etc scrambling to follow this. Joe User is at least more receptive to privacy concerns than intellectual property issues.
Sony is in an interesting position, because they are a record company AND make a line of portable mp3 players.
Formats like the one mentioned in this article are inherently incompatible with mp3 players. Sony, being a large record label, seems to be placing bets on both sides of the free music battle.
(yes, I realize you can use a sony mp3 player to play music you paid for.... but you and me and sony all know that playing mp3's off the net is a big appeal for consumers)
___
The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason. --Ben Franklin
Really?
Think of this: if you went to the record store and told them that you dropped and broke your CD, here are the pieces and the receipts, and could they please replace it - do you think they'd give you a new CD? Or would they laugh you out of the store? Suddenly, it looks like you bought something physical after all, and not the license to listen to the music on the CD, doesn't it...?
"I will take the Ring," he said, "though I do not know the way."
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Along the same lines, please never allow your elected representative to refer to you as a 'taxpayer'. God, there's no term more demeaning, more belittling... I mean, what happens if I should fall on hard times? I'm no longer a taxpayer, so I no longer count?
The word 'citizen' needs to come back into everyday parlance.
Of course you don't own the music, any more than you own the text of a book. The issue is that publishers are trying to convert your purchase into a license, which they believe gives them the ability to control how you use the product, which is far more restrictive than copyright limitations.
I should point out that this would imply that the GPL removes rights as well
No. You don't have to accept the terms of the GPL in order to use GPLed software. The GPL only comes into play when you wish to redistribute the software. Under standard copyright law you can't do at all, but the GPL allows you to do so as long as you abide by certain conditions. The GPL only grants rights, it doesn't remove any.
How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
Buying a nice CD at the local music place, possibly listening to it at home (I currently use a Sega Mega CD as a CD player), or listening to it at work (I just bung the CD in a CDROM drive and expect it to start playing), or maybe listening to it on the go (I have an MP3 player that plugs into the bottom of my Ericsson T28) should not be a battle between me and the music companies. If you want to lock down your music, fine, just don't expect me to bother trying to play it. Thus, don't expect me to buy it.
i won't take an opportunity in music although it's not likely i'd get one anyway since i don't look like britney spears.
Britney is not a musician, she is a very good looking chamber maid for the RIAA.
Edith Keeler Must Die
You've got it exactly right - nobody deserves compensation forever on something that took a few moments (or even a few years) to create.
Visit my website - send me an email. There's an organization starting up that needs people like you. http://www.amfcc.org
Don't just complain - DO something about it!