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."

Comments

of course she's suing

[cheesebot]

she just doesn't want anyone to know that she bought a charley pride cd.

let's join the underground

[perdida]

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.

A little off

[Sawbones]

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.

Actually the suit says that they won't play in standard Audio CD drives in computers, not that the CD won't play in a stand alone CD player. I should hope that the music stores them selves would refuse to carry something that won't even play in a regular CD player.

Re:A little off

[bigbadwlf]

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.

Summary not correct

[Hieronymous Coward]

The letter makes no mention of the CD not working in normal audio players. Apparently the CD will not work in CD-ROM drives, but allows the user the ability to register with the record label and download a proprietary encoding of the song to play on their computer.

Re:Summary not correct

[garcia]

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.

Re:Summary not correct

[Alan]

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?

nope, sorry.

[garcia]

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.

No wonder no hacker has heard of this yet.

[ruebarb]

They're probably using this as a test for the RIAA...and they knew no hacker would try to break it cause no hacker would ever want to.

I can hear the sales committee to RIAA 6 months later.."See, our propritary technology hasn't been cracked - it's safe to implement for all CD sales...

Two weeks later...teenage munchkins find out they can't listen to Limp Bisquit and break the encoding...end of story.

Funny as hell...why Charley Pride? Covering Jim Reeves, no less?

CDNOW Admits to Protection

[johnstown]

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.

Re:Who the crap is Charley Pride?

[steevo.com]

Charley Pride can perform & sing.

He can perform both kinds of music... Country AND Western!

the sneaks!

[Maditude]

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.

Re:the sneaks!

[FooDog]

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. :)

Nice suit, but...

[Masem]

If you take a look at the last few lines of the linked article, and most the suit, in fact, it talks about how this is all falling under deceptive practices for not labelling the CD package as containing a non-standard CD format or having a privacy notice on the CD.

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.

Re:That will be short-lived

[ackthpt]

DIVX? I was under the impression that DIVX video discs where designed to play once or twice then fade and be unreadable. I don't recall that technology requiring any more input that a remote control.

Charley Pride, a long time country singer, is an ironic twist for this type of suit. I suppose, once she's entered her name, address, csz, country, birthdate, drivers license, ssn and given a blood sample, she'd be rewarded with a country/blues song, such as, "Got them Invaded Privacy Blues", "Someone exploited their server and is maxin' out credit cards in my name" or "Mrs. Brown of 2348 West Cloverleaf Drive, Wooster Massachusetts, 10112, USA, who drives a green '98 Ford Explorer and has iron poor blood, you've got a lovely daughter"

Easily fixed

[fobbman]

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".

Re:Easily fixed

[2nd Post!]

What happens when the manager pops the CD into a player and it doesn't work? As an example, many DVD player drives are stock EIDE drives with new faceplates. If, for example, the box the manager pops the CD into is, say, a DVD 5.1 boombox thing... it may not work after all.

The Most Challenging Thing...

[FFFish]

...in this lawsuit was, I'm sure, working up the gumption to admit that she actually bought a Charley Pride album. Shudder.

Don't own the CD?

[pq]

If I'm not mistaken you do not "own the CD" but purchased the right to listen to it on an audio device.

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...?

Package warnings

[bigdavex]

For the interested, the outside packaging of "A Tribute to Jim Reeves" says this:

This audio CD is protected by SunnComm MediaCloQ (TM) version 1.0.
It is designed to play in stardard Audio CD players only and is not intended for use in DVD players.
Licensed copies of all music on this CD are available for downloading.
Simply insert CD into your computer to begin.

On the inside, there's an insert that says this:

Thank you for purchasing Charley Pride's "A tribute to Jim Reeves." This product is protected with SunComm's MediaCloq (TM) Digital Content Cloaking Technology designed to prevent unauthorized duplication or distribution of Digital Original(TM) audio files. To listen to "A Tribute to Jim Reeves" on your computer,
1. Log on to the internet.
2. Once you have established your connection, insert cd
3. MediaCloQ (TM) will do the rest.

The issues

[Ungrounded Lightning]

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)

Don't Listen to Corp Music

[LionKimbro]

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.