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Universal to Copyprotect All CDs
angkor wrote in with a link to a story about how Universal Plans to
copyprotect all CDs which
will render them unplayable on Macs, DVD Players, PS2s, and some CD Players.
And it won't even stop people from ripping MP3s I bet.
Don't buy em.
Vote with your wallet. It's the only true voice you have in a capitalist society.
[)amien
I have a whole pile of CD's in the office, which I listen to on CD-ROM. Perfectly legal. If I can't expect to do this when I buy a new CD, then I'm simply going to stop buying new CDs.
It will be ripped.
ender-iii
Since I play all my CDs on my Powerbook, no more Universal CDs for me either. Oh fucking well!
sulli
RTFJ.
They won't ever make a pubicly available format that can't be cracked. Remember the DVD encryption distaster? Some one found out how to break it and posted the code on the net. It was eventually taken down but the damage was done. There are too many good crackers out there for any standard copy-protection to stand up over time. It will soon be cracked and the cd's ripped and the music will be uploaded to the net. Nothing new here, just another attempt on an old theme. Good scientists know, when you repeat the same exepriment under the same conditions, you (all others being equal) get the same results.
Slackware forever. Honestly, what else would you trust when it absolutely positively has to be stable, secure, and easy
I'd like to pay for my music, but I'm not going to buy a product I can't use!
Oh well, I don't like the music industry anyway... I've been listening to more non-mainstream music...
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
Au contrare!
If anything, any time I see a post on Usenet of Mp3's from a CD that is supposedly copy protected, the poster usually takes great pains to brag discuss the fact that he was able to rip despite copy protection.
Really, I think that even the record industry didn't expect the various copy protections to really work. What they're doing is building an easily hackable content protection system so that they can prosecute MP3 traders under the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Some blame the sour economy. Others point to lackluster sales of hotly anticipated new releases from artists like Mariah Carey and Macy Gray, and the glut of look-alike, sound-alike boy bands.
Why don't they just do what every other failure in the past 3 months has done and blame "the tragic events of 9/11"?
OK, so when I play it in my Discman, it's OK; (even if i go to Radio Shack and buy a couple bucks worth of cable, 'line in' to my sound card, and record)
But if I play it on a Sony CDROM drive in my computer, it's bad?
First, how *exactly* does it know? As my dad used to say, "A laser is just a laser".
Prepare for massive consumer backlash. Even if people don't want to ever "rip, mix, and burn" (thank you Apple 'Dont Steal Music' Computer) they want to listen to their CDs when and where they want to.
ZOMG I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS ON MACINTOSH VERSUS WINDOWS, VI VERSUS EMACS, AND HOW YOU'RE NOT A DORK
There you have it, instead of letting true musical diversity create authentic, viable fan bases, the music industry has locked itself into the failing practice of top-down music manufacturing...reminiscent of a Soviet state capitalism that never worked either.
Maybe one day when a free market for music exists again, people will care.
If you arrested all the people in the USA who have violated the drug laws (predominantly recreational drugs like pot), you'd end up arresting the number of people that make up arkensaw, texas, and colerado ... I wonder if Universal will find out just how many fans there are for some of their big name contracts, and I wonder if that number will surprise them. I also wonder if some artists will see this as a damaging move on their part, and request that their releases not be copy protected ...
"Old man yells at systemd"
If a CD won't play in some CD Players, then doesn't it violate the Red Book standard for CD Audio? If so, then how are they allowed to slap the Compact Disc Digital Audio logo on to them?
Sounds like ground for a class action lawsuit once they start to arrive.
-> Capt Cosmic <-
I think I will go out and buy this CD today at half a dozen stores or so...then return it. Retailers love going through this hassle, not to mention the cost to them of credit chargebacks.
Hey, here's an idea; list some bands CDs you won't buy if this happens. Note their record label. Compile a list - hell, just start listing them here!
Only when they see the kind of negative impact this will have on their sales will they abandon these silly strategies for boxing us out of owning music.
Expanding a vast wasteland since 1996.
If the copy protection scheme really makes the CD impossible to play on certain players, those owners may be forced to turn to "stolen" mp3s, increasing the number of people searching for and using napster alternatives. Doh!
Let's insure this prediction turns out to be untrue :-). I say we all make sure to buy and return this sucker, preferably in a coordinated effort targeted on a certain day...
What idiots... we long ago ceased being "customers" to them, now they just expect us to roll over and play dead. Forget that.
``They've been testing this in Europe and they're experiencing less than a 1 percent return rate from consumers. It really has turned out to be nothing,'' said Jerry Kamiler, TransWorld Entertainment's division merchandise manger. ``If we get the same results here, as I imagine we would, I don't think it's going to manifest itself into a consumer problem.''
It's a strange world -- let's keep it that way
They won't give up tilting at this windmill I guess. It's frustrating to watch a company make such a wrongheaded move. Yet it's also a move that will likely garner little bad press and few lost sales. And if they find any hint of success, everyone will do it. But what do you do?
It'll be interesting to see if this gets covered by mainstream press much.
Meanwhile, this topic has been absolutely battered here on Slashdot.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
Yes they will. Please read down to paragraph 5 before posting, thanks.
"Universal Music is the most aggressive in its anti-piracy efforts, saying that all of its CDs will be copy-protected by mid-2002."
However, I am fed up with this charade and I would like to end it once and for all. I have the paperwork in front of me to take Universal Records to small claims court to recover the purchase price of the CD. Since Universal is not based in my area, it will be very expensive for them to send their high-priced lawyers to my county to deal with the charges. And, worst case, I will lose the cost of the CD (and best case, I will get a refund on the CD and make a political statement at the same time).
I strongly encourage all of you to do the same thing: buy whatever CDs you want, and sue the record labels if they are copy protected. Even if most of the cases get thrown out, it will be *very* expensive for the labels to take any sort of action against the thousands of individuals who are suing them.
The RIAA has been able to manipulate the legal system into standing up for their rights. Why shouldn't we do the same thing back to them?
~wally
Universal won't be copy protecting all of their CD's.
What part of "Universal Music is the most aggressive in its anti-piracy efforts, saying that all of its CDs will be copy-protected by mid-2002." do you not understand?
That is a dirrect quote from the article that you claimed to have read.
"Remember, there never were pineapple-almond cookies here."
Universal expects to be copy protecting all its CDs by the end of 2002.
--
E_NOSIG
from the link: "Universal Music is the most aggressive in its anti-piracy efforts, saying that all of its CDs will be copy-protected by mid-2002."
"Remember, there never were pineapple-almond cookies here."
This smacks of the 6.02x10^23 different copy protection schemes employed by various games throughout the 80-90s. I remember all sorts of schemes from stupid (requiring a hidden file or special byte sequence at a certain address) to annoying (one of the wizardry series required you to type in a gibberish string from a 20 page booklet of gibberish strings. The annoying part was that the text was dark blue on a dark burgundy background and it was difficult to read in the best of light. But this also made it impossible to photocopy) and one by one they were cracked and scoffed at. The content (the game) still made it out into the open.
Unless the protection scheme's strength comes from the laws of science/nature (e.g. RSA) I think any scheme will be broken with enough time and CPUs applied to it.
it's not going to stop until you wise up, no it's not going to stop. so just give up.
My solution is to purchase $100 dollars worth of the CDs one day and return the next day as being defective because they don't comply with the Red Book standard. Universal said they would honor the refunds to the retailers. That would cost them more in the end than not buying the CDs in the first place. I think that's the best solution.
> Some blame the sour economy. Others point to lackluster sales of hotly anticipated new releases from artists like Mariah Carey and Macy Gray, and the glut of look-alike, sound-alike boy bands.
Someone please tell me that was intended as sarcasm. The only reason I've even heard of Mariah Carey is because Jay Leno spent two solid weeks ridiculing her overhyped movie.
And what could be more hotly anticipated than a new release from one of a glut of look-alike, sound-alike boy bands?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Don't settle for in-store-credit... Demand a full refund for 1 of two reasons...
1.) The thing is labeled as CD Digital Audio (CDDA), which is in violation of logo, because in order to be CDDA, it must be red-book compliant, (or whatever book it is), and this copy protected CD is most definately NOT compliant.
2.) The CD is "defective" because it is labeled as CDDA, but does not play in a CDDA compliant player, ie my DVD player, my computer, etc etc.
As long as mp3 trading services are around, it only takes one person to rip a CD and stay up on gnutella or whatever for it to get around.
So the real question is, right now, what % of CDs are first-generation rips? Since we all know that any CD like this can be ripped (even if with a loss of quality from going the DAC/ADC in the sound card), they will be ripped. And then they'll be traded. So who cares?
The other interesting question is whether something like cdparanoia (which, from what I've heard, rips these CDs) can be considered a circumvention device even though it existed independently of (and before) the copy-protection being circumvented. I presume this would guarantee that it had "substantial non-infringing use" or whatever the standard is that they measure it by, but I dunno.
-Rob Ewaschuk
I disagree and would be interested in seeing some figures to prove it beyond your opinion. As to wearing head phones looking unprofessional, tell that to 5 million call center or phone workers. Did you just make up your objection on the fly or are you trolling ??
I wish you would grow a brain, growing up has nothing to do with anything.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
From the article:
Universal told retailers that it would honor refunds on all returned discs -- even for CDs that have been opened.
This is great news. If you believe copy-protected discs are wrong, just buy one, open it, and return. In fact, buy 50 of them, open them all, then return them. If enough people do this, maybe Universal will get the message.
If you want to be even more eeeeeeeeevil, you could open it, rip it via line out, post the ripped tracks to newsgroups, then return it.
They asked for it.
--
For the book says, "We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us."
I almost always buy my CD's and then make legal copies in MP3 format... now if I can't do that I will be forced to download music for free and universal will lose the sale... I guess they want me to save money. Thanks!
If I go buy the CD and hack it, then I can make a copy, and take the CD back for a full refund :)
Sounds good to me.
But you wait, Wal-mart and others will start advertising that it won't work on all those devices and that once opened, cannot be returned just because it doesn't work on known hardware.
I doubt you can return the CD if it says "will not play on CD-ROM" on the cover.,
Unless you RECEIVED it as a GIFT. DUH.
.sig wanted: Must be concise, funny, and display my cleverness.
