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Record Companies Sued Over Charley Pride CD

Posted by michael on from the singing-the-blues dept.

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."

12 of 429 comments (clear)

  1. let's join the underground by perdida · · Score: 5, Interesting

    i am a musician and i give away all of it. i dont sell it.

    this is the only way to keep out controls like this.

    this shit is just going to get worse, and it makes me very quiet, i feel like everyone around me is a little fascist now. 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.

    i guess that i am willing to get sick and die and not go to a hospital, or to have my own teeth fall out because i don't have benefits, so a corporate system doesn't own me.

    in a few months my honeymoon will be over.. if i don't post anymore it means i am gone for good.

    --
    Goat sex free since 2001
  2. CDNOW Admits to Protection by johnstown · · Score: 4, Interesting

    CDNOW does mention the protection scheme in its synopsis of the CD. But they do call it a "ham-handed and unjustifiable response to the problem" of piracy.

  3. the sneaks! by Maditude · · Score: 5, Interesting
    This suit should be interesting to follow...
    "A large part of the suit is that Fahrenheit discloses none of this information on the packaging."

    My wife just bought a cd (arg! I can't remember the artist name, Toby sumthin-or-other, your basic country crapola [metal rules, imho]). Anyways, there was NO indication anywhere on the cd that it was copy-protected, but it absolutely could not be backed-up with ezcd (she likes the security and convenience of having copied-cd's for use in the car, and leaving the original at the house). After a couple of tries, I moved on to attempting to just rip the tracks to .wav files, which I would burn later -- not all of the tracks could be ripped, and the ones that DID, were full of static noise. Luckily, CloneCD didn't have any trouble at all.

    My point (having wandered a bit away from the original topic), is that more than one record company seems to be trying to sneak this sort of crap past consumers.
    1. Re:the sneaks! by FooDog · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Now this is a damn good point! I've had my car broken into TWICE and had some miscreant make off with all of my original, fully paid for, not burned off the computer CD's. After that I started making copies of every CD I BOUGHT (If anyone from the RIAA is reading this, please make special note of that last word. Here, I'll even spell it out real slow so you can understand it: B-O-U-G-H-T....) so that I could put the copies in my car. If they got stolen, I just make new ones. If someone breaks into my HOUSE and makes off with the originals, well, I probably have bigger problems. :)

    2. Re:the sneaks! by csbruce · · Score: 3, Interesting

      A web site should be set up, like "fuckedcd.org" or something, that maintains a registry of copy-protected CDs, so that consumers can find out what albums they should avoid buying. Maybe it could be called "fuckedrecordcompany.com".

  4. jury trial... by jeffy124 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I noticed at the very end of the complaint that a jury trial is requested. This is good because if that request is granted, it will mean that regular Joes and Janes will be the ones deciding this case, and juries have traditionnally tended to lean toward what they personally feel is right, not what is legally right.

    Natuarally the defendants will do everything hty can to block a jury and have just the judge.

    --
    The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
  5. Re:Summary not correct by Alan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You own the physical disk, and have the rights to listen to it. I think the issue in question is "what devices do you have the rights to listen to it on". According to what the RIAA is saying it seems you have the rights to listen to it on any "normal" CD player (home or computer or car or mobile).

    According to this company you do not have the rights to listen to it on ANYTHING but a home CD player. You aren't allowed to convert it to another form to listen to it (ie: rip to mp3 to play in my car mp3 player) and you have to register with them if you want to play it on a computer CD player.

    Since I got myself a MP3 CD player for my car the idea of being able to buy mp3s instead of CDs is stronger and stronger. I rarely listen to normal CDs anymore... why would I want a format where I can only fit 10-20 songs on a disk instead of 200+ songs?

    I'm interested to hear if this is a windows only thing or if a linux CD player would play the CD normally?

  6. Re:Summary not correct by saider · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I believe that the disc is corrupted by introducing errors into the error correcting sectors of the disk. Simple CD players simply average out the errors, but CD-ROMS require every bit to be properly reconstructed. With a fragged error correction sector, the CDROM is unable to reconstruct the data and reports an I/O error.

    I'm sure someone will hack some CD firmware eventually, but until then, just put bogus information into the computer. As I write this GWBush@whitehouse.gov is gettings tons of crap because that's the address I give to all these people who ask for personal information. I also live at

    1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW #101,

    Washington, DC 20500.

    Phone number? 202-456-1414.

    --


    Remember, You are unique...just like everyone else.
  7. Re:A little off by bigbadwlf · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A lot of Car CD players do the same thing... presumably to help prevent skipping.
    How will the record company offering a downloadable proprietary encoding of the music help someone listen to it in their car?

    I remember reading about this when they were planning it. I'm glad to see people aren't putting up with it.
    People who listen to Charley Pride are people like my mom... people who aren't exactly in the know.
    I'm sure they were counting on getting this 'technology' rolling at the expense of these people.

  8. file swapping by csbruce · · Score: 3, Interesting

    In other news, song swapping reached a record high level on the Internet in August as 3.05-billion files were swapped using various systems. The peak for the "Napster era" was 2.79-billion files, but, of course, the RIAA took care of that problem.

  9. The issues by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So far, we have been ABLE TO listen to CDs on our computers, etc. Whether this is a RIGHT that we obtain from purchasing a CD is an entirely different issue.

    The fact that you have been able to use CDs in this way up until now creates the expectation that this particular new CD (from the same manufacturer) can also be used in this way. The labeling does not do anything to correct the impression.

    So the CD violates the "implied warranty of servicibility and fitness" - for the purpose SHE intended when she bought it - and is thus a defective product. Because this was done deliberately, the company has DELIBERATELY shipped a defective product. There's lots of nice stuff in consumer law and case-law about that. B-)

    Further, if they put the CD logo on the case (I don't know if they did) it is being advertised as conforming to the Red Book standard - which it obviously does not if the error correction code is not correct. That would be false advertising as well.

    Could get VERY interesting.

    (IANAL)

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
  10. Don't Listen to Corp Music by LionKimbro · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Let me get this straight:

    1. A bunch of Equity Lords find some artist. They pay the artist a little bit of money ("Someone's recognized my talent!").
    2. Then they pay some money to a brainwashing company ("Marketting consultants").
    3. The brainwashing company indirectly pay money to radio stations to get their songs played. More recently, the brainwashing companies have been flooding the period just before a movie plays.
    4. You hear a whole spectrum of music, and talk with your friends about what you are all seeing and hearing on that spectrum.
    5. The Equity Lords have CD's and paraphanalia for you to buy, so that you can express your opinions about what is seen and heard.

    Now lately, they've added a new twist: They collect information on you when you try to play your CD.

    And then you claim to be deceived.

    If it's just now that you think you are being deceived, and that the only issue to you is that your CD has some sort of odd protection on it, I'd think that you were more deeply deceived than you think.

    Listen to free music. Go to MP3.com, or one of the other various music sites, and download good music. It'll take some sifting, but you'll find it; it's all there.

    Learn about propaganda. Learn how it touches your mind. Then steer the hell clear of it! Otherwise, expect more messes like the one you find yourself in.