Universal Music Prepares for Copy-Protection Complaints

tregoweth writes: "Universal Music Group is preparing for the onslaught of complaints about their copy-protected CDs. They've launched a customer support site, which includes a FAQ ("Can I get a copy of this CD without the copy protection?"), tech support ("Why can't I copy the disc to my hard drive?", which they don't actually answer), a description of the reasons that you can get a refund (including some playback "issues" I hadn't heard about), and the fearsome legalese covering the audio player and compressed audio files included on the CD." Our previous story has more information.

Comments

Support Companies that support you....

[Dutchmaan]

...or at least your immediate needs. Phillips seems a logical choice to back at this point as a hardware vendor that can profit from the lack of copy protection. They are a company like any other and $$$ are the only language. Phillips could provide actual muscle in the corporate arena that people jumping up and down protesting could never provide. Let companies that back your "ideals" do the legwork for you, BUT, always keeps one eye one the people your fighting and the other on the people fighting for you, because umltimately, they are out for themselves too and wouldn't hesitate to throw you to the wolves too if it made them a buck.

What happens when XP is obsolete?

[jon323456]

So what happens 5 years from now when you can't find a machine running XP to save your life, and the newest version of Microsoft's OS is incompatible with my cd's player. Universal says they won't be providing updates so I've just got a coaster? Thats dissapointing...

Re:Return Policy

[rebbie]

UMG is making every effort to eliminate these problems as soon as possible.

No they are not. This is a blatant lie. If they didn't put messed up data on the CDs in the first place then all of these problems would go away*.

• (*This is true except in the rare case of a CD that was accidentally produced improperly, as opposed to the intentionally-bad CDs they are getting set to release.)

Just wonderful

[proxima]

Now, if we want to buy a Universal music CD, we have to agree to a license agreement comparable to the average MS EULA.

Many of us probably feared that the customer backlash will be softened by some heavily encrypted files and a proprietary player on each CD. For all too many people, that functionality will be good enough.

Here's to hoping that the general public will still be pissed about:

1.) Not being able to use their favorite music software

2.) Not being able to transfer to mp3 players

Of course, in a few years, we may be in the horrible situation of having the RIAA agree on a new encryption standard, and all major music players and devices will read it. However, those music devices could be forced to tie in with just one computer, or something stupid like that.

I don't share my music, but I listen to all high-bitrate mp3s and use my mp3 player often. I have already decided against purchasing a CD I would almost certainly own by now if it weren't for Universal's copy protection. Let's hope Universal's sales suffer dearly for this.

Re:Philips

[_xeno_]

Anyone want to take bets on how long it'll take before some "news" show does an "investigative report" on "broken CDs" and tells the average consumer to look for the CD-DA logo to ensure that the disc will work in their car, DVD player, and CD-compatible game console?

This seems to be the type of story that "investigative reporters" love - warning consumers that a product might not work on all of their fancy electronics and describing work-arounds and ways to avoid the problem.

It may even be worth it to send it in as a "tip" to one of those news stations that allows them to be sent in...

One of those would get the word out fairly quickly and probably cause Universal to find some way around the potential problems quickly. Especially if the discs don't work in Macintosh computers at the time...