Buy them and return them, once at every record store in town. Buy some online and return those too. Smack 'em with refused credit card payments for defective merchandise. Make a minor scene in the record store, and ask them to please warn future purchasers that it might not play in their device. (Then pull the clerk aside and apologize -- it's not their fault, after all)
What about the quality of the music that's being released? Did Universal, BMG, Sony, et al ever stop to wonder if part of the problem is that they're churning out bands that are carbon copies of each other? Do we really need more "boy bands" or breathy, heartbroken beauty queens? It's just like TV...as soon as Survivor became a hit, every network had to have a clone...but now that the market is saturated, ratings are terrible.
Oh, and what about the economy? I'll bet that if you're one of the million or so high tech workers who doesn't have a job anymore, buying the latest Brittany Spears CD is probably way down on your list, below, say groceries!
Piracy is always an easy card to play, and not just for the music industry. It's a whole lot easier it blame some kid with a ripper, a burner and a fast Internet connection for destroying their market than it is to realize that the industry itself, by churning out disc after disc of bubble gum flavored dreck, is killing itself.
-h-
Most junk CD players just blindly read the data off the CD-ROM and fead it to the DAC.
Higher end CD players as well as CD-ROM drives, actually perform some type of Error Correction as it reads the data. A CD-ROM does this, because it must read the data correctly, or its useless as data storage. High end CD players do this, to correct for scractches, dust, etc etc.
Copy-protected CD's have deliberate errors in the error correction, so that the CD-ROM drive and high end CD-Players will think it just read unrecoverable errors.
When you are forced to use the line-in on your sound card the signal had to go through a DAC and ADC. Both introduce error and your resulting MP3 isn't as clean.
At this point, I'm tempted to get a Sony Mini-Disc player and record with it. Since my stereo CD player uses digital output and the MD recorder using digital input, I won't be losing as much.
there's a whole bucketload of ignoramii who won't hear about this unless we tell them.
SPREAD THE WORD. Evangelize at your local record store. Bring it up in conversation. Dangle CDs from your car mirrors and prepare a 10-second explanation that you can deliver at stoplights. Tell your aunt blabbermouth, make sure she's got the facts straight, then let gossipnet take over.
Unfortunately, phenomenon like Napster and the ease of `ripping and burning' are causing artists and record companies real harm...
Will someone please show this lady an episode of MTV Cribs?
In Germany alone, one survey by market researcher GfK found that blank CD sales jumped 129 percent this year. Purchases of pre-recorded music dropped 2.2 percent in the same period.
What a bizarre and useless statistic. What's the point? I can't even begin to comprehend. Okay, for one thing, CDRs are much cheaper than CDs. The popularity of CDRs is rising, while pre-recorded music has been around for decades. Another thing, how do they know what people record on them, or if they've recorded on them at all? I've got stacks of blank CDRs to back up files. If I make a music CD it's from music that I bought on a regular CD.
I think they ought to compare the sale of bread to the sale of pre-recorded CDs. I bet they will find a real "disturbing trend".
Donate money to the EFF. I was listening to an episode of "Off the Hook", and they had two people from the EFF speaking. They said that comsumers will see more an more of these types of resrtictions in the coming years. You're going to see a change in the culture of how we "own" CDs, DVDs and other forms of entertainment. Hollywood and the RIAA will dictate to you just how you can view/listen to their product.
This is an uphill battle, but there's no better time to start than now.
I don't know about the rest of the /. crowd, but I own about 150 CDs and roughly 160 records (vinyl). If 1% of my music was defective, I'd STILL be irate. Of course, I'm the type of person who will stop shopping at a store, will dispute a credit card transaction, or call the BBB if a company pisses me off, so I suppose I'm in the minority.
Let's be realistic: all copy protection can be circumvented. There are BASIC programs like vsound for Linux which snarfs /dev/dsp to a .wav file as sound is written to it. If someone wants to get around the protection, they can. Line out -> Line in and you're done. It's not rocket science. You can buy boxes to circumvent VHS copy protection - does anyone actually believe this will stop people?
Frankly, if I can't rip tracks and make my own CDs, you can damn well bet those CDs WILL be returned.
So, this could be a very effective strategy for dealing with record companies. With hundreds of lawsuits coming from different directions, they won't bother appearing in court and they will lose every case - making copy protection economically infeasible.
-sting3r
Just as soon as I pay my stack of traffic tickets. ;)
Seriously tho, I didn't think about this. The defendant has to appear in the court where the case is brought, which depends on the plaintiff's location. Muahahaha.
Sony advertises its Playstation 2 as a CD/DVD player, and owns some of the studios that may be releasing the copy protected CDs. In fact, there has already been the whole flap over the Michael Jackson single that they released with the copy protection. (acording to the article)
IANAL, but wouldn't that open them up to some sort of legal action, since they also sell some of the devices that get broken by this?
"Remember, there never were pineapple-almond cookies here."
They state that more CDR's have been sold than new CD's. Yeah, no shit. Not every one of those CDR's is used to pirate music. On the last 25 disc spindle I bought:
One compilation CD (free use. Now piss off Hilary)
One MAME cd (Okay, so Sega and the gang can get po'ed, but I actually have some of these games)
One "abuse the high speed connection at work CD" (patches and game demos. Got them at work before I had a cable modem at home)
3-5 Multiple place CD's (I copy some service packs and driver disks for work. We have three locations. Easier to have the CD's at each office than it is to pull the files over the WAN)
12+ Linux/BSD cd's. Yup, this is excessive, but I was switching distros, so tried out a few.
No copies of CD's!!! So what's your freakin' point?
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Karma Whore alert:
Remember, don't buy and return from the indy and/or mom-and-pop shops. Buy and return from Circuit City, Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, etc. (The bonus with buying from Amazon is that if they don't identify the offending CD, you might be able to get them charged with mail fraud)
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
It's not lyrics - I code mostly to certain types of music, Bach's Brandenburgs and Metallica's ...And Justice for All album are two good examples. They both are very similar in that they "fade and frame"... I tend to take "One" out of the playlist, as it doesn't fit the rest of the album. Buddy Holly, James Taylor and Lords of Acid's Voodoo U album all do the same thing, but that's partially because JT is burned into my brain, and I don't follow the songs *as* songs anymore. Something like a new album that I haven't listened to, or Captain Beefheart, Queen or Nick Cave is impossible to have in the background... they distract.
I wery much notice that my brain treats music differently... as something to listen to, or something that frames thought. Also, if I'm preparing a cover (as in, learning to play a song on guitar/ sing it), that song enters a third mode of listening, and all the different parts of the song seperate out and I can't really pay attention to anything in front of me, especially anything visual - to the point that someone can do something and I won't see it.
So, to treat "music is bad" as a rule for everybody is stupid. I code significantly better than silence when listening to Baroque, and significantly worse than silence when listening to Showtunes. Same for just about anything involving concentration - I can read with some kinds of music and get distracted by others.
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
I just called that number per Fat Chuck's instructions and they're telling me that they don't have precise rules on clear labelling for CD's and stuff like that. They tell me they mainly handle other household appliances like fridges, heaters, and even clothing.
The lady gave me another phone number for california/los angeles area:
213 974 1452
errm.
Extraordinary Vacations. Exceptional Prices
Universal Music is the most aggressive in its anti-piracy efforts, saying that all of its CDs will be copy-protected by mid-2002. The other big labels are also experimenting with various technologies.
Any next-term strategy characterized by the word 'saying' is far from living up to the word "plans". They're announcing that they're introducing one copy protected CD into the American market, so you could legitimately claim that they plan to release one. They've announced a press release 'saying' that by 2002 all their CD's will be copy protected - though they don't specify the method, or whether it will be anything like their trial balloon. I would at best characterize that as a "trial balloon", or maybe an "announcement", maybe even a "threat". But a plan? Considering that they don't even have artists on board, characterizing that remark as corporate strategy in my mind falls way short of the mark.
Perhaps I should have rambled on more when originally posting, without assuming this was obvious. Trusting the recording industry to actually do anything but what they've announced they're doing at the moment is not a habit I've been able to form.
But that wouldn't have given you an excuse to flame me, and honestly I think we could all deal with some more of that.
--
What happens when you outlaw guns
In a world where people are willing to take a book and OCR scan it, page by page, into a text file so that they can post it on usenet, the efficacy of any scheme that allows you to actually use the media involved is questionable.
The amount of sheer non-laziness evident in such behavior seems a massive disincentive to spending the billions required to design and implement protection.
Oh, and I'm sure the go-juice for all of these highly expensive endeavors comes directly from the artists' pockets.
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
I think you just wish you made as much money as us.
Furthermore, my productivity INCREASES when my headphones are on, I don't get distracted by the noise of the office.
I'm the big fish in the big pond bitch.
The recording companies and the RIAA just do not realize that they are hurting themselves. Let them issue copy-protected, encrypted CDs. Let them disenfranchise the average record purchasing consumer. Let them continue to strive for the perfect monopoly over the copyrights they own.
And when the RIAA and the recording industry has succeeded at this, they will realize that the piracy is still rampant, and the consumer is not responsible for that piracy. Rather than go after the "mega-pirates" and mass producers of illegal CDs, they choose to fight the very people they wish to have as customers.
While there are many stupid consumers, they are becoming less and less technology ignorant as time goes on. The more technically saavy consumers there are, the less those consumers will tolerate the inability to use the music or video they have legally purchased as they see fit.
"If copies are outlawed, then only outlaws will have copies." If the industry thinks the piracy is bad now, wait until every audio or video CD or DVD can't be copied.
Seriously, as an iPod owner, if I end up buying any of these CD's, I won't just return it, I'll send an E-mail to Apple saying that iTunes and my iPod is now useless for me because it won't let me use any new cd's.
After all, hell hath no fury like a pissed-off Steve.
I know this a troll, but I have to respond, if only to make the relevant counterpoint. I do listen to music at work. I have (nearly) my entire CD collection encoded as MP3s on one of my computers (the dual G4) at work, and set into a half dozen playlists. There's the debugging playlist, the speedhacking playlist, the algorithm design playlist, the interface design playlist, the asm hacking playlist, and the paced hacking playlist. Yes, they do pace me correctly for each of the above tasks. Yes, the speedhacking playlist is mostly speed metal and german techno. I'm severely ADD, non hyperactive, and even medicated, I can't focus without the music. I don't have it on when interfacing with customers or coworkers, but it effectively doubles my productivity having the music pumping through my headphones into my hindbrain. And believe me, I do not have a no-brains-required job. And I don't exactly look unprofessional when prospective customers are around. The headphones are discreet, and my desk is clean except for the four monitors, phone, soda, kleenex, and whatever papers, books, or notepads I am currently using. I wear professional clothes when customers are in town, and casual elsetimes. I'm currently working as a coder, damnit, not a salesman! As for nerf guns, no thanks. I paddle canoes in my spare time, and wouldn't mind getting the crew out on a paintball field on weekends, if so many of them didn't have young children, but this is no foozeball office. So why does it have a half dozen (out of sixteen) geeks with music pumping into their brains? Well, we're a genius heavy company, and there's a high correlation between intelligence and input/impulse driven thought... it's often looked to as the neurological basis of epiphany, among other things... so with a high intelligence crew, I'd say a pro-music policy is a good thing.
Fortunately, a most of the best stuff out there, for what I use it for, is not distributed by Universal and Co.
-- Still waiting for the Nike endorsement
Am I wrong in assuming that people with high
end audio equipment are those who are most likely
to buy lots of CDs? Now many members of the RIAA are putting out a products that are potentially incompatible with many high end CD players.
Both my roomate and myself have high end CD players
in our cars. It is fairly aggrivating to know that there is a possibility that our CD players might
not work with new CDs. Does the RIAA actually
expect me to go and spend hundreds of dollars to
replace my current CD player with a new model?
Sure, we're not running to the store for the latest
Backstreet Boys, or Brittney Spears album... but I bet that we buy on average more CDs per year than the average consumer.
The thing is that I _know_ that just like everything else out there that was supposed to
prevent piracy, this nonsense will be cracked in due time. To listen to music I bought legally, I'll probably be forced to use a crack rip a CD to MP3, and then recopy it onto a CD-R that will work in my car. Mind you the copy will be of inferior quality, and that I've just violated the DMCA in doing that.
Yes, that is right, to listen to CDs I bought legally, I'm going to have to violate a law anyway.
Case in point... this sort of BS is probably going
just INCREASE piracy. Do they think that I'm going
to PAY MONEY for a defective CD?
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
I'm a musician, have been for 14 years. I have zero respect for the music coming out today, very little of it is professional at all.
What happened to the Bob Dylans, the Tom Pettys, the Beattles of the world? Bands in those days stood for something, wrote real music and were deserving of the praise they got.
The music industry has sold out like the professional sports industry, paying higher and higher dollar figures to this weeks glam and pop queens/kings.
I have no interest at all in any music I heard on the radio on my way into work this morning. Not one song stood out as something I would buy let alone collect like I would with some old Doors records or some Credence Clear Water Revival.
The industry is in dire need of a revolution. Like when the Beattles broke out on to the scene, they literally exploded. They started a whole new trend, rocked the foundation of our society. Same applies with the Doors, Led Zepplin, The Who.
I want someone to strike a cord in me like Bruce Springstien. I want to hear someone who can communicate with me on an intellectual level like Paul Simon.
Hell, Poison and Motley Crue had more style and talent than the bands that are out today. Everyone on the rock side wants to be Limp Bizkit, everyone in rap wants to be Puff Daddy and everone in pop wants to be Britney or NSYNC.
I'm disgusted with music today. I'm sick of it and I'm not going to take it anymore.
-todd
I am not posting this for you or any of slashdot's need to see this info. This is strictly so that the Hilary Rosen RIAA-bot can see these numbers, understand why I'm so fucking upset with all this new copy-protection crap that goes completely against the consumer's wishes (the "customer is always right" no longer applies I guess), and formally state that I will not buy any Universal CD's with copy-protection on them, until it has been removed, or until an easy plugin for a computer program is made that circumvents the copy-protection completely. (I'm sure there are such plugins, I just haven't had the need to go find them for music CD's up until now).
P.S. I forgot to mention that one CD copy I have of my favorite group, the 77's, has been an out-of-print CD for some time now ("Pray Naked"). I burned a copy from a friend who still had it because my original copy was stolen from my car about 5 years ago. I would still pay upwards of $25 for a good condition original CD w/ Jewel case, but alas, it's a hard to find item, even on Ebay. Now you tell me, do I sound like I'm trying to get every CD I have for free, or maybe I just don't like paying for shitty NSync and Britney Spears drivel, and would rather try-before-I-buy?
Oh yes, and while you're at it, Hilary, why not cut out the kickback system you have in place with all the radio stations? I hear so much boring, repetitive music from uninspiring bands on the radio stations in this town that it's just silly. It's no wonder I get most of my interesting music over the internet in so-called 'pirated' mp3 form.
Here's what I sent them...
Today I read about the upcoming "copy protected" CDs that Universal plans to distribute because as Hilary Rosen claims: "the ease of `ripping and burning' are causing artists and record companies real harm."
I still haven't seen any research on artists losing revenue due to mp3 trading or creating backups. (Please reply with any information you might have that would prove me wrong.) The real harm to artists, and especially record companies, will come from the consumer backlash. I plan to boycott all such modified CDs that don't allow me to play music in my car, playstation and macintosh, or make backups and mp3s to play in my portable devices. I will also endeavor to educate my friends and family about these greedy tactics that attempt to fatten the distribution companies' bottom line at the expense of consumer's fair use rights.
I think you'll find that the consumers will veto Universal's proposal with the votes contained in their wallets. The landscape of music distribution is changing, and for some reason the major labels can't find the roadmap.
vote with your $$$ -- don't buy crippled CDs.
That being said, I think there is also a fundamental problem with the way people tend to be exposed to music now days. Getting a fresh sound from MTV? Good luck. The vast majority of radio stations are also pushing this crap. I think we're all sort of the victim of the big corperation here. For people who don't know where to find "different" music, they're exposure/choices are rather limited.
Pretty much! Since I can no longer play legally purchased CD's, I am now FORCED to the filesharing services.
It also mentions WHERE you can get it:
So I did a quick lookup on cdnow.com and it appears the CD is being released today (Dec 18)
Here is my suggested plan of action:
- Go to Coconuts or another respective music retailer.
- Specifically ask the clerk for Fast & Furious -- More Music
- Immediately purchase the CD. - Walk outside.
- Unwrap the CD, throw away shrink-wrap (this is key, I'll explain in a bit.)
- Maybe even perform a little cosmetic damage on the jewel case (nothing serious, a scratch here or there, dog, cat, or even human saliva can really add to the effect.)
- March back into the aforementioned retail store.
- Furiously demand a refund.
- Receive refund.
By taking the shrink wrap off of the CD case and roughing the case up, you force Coconuts to pay some clerk to re-package, and/or possibly send back the product.
So my point is this: The more time Coconuts or whatever retailer spends on dealing with your refund situation, the less patience they will have when dealing with similar situations. The less patience they have with similar situations, the less likely they are going to advocate CD-crippling.
Go do your job, fellow fair-use advocates (remember that concept?) and return a Fast + Furious CD today.
--Fred
"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American Public." - H.L. Mencken
ion. I used the plural "mirrors" to indicate that but I guess additional clarification was needed. Yes, I know CDs dangling from the inside mirror are dangerous and illegal. A friend of mine got an "obstructed view" ticket for his fuzzy dice. It was thrown out after he showed the judge 18 Polaroids of larger decorations hanging inside the city's cop cars.
Simple.
Uncle Sam sent me to the Persian Gulf, and all I got was this lousy Syndrome!
Back in July, BMG caused an uproar over the bugs in its copy-protect scheme which rendered many CDs unplayable. Even given Universal's generous promise of unquestioned returns, this latest attempt to copy-protect seems likely to generate a lot of resentment.
It would be interesting to know what kind of copy-protect they're devising that results in such profoundly "unplayable" CDs. Some of the major players attempting to win the early lead in the copy-protection tech field include TTR Technologies and Midbar Tech.
CD Media World discusses how to create a copy-protected CD. Personally I wouldn't want to, but I think it's interesting to see the business maneuverings and keep abreast of the technological tricks they're trying out on us.
ancarett, historian and zombie gamer
The only reason to be so adamant about stopping people from making MP3s is fear of losing money due to piracy. However, I've read before that the music industry actually saw sales increase during the time Napster was becoming popular. Whether or not it was due to the MP3 fad is debatable, but alienating your customers by giving them a product that ties their hands while they use it seems doesn't seem like the answer to me. I know I won't be buying any of these CDs and I'm willing to bet enough other people will be unwilling to buy these CDs that it will make a noticeable dent in sales. In addition, the people who are into pirating on a scale large enough to effect the music industry will only see this as a fun challenge to overcome.
Being able to prosecute under the DMCA should lead to some interesting cases. Organized groups of CD pirates will probably have a hard time defending themselves, but issues of consumer rights will be out in the open at every step of the way to chip away at the validity of the DMCA. What happened to fair use such as being able to make backup copies? Should the license we buy to listen to these CDs (since we don't actually own anything anymore), be able to tell us what hardware we can and cannot play the music with? Many people are using devices that these CD will not play on and will become annoyed when they find out they can only listen to certain music in certain rooms of their homes. And these people will be subject to prosecution simply for trying to get past technology that forces them to listen to music in the living room instead of on their computers while they work or in their MP3 compatible CD player in their car. I'm not so sure the American consumer will be as willing to be jerked around as the music industry hopes.
I don't think it's illegal to be so stupid as to release 2 of your own products, one supposedly able to read the other, that don't work together.
To be really illegal, Sony would have to claim that the PS2 works with all music CDs (or advertise in such a way as to make anyone reading believe it), and claim that a CD works with PS2 when in fact that CD doesn't.
You can tell most of these people have never used a computer or played an MP3 and have no clue about how the world really works. Vivendi Universal USA whatever would be better off hiring a street smart kid with no business experience to run its companies than some ivory tower MBA executive who has never touched a computer or purchased a $19 CD at K Mart.
== Paul Rickard, Editor of The Microsoft Boycott Campaign ====
Okay everyone, I spent some time out at the Universal Music Group section of the Universal Music Studios website, and there's a fairly hefty list of music labels in this group.
Just saying you won't buy from Universal isn't enough. Here's the list I found:
A&M Records
Decca Record Company
Deutsche Grammophon
Geffen Records
Interscope Rercords
Island Def Jam Music Group
Jimmy and Doug's Farmclub.com
MCA Nashville
MCA Records
Mercury Records
Motown Records
Phillips
Polydor
Universal Records
Verve Music Group
I also went through their list of artists, and saw a shocking number of artists that I either currenly own CD's from, or want to purchase some or all from their discography.
My next quest is to find landmail addresses for all the record labels *and* the Universal Music Group, plus the RIAA, as well as the artists of UMG's that I listen to, and start writing a lot of letters stating my disappointment at what they're planning to do, and how it stands to completely wreck my ability to purchase and enjoy their music.
I don't have a "regular CD player". Not _one_. The CD player in my car is based on CD-Rom drive technology. I listen to my music on my computer, or I pipe the audio out straight to the stereo and listen on the big speakers. I listen to my headphones at work while I do my design documents, and that's to MP3's I ripped from CD's that I purchased.
Frankly, their decision sucks if they want me to keep purchasing music from their group. Simple as that.
There are several people who browse submissions, and they all have totally separate brains. This also explains duplicate posts.
__
Do ya feel happy-go-lucky, punk?
I have said it before, and I will say it again. The music companies just don't get it! If the music quality was better, maybe people wouldn't mind paying $16USD to $20USD per cd, but the music quality _SUCKS_. Let's face it, Britney Spears wouldn't have made it in the 80s (if she was her current age now back then). She'd have to dress conservatively.
If the music companies want to lower piracy, _LOWER_ _THE_ _PRICE_ _OF_ _THE_ _CDS_. (Maybe if it is in all caps any record execs reading this will actually wake up.) The increase in piracy can be directly related to the increase in cd prices (and the poor quality of the music--note the sound quality might be good, but that doesn't make the music good quality music!). If you want to stop the piracy lower the prices to $10 or less! The record compaies CANNOT win this fight. Piracy will continue and will only increase. File sharing is up since Napster tookit's hit. The Music Companies need go back to college and retake (or just take) economics 101!
To the Music Companies:
STOP FIGHTING THE PIRACY WITHYOUR LAWYERS AND TECHNOLOGISTS. START FIGHTING IT WITH ECONOMICS--LOWER THE PRICE.
At the next eco-hypocrisy-meeting, count the private jets used to get to the meeting. Should be interesting to see that
The other part of the boycott ( besides not buying the product ) is letting the company know *why* you are not buying the product. This can be done individually ( via email, postal letter, phone call ) or publically ( via various news media, such as this, and other news sites ).
---
Segmentation Fault ( core dumped )
It seems obvious that the CD medium is a gaping hole in the recording industry's business model.
By making CD's that don't always play, they will turn people against CDs as a whole. It's looks like a standard FUD tactic.
Soon they'll introduce a 'better' medium with more capacity, other hype, and a player that is under industry control, like DVD without the security hole.
It's all a waste, people seem to like MP3's just fine. I don't like the quality myself, but I have no problem with the quality of sampled analog. A standard quality MP3 is no worse when ripped from analog than from a cdda track, and it's just a tiny bit more work.
They can kill CD's, and they will, but they can't kill the LINE OUT jack!
But the whole point of stoping joe listener from copying his cds is to make sure his friend buys a copy also. If the record industry produces CDs that joe listener can listen to in the first place, he will return it AND his friend won't buy a copy. And the retail store complains about the returns. In the end, the record company is much worse off than if they had done nothing. They are shooting themselves in the foot.
Almost every computer game used to come with annoying copy protection schemes. When legit buyers can't play their game, they complain. How many code wheels are still around? The companys learned it was worse overall if they used protection that caused problems for legit users.
Uninnovate - Only the finest in engineering.
If you do find yourself in the situation where you bought a broken CD and the store would not give you a refund, do up a simple flyer and hand them out to people entering the store. Explain to them that they should be very cautious about what they buy, because there's no guarantee the CDs they buy will work on their CD players, and if they don't, the store will not cooperate in giving a refund.
If enough people did this, at enough record stores, maybe the stores would vote with their wallets for us. I don't know if there are any legal issues in doing this, but it is free speech after all, and we might as well use it while we still have it.
Jason.
I never understood why most DVD's are the same price as CD's now. I can get BASEketball from Fry's for 14 buck, but it costs me 17 bucks to get the new Rob Zombie CD that only has 11 songs on it.
Lets look at the specs.
BASEketball DVD
1) 2 hours long
2) High quality video AND audio
3) Sturdy case with brief guide to chapters etc..
4) Movies cost a hell of a lot more to make than albums
Now Rob Zombie CD
1) 60 minutes long not counting the 5 minute pause between House of 1000 Corpses and the hidden song after it
2) Very breakable case that came from amazon pre-cracked for me.
3) High quality audio NO video
4) Took Rob Zombie all of a few weeks to record in a studio
Just why do CD's cost so much anyway? I can't see any logic in it at all.
Ripping one of these new disc's is more of a nuisance than non-protected disc's, but it's still very easy.
What you'll need are the following two pieces of hardware: a stand-alone cd player with digital output (either coax or optical), and a sound card, such as the Audigy Plantinum, that supports digital input.
With those two items, it is very easy to just hit play and record to make a perfect digital copy of the CD. End of story.
So a label has announced that it will cripple all of its CDs... Did they announce that they will be cutting their prices in half to make up for the decreased functionality? I doubt it. So now all Universal CDs are effectively more expensive because you get less for the same price. Where do these guys learn their economics, from drug dealers? Get people hooked on the "good" stuff, then cut down on the amount of actual product they get for their money...
The simple solution, as others have pointed out, is not to buy the crap. More than that though, don't buy anyone else's crap either. Don't buy any CDs, DVDs, e-books, etc. Don't go to movies, don't rent movies, don't order pay-per-view, don't subscribe to premium cable channels, or possibly even cable itself. Don't buy anything because of ads on TV, radio, or billboards, in magazines, etc. Cut back on consumer electronics purchases, buy only used books, don't go to sporting events. If you do buy anything, only buy it when it is so cheap that someone must be taking a loss somewhere. The only way to change things is to get the entire entertainment industry to rethink its business model. Otherwise, we will keep getting less value.
If that is too drastic a step for you, then return the CDs right after you buy them:
Universal told retailers that it would honor refunds on all returned discs -- even for CDs that have been opened.
We're in this mess because the entertainment industry is driven by maximization of profits through decreasing value and not by delivering quality products at reasonable prices. Through marketing and legislation, they have fought to preserve this flawed model, which will succeed as long as people remain mindless drones who buy anything someone is trying to sell them. Yes, I realize that there really is no hope...
by far the easiest thing in the world to do, providing you have a sound card in your pc, is to connect your cd player device's output cable into your sound cards input socket. Press play on your cd player device and record the incoming music to wav/mp3. voila, all security buypassed! This has been verified to work on 17 cds that are copy protected with the new measures. For as list of such cd's visit http://fatchucks.com/corruptcds/ Its a wonder who thinks of the security tricks for the music Industry.
I first went to Fatchucks to see which cd's are currently being copy protected.....
I then hopped on Morpheus (musiccity.com) and typed in the name of the album that was copy protected....
guess what?!
All the ones that I tried are there. So what does that tell you Mr. RIAA....?
www.slightlycrewed.com - Because aren't we all?
I'm calling the FTC as I post this message. This is getting out of hand and the FTC is supposed to be keeping an eye on this stuff for us. I think a nice /. response to the FTC might get some attention in this area.
FTC Consumer Response
1-877-382-4357
Press option 1 to talk to a conselor.
Info you need includes:
The name of the company - RIAA (Record Industry Association of America)
Company address - 1330 Connecticut Avenue N.W., Suite 300
Company city, state and zip - Washington, D.C., 20036
Company phone - 202-775-0101
They will also ask you for your contact information and the complaint. IMHO these "protected" CDs should be at the very least labled so that I know I'm not going to be able to use them in 75% of my hardware, and you know the retail chains aren't going to give you your money back.
Thanks to http://fatchucks.com/corruptcds for the info.
Dissenter
"There is no knowledge that is not power."
2 thing, a "logical" rant and a suggestion on the technological side:
[RANT]
After that they'll accuse people of being dishonnest downloading MP3s and burning CD-Rs to play the music.
What, now I will have to buy the album, pay tax on the album, pay RIAA tax, buy a cd-r, pay tax on the cd-r, pay RIAA extra tax on the media, then transferring the non-functionning CD to computer, lose quality, write the cd to cd-r so my sony player can work with it...and the steps goes on for every new cd bought.
I'm sorry but my vinil player still play vinil CDs, I don't see why I should be penalized as a consumer for all this crap. They should invest their money in a new buisness scheme that would make people buy more cds (I.E. offer them the compilation THEY want for the amazingly overpriced media for a start),
[/RANT]
While at it, if you're planning on changing the hardware altogether to make it compatible with your new format how about MAKING A NEW FORMAT that would make people jump on your new technology, you know, INNOVATION, that way you could introduce whatever crap you want on top of it for protecting your stuff, while being completely compatible with ALL players, that would be a win win situation for both you and the consumers. Something like DVD audio or whatever, more quality, better D/A components, more storage, better compilations, more for your money and more for the consumer.
Man.. if every buisness would act like you do, I'd probably wouldn't be able to read my 360K floppies on my good ol XT... (whisper, badsectors) oh wait...
--- Metamoderating abusive downgraders since my 300th post.
Hmmm.... you're seriously underestimating the cost base in large companies.
A company with a sufficiently large number of returns has to set up a reverse supply chain. This can mean new computer systems, managers, re-packaging equipment, procedures, lawyers etc. It costs a fortune, and even worse can take up valuable senior management time which cuts down their ability to react in the marketplace.
Therefore most companies don't bother. They take the return as a loss and/or sell returned product at a mark-down price. Plus there's the additional store and supply chain staff needed to physically handle the returns and issue refunds.
Believe me, returns hurt the bottom line either way.
Example: One retailer I worked at reckoned they lost 40-50% of the sale price for every item returned. This was more than their margin, so they most certainly made a loss. I don't think this is untypical.
Basically, if retailers started seeing a significant number of return on copy-protected CDs, they would start to worry, and start to ask questions. Their buyers (the reccord companiesw customers, remember?) will most certainly take action if their boss tells them to "sort out this returns problem with Universal CDs".
Basically, I think the returns option could work if you manabged to add a few percentage points to the return rate. Difficult given the number of sheep out there, but if enough people were willing to put the effort in......
I highly doubt they will put the CDDA logo on their CD's.
Its too bad they are doing this, because the likely outcome is that people will rip to MP3 using an analog method, and then return the CD whereas before they probably would have kept it.
The RIAA continues to prove its incompetence in dealing with the digital age.
No, Thursday's out. How about never - is never good for you?
In Germany alone, one survey by market researcher GfK found that blank CD sales jumped 129 percent this year. Purchases of pre-recorded music dropped 2.2 percent in the same period.
This year in the US, the sale of matchs went up 57% indicating that teenage smoking is up over 200%.
For those that didn't get my example. How does that percent of blank CD sales mean anything as far as "pre-made CD" sales goes. People use blank CDs for all sorts of things. I have friends who make backups of there applications on CD once a day, 7 days a week. So, a spool of CD-Rs can go pretty quickly.
Back to the article. This is a difficault thing to stop, even telling retailers you won't be shopping there for the holidays doesn't work as expected. There are still a ton of dumb people out there that will buy an "approved CD player" if need be. Its only a matter of time until someone figures out a way to rip from theses.
How will computer hardware vendors handle this one. Think of the number of returns over something this simple. Personally, to make a point. I would force them to accept the return and give me my money back.
until (succeed) try { again(); }
If Disney has a "Head of Government Relations", you can bet your sweet ass that Micros~1 has one too.
Most Artists are not that technically inclined. Most of them are not even that business savvy. This is evident that most of them are overjoyed just to 'have a contract' despite the fact that they will almost certainly be screwed over by this contract when their fifteen minutes of fame are up.
I have this mental image of a giant RIAA stable where prime cuts of meat like Britney Spears, *NSYNC, Jennifer Lopez, and Ricky Martin are kept like birds in guilded cages. So long as they keep laying golden eggs for their sleazy masters, they're kept comfortable, happy, and warm. Just as soon as they stop producing, however, they are sent to the slaughter so that the machine can soak up every last bit of wealth that can be squeezed from their pores.
Disney has a similiar stable where they keep the Olsen twins, Brendon Frasier, and a host of other people who would be better off in the long run working a 9-5 job.
Sure, it's a little bit exaggerated, but not by much. This is the process that has produced the obvious mental cases like Michael Jackson and Stevie Nicks. It's the process that let individuals like Rick James become utter human wastes in a way that normal people would never be able to afford.
Yet still, every garage band's ultimate hope is to 'Get a Contract'.
*sigh*...
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Since Apple has been running "Rip. Mix. Burn." ads for some time, Apple ought to make their CD drives and software read and error-correct these things. In fact, if they don't, Apple could be sued for false advertising, since they're directly advertising a use for their product that it can't do.
Forget small claims court, at least for now.
Call your local investigative TV reporters and consumer advocates and explain how Best Buy sold you a bum CD and won't remedy the situation. Tell them that you want to warn others about this problem - or there will be a lot of even-more-angry-than-usual teenagers this Christmas.
If you want to be really nasty, print up some flyers and hand them out at the front door. Tell the TV stations when you will be there, and insist that a real cop (not a rent-a-cop) is the one who tells you that you must stand on the sidewalk 1.2 miles away instead of immediately in front of the store... but don't push it too far.
(Why do you think these big chains like "big box" architecture? That parking lot is all private property and they *can* eject from the parking lot, but not from adjacent sidewalks. Since many of the lots don't have adjacent sidewalks, they'll claim you have to stand in the street. The city cops, on the other hand, will know (or can find out) where local law allows you to protest when commercial property does not have a safe sidewalk.)
A good time for this would be this Saturday afternoon - peak pre-Christmas rush.
As others have pointed out, the CD producer did not sell you the defective product, your local store did. They also don't have as much to lose as the local store - if you can get the media involved (and make it clear that you aren't trying to rip off anyone, just play the damn CD some stock equipment) you might not just get your money back, you might force BB (and other merchants) to consider banning all "copyprotected"/unplayable CDs because a single refused return may cost a *lot* of bad PR.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
I worry about this because I basically see three scenarios:
1. Complete RIAA victory (we do our ripping by decoding to analog an re-digitizing). This would be an absolute nightmare. Please, people, don't present this as a "solution"--it is cowardly surrender.
2. Music becomes like warez: Perfect digital duplication is feasible only with some cracking skill and/or special equipment (like a CD player with a digital out, souncard with a digital in). Several elite CD cracking groups spring up all over the world, and when they manage to make perfect rips of a CD, they encode "canonical" MP3s, and distribute them through all the regular channels with fairly high quality. This wouldn't be so bad, but I worry that these good rips would be diluted with crappy analog ones, or deliberately defective MP3s seeded by the suits to polute the pool.
3. There is an easy (though illegal-in-DCMA-land) ripping program that restores the sound from the CD in software. Then, things would go back to the way they are now, except MP3 traders would be breaking two laws instead of one. Only if 3 comes to pass will I even consider buying a copy-protected CD. (One observation about the illegality: you're not writing illegal software if the software is intended to make the new disks playable on a computer. I figure that making them CD-ROM playable and making them rippable go hand in hand.)
So my question is, how close are we to 3? How realistic it?
To adapt an apropos headline from another site:
Attention Universal: There is a Fat Lady at the door who wants to sing for you.
This is more gasping from a great giant that is slowly falling. It may take them years to do so, and they won't cease to exist when they fall apart, but the core of this industry is collapsing.
Why? Just my opinion. I and many of my friends are in a significant target demographic group for the music industry. But I bought my last cd more than a year and a half ago, with the sole exception of a $20 gift certificate I got from work. I don't see anyone at work under the age of 30 buying cds. I've spent somewhere between $500-800 on Xmas gifts for family and friends this year, and I have bought precisely -zero- music items. Why not? The question would be better posed as "why?" When there are so many avenues of free access to music on the internet, as well as ways to appease one's conscience, why would I or anyone else choose to buy a unit of music that is grossly overpriced, physically limited, contains material I don't want, and benefits the artist only minimally? And frankly, my friends and family don't want to get the damn things for Xmas.
Music cds are quickly approaching irrelevance. Most folks I know have some easy way of accessing MP3s. Even my Luddite relatives from central Washington get one of their friends to burn a cd full of mp3s and pop it into their dvd player. The receptionist at work (the one who opens all of the email trojans) gets her Tony Bennett fix from a friend in AZ who mails her a new recorded cd every month. And me? I vote with my dollars -- I'm spending my former-recorded-music budget on seeing live stuff locally.
Give it up, folks. The Fat Lady is already into the Imbroglio, and quickly approaching the Finale Ultimo.
Jon
I think not...(*poof*)
Universal gives fuckall about small shops that simply carry their product. A friend of mine owns a small record shop (which will remain nameless) in southeast Michigan. He's been told numerous times that until he is reporting to Soundscan they will not support him in any way with posters, promos, anything that will help him sell music. It seems that Universal is simply interested in creating market share, not selling music, and they will use any little store to do so. You also need to remember that the difference between a large store like Virgin and a small store is the owner. A small store where the owner puts in 12 hour days 7 days a week doesn't have the same interest that the VCs starting up a place like Virgin do. The Virgin folks are (above all) interested in making money via their buisness, which happens to be a retail music enterprise. Most small shops are owned and run by owners who love the music enough to try and make a life out of it, whatever they can make. Most small stores don't turn a profit for two to three years, if they are even around that long. Reasons like those are why you should look favorably on independant buisnesses standing up to the corporate machine, even if they do have to sell some of their product to survive. It's turning the machine against itself. -Steve
Check out the Wired article on the workshop. Preston Padden, head of government relations for Disney, is quoted as saying :
This from the company that bought off the politicians to change the law in the 90s and so prevent Mickey Mouse going out of copyright in 2004. This from the company that appropriates others' intellectual property and claims it as their own (Snow White, Aladdin, Christmas Carol, countless others). They are thieves and liars.
Note that not a single work has gone out of copyright in the US since the first world war. If the corps get their way, nothing will ever go out of copyright again. We will still have a culture, but you'll need to purchase a license to partake of it.
My next sig will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush
Great, if they make it so that I can no longer rip CD's, then they'll never get another dime from me. This isn't because of some active decision to be a political dissenter, but rather because I don't listen to CD's anymore. I buy them and use them as masters for ripping to MP3 which is what I actually listen to.
Actually, this isn't really true, because my desire to hear new music won't fade. So, what will likely end up happening is that I'll still rip CD's and take the legal risk (which will be fairly minimal given that there will be millions of criminals just like me). The only major impact is that the development of new products that are based on ripped music will cease to happen. So it will negatively impact the economy.
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Don't think the EU isn't going to get thier share of DMCA laws. After all, Isn't one of the provisions of the WIPO treaty to legislate a DMCA law by a specified deadline?
:)
Sleep tight...
"Communism is like having one [local] phone company " - Lenny Bruce
One of the most odeous things about the DMCA is that it prohibits commerce in a tool that has legitimate uses.
You could've hired me.
Well, first of all, if the CD has a warning label that says it won't play on your computer, don't buy it. On the other hand, if it does, I say buy it.
Buy them, lots of them. Try to listen to them on your computer, then when they don't work, try to return them. Tell them you don't own a CD player except for the one on your computer and that you cannot play it. This of course gets very messy because all stores that sell CD's have express policies against returning of opened discs (for copyright reasons once again). If you are insistent enough and explain the problem to them, they will eventually take it back.
Now, at this point your local store now has an opened CD. What are they doing to do with it? Well, in all likelyhood they'll try to return it to the manufacturer because they cannot sell the opened copy. If the manufacturer refuses to return it, then all the stores are going to raise hell with them because the new copy protection is costing them money if they are eating those unusable CD's.
If the manufacturer does accept it back, the manufacturer then either tosses the CD in the trash as a loss, or they repackage. If they repackage it, this costs them additional money before that CD goes back to the store. Even if does go back to the store, it could still wind up in the hands of another computer user who will start the loop over again.
Eventually manufacturers will solve this problem by clearly labeling all CD's as being unplayable on a computer, in which case people are now clear about what they are getting into, and many will likely avoid it, reducing profits for the manufacturer of the CD.
The irony in all of this though is that ultimately copy protection of CD's is going to cost the companies WAY more money than it saves. Less people will buy their CD's because they won't work where they want to listen to them. People will instead find clever hacks to work around the copy protection system and the CD's will still get ripped. Everybody will get their music from Gnutella and the like and the RIAA will create a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Conspiracy theory moment: maybe that's their plan. Intentionally do things to drive down CD sales to make their case to the government for new laws, and then go for the jugular of fair use and forever wipe out the balance of copyright law.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
i have not come across any of those CDs ont he list, but at the college radio station i work at i saw a CD this weekend that said "WILL NOT PLAY IN A COMPUTER". it is the new Einsturzende Neubauten "Strategies Against Architecture III". it's a CD totally worth buying for the incredible booklet/package, but just out of curiosity i tried it and it was 100% happy in a few Macs. i have heard somewhere that some of the "junk toc files" they use to confuse some computers dont always tricks macs. tonight if i think of it there is a Dell running windows i can get to and see what happens. interesting this article specifically mentioned Macs and PS2 and DVD players. maybe the old method only fooled windows?
I'm guessing you were at DragonCon this year, in Atlanta. Am I right?
I would love to think I'd take them to small claims court, but frankly, hitting them with the credit card charge is more, er, bang for the buck. That's $25 bucks a pop when the credit card company hits them with a charge. Just make sure to repeat "the CD was defective" and don't buy it from a small record store.
Expanding a vast wasteland since 1996.
WIPO is coming to a country near you. That whole, it's 's seemed like a really clever move a few years ago but it's not going to be that easy in the future. You get a large number of countries signed on board, then they apply pressure on those who don't through threats of sanctions, etc. WIPO is where that starts.
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Really, I think that even the record industry didn't expect the various copy protections to really work. What they're doing is building an easily hackable content protection system so that they can prosecute MP3 traders under the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA.
Ahh... A criminal charge can be filed against anyone who attempts to traffic a circumvention device, right?
Does it matter if you're selling the device like Elcomsoft, or can you give away circumvention devices as long as you're not profiting?
If possessing and/or trafficking copyright circumvention devices is illegal, then we're all fcuked...
"Communism is like having one [local] phone company " - Lenny Bruce
Additionally, the very thought that the fact that blank CDs are outselling prerecorded CDs means anything is hogwash.
Blank CDs can be bought in spindles of 50 for $18.99 in some places. In some mall stores, you're lucky if you can buy a *real* CD for $18.99. Added to the fact that blank CDs have a multitude of uses beyond that of music copying, and it's no wonder that they outsell "conventional" CDs. Pity the RIAA doesn't expect people to do any of their own thinking...
Buy them, rip them on some obscure device that can (like a Macintosh) and return them since they don't work in your DVD player :)
-1, incorrect placement of [/RANT] tag...
I see a lot of postings implying the best way to deal with this is to not buy the CDs or buy them and return them... While I think that could be effective, I doubt we'll get enough people to do that for them to even notice...
What I'd really like it some group to take this issue on and into the courtroom, etc... I'd donate money, buy a shirt, etc...
Who can we turn to?
RateVegas.com - Vegas Reviews
That would be misrepresenting the product which is probably illegal.
:)
The product is used, and has be "checked" for quality. It could be sold as refurbished, renewed, opened, tested, whatever, but unless it carries an "I'm USED!" style label the company is misprepresenting the product.
Notice that no matter how nicely returned your opened electronics to Best Buy, Future Shop and such are they always market it as open box, refurbished, repackaged, whatever.
Customers (normally) won't buy opened product without either a guarantee (which can't be offered in this case) or a discount.
They lose twice. They can either throw it out and lose big, or sell it as opened and lose a little twice.
Time for me to start buying music again!
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
... and 3 months later the CC company charges YOU back.
You can't stop a charge like turning off a light switch. The CC company will keep up with the case, and if the merchant never admits culpability, you still get charged in the end.
The CC company as saviour idea seems to be a myth, practically speaking.
Good article. There's another article that might explain Universal's reasoning for adding copy-protection. (HINT: It really has little to do with piracy.)
http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,49188,00.html
On Tuesday, Universal Music Group becomes the first label to sell copy-protected CDs in the United States with the release of its soundtrack Fast & Furious -- More Music. This comes at a time when the recording industry is asking consumers to pay for music that can only be listened to on the PC.
The newly released CD will keep people from listening to their music on the computer, game consoles and other digital devices. If they wanted to go through the major labels to buy the same music for their computer, the only way would be to sign up for Pressplay, one of the major label subscription services, when it launches later this month.
Essentially, consumers would be required to pay once for a physical CD and once for the digital music file. The restrictions for online subscription services and physical CDs are part of a music industry-wide attempt to stop online music piracy.
Bascially, they want to move everyone into a position where they get paid everytime you "space-shift" your music. Playing your CD in CD player? Pay for it once. Playing it on the computer? Pay for it again. <begin sarcasm>After all, we've got to keep those RIAA pockets filled, don't we?<end sarcasm>
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
While there's a big market for Britney Spears, there's another big market for "underground" music.
Thier sound or trite messages still doesn't distinguish the Backstreet Boys or Incubus from being a bunch of monkey boys who perform when you shove a quarter in thier ass.
It's all the same crap, targeted at a wide demographic of people and children, sending out the same old shit message, "Image is everything... Cultural, Political, Moral, Whatever..." (Note: Image refers to more than just external appearances. Include behavioral nuances and all elements of "culture")
What I do agree with is that these same people hawking Britney Spears have way too much influence on people. Hence, My opinions on fair use...
"Communism is like having one [local] phone company " - Lenny Bruce
In further news, studies show that gasoline consumption continues to rise, while sales of typewriters declined by another 12% last year. Clearly, gasoline sales are displacing typewriter sales, unfairly hurting the book industry. Lawsuits will follow.
1. Buy the CD.
2. Take it home and burn two copies. (Three if you want to keep a copy)
3. Return the original CD. Remember, they HAVE to take it back.
4. Mail one burned CD to Hilary Rosen, and one to the head of Universal. Attach notes saying, "Still burnable. Try again."
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Decreasing your level of stress in itself probably makes you more productive.
are part of a music industry-wide attempt to stop online music piracy.
Gotta hand it to them for defining the language in their own terms - that wins half the battle in the sea of unwashed masses. Kind of like defining your opponents as "terrorists" and your collaborators as "freedom fighters".
Imagine how this would go over if the language were altered to read:
This doublespeak is continued with phrases like "Digital Rights Management" that IMHO is more accurately depicated as "Content Use Restriction". Suffice it to say, you'll never see the daily newspapers and national media outlets use any terms except those generated by their owners.
This is all to be expected, though, as evidenced by how he term "hacker" has acquired a strange foreboding and malevolence in the popular media, whereas the technically adept, those most like to "hack", know the difference between a hacker and a cracker.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
What will be really funny and ironic-
When Universal releases an enhanced cd with the latest music video and artist-wallpaper on it and yet the cd is copy-protected so it only plays on audio cd players.
It will happen.
These dinosaurs can sit on all their obsolete little eggs for all I care. The industry could have given people choice and still made reasonable money. But instead they insist on protecting obsolete packaging and business models. I won't be buying any such CDs that I can't even play.
If Microsoft has the right to require I pay a seperate license fee for each of the computers in my house -- I guess the record industry reserves the right for me to pay for each of the audio devices I have in my house....
I sure am glad no good music has came out in the last few years --- I would hate to think I would be missing out on something.
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
If they put out the CD and get a %10-%20 return rate (an insanely high number). They'll be able to make no excuses, to themselves or others, they'll have to drop the technology. They can't remain profitable with a high return rate.
Sure you can make a copy - but you don't get to easily access track lists online (from FreeCDDB or others). For me, even if I don't rip a CD I still like listening to it in a computer as I can see track names and details as it plays instead of hunting down the case.
Indeed, I looked forward to future networked CD players that would access track details to display track names for you real-time as a CD played. I guess that won't be the future anymore!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Retailers bill back to companies for all returns and often for damaged and unsold merchandise as well. Why do you think they all take returns with, when you get down to it, little whining? Simple, doesn't affect THEIR bottom line and it keeps you happy. Ya, little mom and pop stores can't do this but I gaurentee Best Buy will bill Universal fo every returned CD they can't sell.
It's like a law that says, "It will not be considered murder if self-defense can be proved." Such a law does not establish that all other cases will be considered murder. The common law, common sense defense of "I was nowhere nearby, nor part of any conspiracy related to that death" still holds against, say, a prosecutor claiming you did it by witchcraft. Witchcraft does not become a crime because of not being included in a specific exception in a newly passed extension of the murder statutes.
Your logic resembles Ashcroft's: "If they weren't guilty terrorists, they wouldn't abuse our freedoms by insisting on a fair trial!"
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
Good points and interesting stuff. I actually went to college near Hollywood a while back, and watched a lot of folks get swallowed up by the music business. Some of the geeks (like you, presumably) did well, the business folks got McJobs, and most of the artists got ground into dust.
But I beg to differ on the inevitability of continued music industry dominance. I know that age-wise I'm close to the target demographic, but as a well-educated geek I'm not. But it only takes a few geeks to poison the pot. The distant relatives living in BumbleF&ck Nowhere with 4 teenage children and a computer that only runs AOL -- they ARE the target demographic. Disposable income, media-driven tastes, and obedient consumerist behavior. But even if the kids have no idea what Napster was, someone in their school does, and they're getting cds full of MP3s from their friends just because it's easy. They think it's cool that they can make a copy on their Gateway PC (that came with a cd recorder in the base config), and go over to a friend's house (who has no computer) and pop it into the dvd player. To them, there's no issue of being a pirate, they just do it because it works. Hell, grandma doesn't want a stack of cds in her place; she wants one cd she leaves in the hand-me-down computer (not good enough for the grandkid's games anymore) with about 2-3 dozen songs she likes. The kids burn it for her, and voila, the revenue for those $39.95 As-Seen-On-TV compilations is gone. The kids did it. The 1-in-100 geek enabled it. And everyone else eats it up.
This IS middle America. And you know the kicker? The further out you get -- from Skowhegan ME to Needles CA -- these bored kids don't have much else to do than to drink, f&ck, and steal music. Forget the dedicated music pirates, they're not really the core of the problem for RIAA. The problem is that not one consumer sheds a single tear for the music industry when someone "steals" their "property." It's the indifference that'll kill 'em.
J
[my name's on this stuff, so you get a disclaimer: I don't traffic in music, but I teach kids how to use Unix.]
I think not...(*poof*)
Here ya go:
A3
A*Teens
Bryan Adams
Alice Deejay
All City
All That
Gary Allan
American Hi-Fi
Ametria
Angela Ammons
Angelfish
Marc Antoine
Aqua
India Arie
The Art of Noise
Artful Dodger
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Ask Me
ATC
Avant
AZ
Backbone
Erykah Badu
Balfa Toujours
Marcia Ball
John Barry
Cecilia Bartoli
Beautiful South
Beck
David Benoit
George Benson
Leonard Bernstein
BG
Big Audio Dynamite
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Big Tymers
Bilal
Black Eyed Peas
Black Grape
Black Indian
Black Lab
Blackstreet
Everton Blender
The Blenders
Mary J. Blige
Blink-182
Rory Block
Bloodhound Gang
Blue October
Blue Hawaiians
The Blue Mondays
Blues Traveler
Bobs
Andrea Bocelli
Bon Jovi
Bond
Tracy Bonham
Barbara Bonney
Chris Botti
Bottlefly
Boyz II Men
Boyzone
Brave Combo
Michael Brecker
Alfred Brendel
The Brian Setzer Orchestra
Brill
Foxy Brown
Ruth Brown
Buffalo Nickel
Jimmy Buffett
Burlap to Cashmere
Burning Spear
Daniel Cage
Caleb
Canibus
Cap One
Cardigans
Vanessa Carlton
Richard Carpenter
Case
Caviar
Celeda
Riccardo Chailly
Charlatans U.K.
Boozoo Chavis
Cherry Poppin Daddies
Chosen Few
Chumbawamba
The Churchills
City High
Terri Clark
Eddy Clearwater
Co-Ed
Cold
Collapsis
Colony
Common
Chris Cornell
Julian Coryell
Elvis Costello
Neal Coty
Counting Crows
Tina Cousins
Cowboy Mouth
Cranberries
Sheryl Crow
The Cru
Crucial Conflict
The Crystal Method
Cyclefly
D-12
Days of the New
DBA
Deep Blue Something
Def Leppard
Del Amitri
Geno Delafose
Depeche Mode
Dirty
Dishwalla
The Dismemberment Plan
DJ Clue
DJ Encore Feat. Engelina
DJ Rogers Jr.
DMX
Placido Domingo
Dope
doubleDrive
Will Downing
Dr. Dre
Drag-On
Drain STH
Driver
Dru Hill
Dub Pistols
Charles Dutoit
Eiffel 65
808 State
Eleven
Alecia Elliott
Emily
Eminem
EPMD
The Ernies
Erykah Badu
Melissa Etheridge
Eve
Factory 81
Jayo Felony
Fenix TX
Kim Ferron
Ivan Fischer
Fisher
Five Easy Pieces
Flaw
Renee Fleming
Fleming & John
Rosie Flores
Folk Implosion
Robben Ford
Willa Ford
Eboni Foster
Four Letr Word
4th Avenue Jones
Kirk Franklin
Freight Hoppers
Full Devil Jacket
Funkmaster Flex
Funky Derrick
Funky Green Dogs
Peter Gabriel
Gabrielle
Gandharvas
Garbage
Genovese
Valery Gergiev
Kathie Lee Gifford
Vance Gilbert
Vince Gill
Girls Vs. Boys
God Lives Underwater
Godsmack
Matthias Goerne
Goldfinger
Jeff Golub
Matt Goss
Amy Grant
Grenique
Patty Griffin
Lee Griffiths
Grinspoon
Guns N' Roses
Guy
GZA
H2O
Charlie Haden
Sammy Hagar
Aaron Hall
James Hall
Tom T. Hall
Hampenberg
Hanson
PJ Harvey
Imogen Heap
Eric Heatherly
Helmet
Jimi Hendrix
Tish Hinojosa
The Hippos
Christopher Hogwood
Hoku
Hole
Jennifer Holliday
David Holmes
Honeydogs
Shirley Horn
Hot Boys
House of Llama
Rebecca Lynn Howard
Ray Wylie Hubbard
Enrique Iglesias
IMx
Incognito
Injected
Insane Clown Posse
Isle of Q
Allen Iverson
Ja Rule
T.D. Jakes
Al Jarreau
Jay-Z
The Jazzyfatnastees
Jane Jensen
Jimmie's Chicken Shack
Beau Jocque & the Zydeco Hi-Rollers
JoeE
Joi
Shae Jones
Montell Jordan
Leila Josefowicz
Ronnie Joseph
Judds
Jurassic 5
Juvenile
K-Ci & Jo-Jo
Sammy Kershaw
Killah Priest
Killing Heidi
B.B. King
Kiss
Jordan Knight
Alison Krauss
Smokin' Joe Kubek
Fela Kuti
Femi Kuti
Patti LaBelle
Lamb
Jonny Lang
Murphy Lee
Lefty
Ute Lemper
Crystal Lewis
Laurie Lewis
Lifer
Lil' Troy
Lil' Wayne
Limp Bizkit
Live
Live
LLCool J
Local H
Lisa Loeb
Sinead Lohan
Alan Lomax
Longview
Traci Lords
The Love Dogs
Lyle Lovett
Nick Lowe
Lowpass
The Lox
Radu Lupu
Kami Lyle
Claire Lynch
Shelby Lynne
Natalie MacMaster
Majusty
Mamma Mia!
Marilyn Manson
Market
George Martin
Kathy Mattea
Del McCoury
Reba McEntire
Connie McKendrick
Connie McKendrick
Brian McKnight
Holly McNarland
MDFMK
Melky Sedeck
Method Man
Methods Of Mayhem
Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Mikaila
Lynn Miles
Minibar
Shane Minor
Tonya Mitchell
Molly's Yes
Mona Lisa
Monifah
Monster Magnet
Monster Magnet
Moody Blues
Chante Moore
Allison Moorer
Bill Morrissey
Mr. Cheeks
Ms. Toi
Mulberry Lane
Viktoria Mullova
Samantha Mumba
MXPX
Mya
Mytown
Leona Naess
Nelly
Willie Nelson
Ann Nesby
Never The Bride
New Radicals
Carrie Newcomer
Nields
Nine Inch Nails
98 Degrees
Nirvana
The Nixons
No Doubt
Noa
Johnny Nocturne
Jessye Norman
NRBQ
Jamie O'Neal
Ocean Colour Scene
Oleander
Evan Olson
One Way Ride
Onyx
Joan Osborne
John Oszajca
Other Star People
Seija Ozawa
Pastor Troy
Rahsaan Patterson
Ellis Paul
Luciano Pavarotti
Rod Piazza & the Mighty Flyers
The Pilfers
Plastiscene
Playa
John Popper
Possum Dixon
Post Stardom Depression
Powderfinger
Jesse Powell
Andre Previn
Kelly Price
Primer 55
Primus
Prince Quick Mix
The Prissteens
The Prissteens
Proffesional Murder Music
Profyle
Public Announcement
Puya
Que Bo Gold
Queen Pen
Queens of the Stone Age
R Angels
Rahzel
Jason Raize
Rakim
Ram Squad
Rammstein
Marky Ramone
Ramones
Rasheeda
Red Five
Redman
Reel Big Fish
Relative Ash
Remy Zero
Nadine Renee
Res
Reverend Horton Heat
Calvin Richardson
Kim Richey
Lionel Richie
Riders In the Sky
Andre Rieu
Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys
Rival Schools
Smokey Robinson
Rocket from the Crypt
Pascal Roge
Roomful of Blues
The Roots
Michael Rose
Rosey
Diana Ross
Christophe Rousset
Ruby Horse
Ruff Ryders
Thomas Rusiak
Rusted Root
Matthew Ryan
S Club 7
Safri Duo
Philippe Saisse
Saliva
Sauce Money
Scarred for Life
Bob Schneider
Andreas Scholl
John Scofield
Seahorses
Semisonic
702
Shades Apart
Shades Apart
Shaggy
Gil Shaham
Shuvel
Beanie Sigel
Tommy Sims
Sinisstar
Sisqo
Sister Hazel
Six By Seven
Roni Size/Reprazent
Skycycle
Slash's Snakepit
Smashmouth
Stephan Smith
Snot
Snowpony
Soca Boys
Sir Georg Solti
Sonic Youth
Sonique
Sons Of The Desert
Soul Decision
Sparkle
Speak No Evil
Spin Doctors
SPM
St. Lunatics
Garrison Starr
Keith Stegall
Stella Soleil
Sticky Fingaz
Sting
Phoenix Stone
George Strait
Stroke
Stroke 9
Jimmy Sturr
Sublime
Sum 41
Supergrass
Supersuckers
Super Trans Atlantic
Suzanne Palmer
Sweet 75
Takacs Quartet
Susan Tedeschi
The Temptations
Danny Tenaglia
Texas
The The
Jean-Yves Thibaudet
IIIrd Tyme Out
This Means Raw
Irma Thomas
3 Doors Down
Toadies
Tonic
William Topley
The Transitions
Tony Trischka
2pac
Shania Twain
Twisted World
Twiztid
Twysted
U2
Mitsuko Uchida
Ugly Duckling
Unamerican
Unified Theory
Unwritten Law
Suzanne Vega
The Wallflowers
Toni Lynn Washington
Russell Watson
Weezer
Gillian Welch
Mike Welch
Weston
Cheryl Wheeler
The Whispers
White Zombie
Dwayne Wiggins
Hank Williams
Lucinda Williams
Mark Wills
Bebe Winans
Witness UK
Lee Ann Womack
Stevie Wonder
Chely Wright
Wylie & the Wild West
Wynonna
Trisha Yearwood
Ying Yang Twins
Young Turk
Rob Zombie
Zoppi
Here's a list of labels under Universal:
Farmclub.com
Interscope Geffen A&M
Island Def Jam Music Group
MCA Nashville
MCA Records
Motown Records
Mercury Nashville
Verve Music Group
Universal Classics
Universal Music Enterprises
Universal Records
Lost Highway
And this doesn't even tough on the smaller labels under each of those larger ones.
The recording industry is using every means at its disposal to gain leverage for the SSSCA or something like it. In the current environment, I don't believe there's any way to counteract the numerous lines of attack "copy protection" afford the industry.
No, I'm convinced that we'll only truly begin to make a difference after tougher legislation goes into effect. In addition to the hurdles listed above, most people--most Slashdot readers--aren't motivated by calls to not act and to forgo listening to their favorite music. The whole reason we're angry is because we want to enjoy our music. We'll only start to shine when what's needed is positive action taken, not to attempt counter-maneuvers against the RIAA, but simply to use technology the way we want to use it and the way we know it can be used.
I say, let them copy protect all the CDs they want. It will ultimately be no protection at all.
Robert Hutchinson
Robert Hutchinson
Smash it. Smash it good.
Interestingly, the Red Book spec includes subcodes such as the Q subcode, which can be used to store a song-specific ISRC code.
ISRC codes are increasingly necessary to get a song on the radio in ANY circumstances- some stations won't even deal with you unless you have ISRC codes. It's also possible to take the audio and the ISRC code, and produce a degenerated copy of the audio that has the ISRC codes, normally not part of the audio stream at all, watermarked into it. This is not only for 'tape off the radio' controls, but also to automate royalty calculations- it's being pioneered in Japan, who are well ahead of the curve on this. Europe has followed and the USA will follow, and you won't be able to deal with radio at all without ISRC codes.
Here's the interesting part: ISRC codes are an ISO standard, not some record industry ploy. In the USA, the RIAA administers them- and you have to go through the RIAA to get an ISRC identification for your record label- but they do not charge for this, or demand an affiliation with an RIAA label.
I know, because I have an ISRC code for 'Airwindows' records. It is 'WA5'. I gave my home address on the form, and under 'distribution' I put 'Ampcast'. The guy at the RIAA I talked to, Marquette Mathis, was quite friendly. He wondered what 'Ampcast' was, and I explained it was an online burn-to-order hosting service that was able to handle true Red Book audio, hence my need for an ISRC code. He wondered if I knew how to use an ISRC code, and I replied "yeah, it's the Q subcode" which instantly told him I knew what it was. Now I just have to produce some CD masters in Jam (which I'm getting for Xmas!) and keep a good record (on paper, not just computer) of exactly which codes went to which individual songs- and if I can ever get my music 'on the air' in this new world of automated RIAA royalty payment, I will have tapped into THEIR mechanisms for royalties- and I'm the contact person for Airwindows.
There's life for indies and the underground in the old Red Book Audio CD format yet...
randomly looking at a dictionary:)
From your chopping and cutting definition comes the general term "to hack" or "a hack" -- namely someone who uses blunt force to achieve their aims. Writers who are "hacks" pound away at their typewriters "cranking out" stories or "hacking away" at deadlines. The phrase isn't specialized to programmers, and there's no reason why the general public should be ignorant of it's more subtle meanings. There really has been a propaganda campaign portraying technically literate people as anarchists who wield uncanny powers and should be mistrusted. And no, it has nothing to do with axes, but with control of information which some poeple have the skills to bypass.
When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.
>CD sales to ZERO. COOL! If we
are you using steganography?
No. I'm just anti-MPAA, anti-DMCA, anti-RIAA etc. They are nothing but a PLAGUE! I think we should destroy all the music CD's. Throw them in ACID! BURN them all! If we can get the president's support their powerer will CRASH! OVERRIDE a presidential veto requires a 2/3 vote. DeCSS can take down the MPAA. Put it on a CD and make it the secret toy supprise in every box of CEREAL! KILLER ap! They only have as much power as we give them. Their power is nothing but a PHANTOM! PHREAKy stuff!
Shout outs:
The greatest genius in history was DaVINCI! VIRUS writers suck! Praise the LORD! NIKON cameras rock!
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Do you honestly believe that at some point you were getting more value than you are right now? What in the fuck are you thinking? Movies and music have always sucked with a handful of exceptions every couple of years. The whole entertainment industry is based on paying alot of money for something someone may or may not think is worth spending money on. You're a dumbfuck and I can't believe some son of a bitch modded you up. You're saying that everyone ought to quit everything just because someone is rich and they aren't? Not buying shit advertised in magaziens and on television means magazines go out of print and television shows go off their air. If no one buys books first hand they won't be fucking available second hand you jackass.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
And it won't even stop people from ripping MP3s I bet.
Good. Then once it rips I'll burn my own copies since buying them isn't an option for me. I can't play them!
They of course will then blame MP3s on their deminished sales. I swear, the more 5417 that they do the less frequently I buy CDs. Before it all started I not only bought CDs regularly, I ripped them constantly and played them on my computer. I downloaded them very infrequently because quite frankly I LIKE having the original CDs, even if my CDs have become nothing more than a collection (as a medium, they are worthless.)
But anymore I almost don't care to buy CDs unless they are from my absolute favorite artists (Weird Al, Garbage, to name a couple...)
Screw the rest of 'em.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
Do you honestly believe that at some point you were getting more value than you are right now?
Let's see: a year ago I only had to worry about not wanting to listen to the music on a CD, now I have to worry about not being able to listen to it. That's a clear decrease in value.
You're a dumbfuck and I can't believe some son of a bitch modded you up.
Despite the eloquent phrasing of this convincing argument, I'm going to have to politely disagree.
You're saying that everyone ought to quit everything just because someone is rich and they aren't?
Um, no. I don't even want to know where you pulled that out of...
Not buying shit advertised in magaziens and on television means magazines go out of print and television shows go off their air.
Bingo. I had a feeling you understood more than you were letting on. The problem isn't with a product or a company, it is with a business model. If "reality" shows fail, the networks will just latch onto the next thing. If Fox goes under, someone else will build another network. However, when American auto manufacturers were losing ground to the Japanese because the market had shifted toward fuel economy, they had to produce more value to stay in business. The entertainment industry on the other hand acts ahead of market shifts (Survivor clones were everywhere as soon as there was any popularity in the US) and forces market shifts by tightly controlling availability and distribution, ensuring market dominance. There is no real competition to support and demonstrate your opposition (anything that could pose a threat to the current market dominance is quickly absorbed or blocked, as with Napster, DeCSS, anyone who got in Microsoft's way, etc.), so the only option is not to support the entertainment industry itself. Let it fall. Let the advertising driven media crumble; after all, when you buy into this advertising you pay for the product, the advertising, the source of the ad placement, and everything in between - TANSTAAFL. If there truly is a need, the industry will either adapt or die. In the words of Jay Sherman, "If the movie stinks, just don't go!" Finally, in the spirit of movie advertising:
"The whole entertainment industry is based on ... fucking ... you[,] jackass."
I couldn't agree more.
Does the license allow for giving CDs as gifts?
Maybe you should take that Britney Spears CD you have, shine it up real good and stick it up your candy ass.
Oh, come on - that was funny. And it really is OK to be gay.
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
I agree...I can find better stuff on mp3.com and the club circuit than the major labels and big arenas....
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
Is there any possibility that ThinkGeek would give bulk pricing on their Anti-RIAA stickers??
I for one would love to slap these everywhere I could, but at $1.50 a pop, that not feasible for my budget.
Buy them, lots of them. Try to listen to them on your computer, then when they don't work, try to return them. Tell them you don't own a CD player except for the one on your computer and that you cannot play it.
If you have a PlayStation game console (original, PSOne, or PS2), you can make this even more convincing: "I have a Sony CD player, model SCPH yadda yadda yadda" where you substitute the model number on the bottom of the PlayStation unit. You're telling the truth. Sony sells the PlayStation console as a device to play CD-DA discs and PSX games, so technically, a PlayStation console is a "CD player made by Sony," but employees of Worst Buy and Circuit Shitty are more likely to take you seriously if you mention "Sony" (electronics brand) rather than "PlayStation" (video games).
Will I retire or break 10K?
Here's the text of 17 USC 1201 (the part of the DMCA that slashdotters care about). Subsections (c)(1) and (c)(2) does not provide that fair use is a defence to "circumvention" but instead establishes that the offence of "circumvention" is completely orthogonal to "infringement." Subsection (c)(3) says "This is not the SSSCA... yet." Subsection (c)(4), which protects free speech/press, makes it clear that the RIAA cannot use the DMCA against Felten.
Our biggest shot at making the DMCA moot may lie with subsection (a)(2)(B): "a technological measure 'effectively protects a right of a copyright owner under this title' if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, prevents, restricts, or otherwise limits the exercise of a right of a copyright owner under this title." The right to restrict fair use is not "a right of a copyright holder under this title" without some heavy circular logic.
Another way is to attack "a work protected under this title" by making a CSS'd DVD containing a film whose copyright has expired. Public domain works are not "work[s] protected under this title." The DMCA is nothing without repeated copyright term extensions to keep copyrighted works copyrighted. Then we can release a device marketed for playing this public-domain DVD that just "happens to work" on copyrighted DVDs and thus satisfy the substantial non-infringing purpose requirement of 1201(a)(2).
Will I retire or break 10K?
I just hope they don't find a way to move this action -- or bring another one against you -- in lawyers-allowed court.
Of course, even if you win, collecting your judgement is no simple matter. It's pretty common for the defendent in this kind of case to just ignore the whole thing, on the assumption that nobody will make a major effort to collect a small judgement. Or, when the defendent is some huge corporation, it's quite likely that they whole thing will just disappear into their legal bureaucracy.
But that might work in your favor. Even if the judge thinks you're crazy, he might have to find for you if the case is uncontested. And then if they just ignore your attempts to collect, your costs get added to the judgment. (Be sure to track the time you spend trying to collect. It's a legitimate expense, though you probably won't get compensated at a very high rate.) They can end up owing you a lot of money!
I remember one weird case that happened a long time ago. A law student at UC Davis had his rent deposit illegally withheld. The landlord was a big entity that simply ignored his attempts to recover the deposit, even after the student went into "it's the principle" mode and started going after them every way he could figure out. He didn't have an easy time of it, even though he had the training to pull every possible legal string.
But in the end, he found himself at a seizure auction for the apartment building he had previously lived in. The owners were still ignoring him. In fact, he was the only person, aside from officials and auctioneers, who bothered to show up. The officials decided he was entitled to bid the amount he was owed without putting any money down, since he would just be paying himself. With no other bids, he won the auction.
Your milage may vary!