Lawsuit Over Crippled Charley Pride Music Disks Settled

thumbtack writes: "In a follow up to the /. story "Record Companies Sued Over Charley Pride CD" last fall, Boycott-RIAA is reporting in this story that the case has been settled with Fahrenheit Entertainment, Music City Records, and Sunncomm. They have agreed to a list of 10 items that were the basis of the lawsuit. In addition following the link to the settlement document (pdf) the plaintiffs got a little cash to pay their lawyers as well."

Comments

Point of the article

[grinwell]

Left out of the main heading is that the article is spinning this as a "consumer victory" over RIAA.

Basically, consumers can get new de-protected CDs to replace their protected ones.

Yawn. They'll just try again.

Demographic?

[maniac11]

Does charley pride's label really think that a high percentage of Charley Pride's listening demographic is likely to rip, encode, and post ANYTHING to the internet?

Fat Chuck's Corrupt CD list

[Bilestoad]

Don't forget Fat Chuck's list of corrupt CDs:

http://www.fatchucks.com/corruptcds/

You can scope out your CDs _before_ ordering them online, something that is otherwise difficult. If you're having trouble with a new CD in the DVD or CD-ROM drive it might be worth checking here also.

Re:How can a CD track you?

[astinus]

Depending on how you play it - if it comes with a custom program that opens on your computer, then that program could be sending info across the Net without you knowing it. (I'm not sure what the setup is, since I don't listen to Charley Pride)

It's not an original idea - Windows Media Player does reports your playlists back to Microsoft secretly if you don't stop it. Download and run ZoneAlarm, fire up a CD with Media Player, and wait for the warning.

CD's will now be incompatible with Macs, too

[__aapbgd5977]

This decision still sucks. The poster who pointed out that this will lead to region encoding of CD's is only partially right. All they have to do is put a little label or warning on the CD, and they can exclude entire OS's, especially Macs. (Think : "Don't steal music.") Wait 'til MS figures this out.

There are already legal requirements about CD format, including a requirement that the "true name and address of the manufacturer" appear on the CD. This is in most states (here's Arizona's, look at Subsection A, 3 & 4) and in Federal law. This decision will just mean another line of fine print on the back of your CD.

Re:Most important

[bloo9298]

The language is deliberately misleading.

There is a difference between "is not designed to work" and "is designed not to work". Bah!

How long before Sony catches up?

[Nepre]

6. Defendants shall include a warning that the Charlie Pride CD is not designed to work in DVD players or Computer CD-ROM players

The first DVD players didn't have the ability to play normal audio CDs. This feature was added by manufacturers in order to set their products apart from other DVD players. A "value-added" thing.

If these copy-protected CDs become widely used in the music industry, then it won't be long before Sony, Panasonic, etc. will make players and CD-ROM drives that can read these disks. The consumer demand is too high to ignore.

Re:How can a CD track you?

[thesolo]

This particular CD used the MediaCloque "Copy Protection" on it. When you inserted the CD into a CDRom drive on a Windows Machine (not a PC, a Windows Machine, it would run a program that lets you put in your personal info, and then download Mp3 copies *of the music you have sitting on the CD*. They then store your info, your IP address, etc.

Not only is this a total invasion of privacy, but it also extends the MS Monopoly, since your CD theoretically wouldn't play under Linux, MacOS, etc. It's also ridiculously stupid; if you are at home on dialup, and you want to listen to this CD on your computer, why the hell would you want to wait hours for it to download when you HAVE THE MUSIC ON THE CD?!

We can only hope these things crash & burn ASAP.

The 10 Conditions

[Jason Levine]

Because some people won't read the article, here are the 10 conditions:

Privacy
1. Defendants shall immediately ensure that any and all Internet music file downloads and listening of the music contained or arising out of said Charlie Pride CD are always anonymous and personal identifying information including, but not limited to, e-mail address and IP addresses shall not be required nor obtained as a condition of downloading (including file downloads from sunncomm.com) or playing or listening to the CD or music files, thereby protecting consumer privacy.

2. Defendants shall immediately purge all personal identifying information (including e-mail addresses and IP addresses) obtained via the music file downloading process to date.

3. Defendants shall amend their privacy policy(s) to advise consumers that all Internet file downloads of the music contained on the Charlie Pride CD are anonymous.

Right of First Sale
4. Defendants shall not impair or limit in any manner the ability and right of consumers to lawfully sell or transfer ownership of the Charlie Pride CD to others who shall have the equal ability to download related digital music files;

Return Policy
5. Defendants shall immediately begin accepting from consumers not satisfied with the Charlie Pride CD due to problems with playability on their CD player, computer CD player, or electronic or portable playing device

Platform Notices
6. Defendants shall include a warning that the Charlie Pride CD is not designed to work in DVD players or Computer CD-ROM players;

7. Defendants shall include a warning of the minimum system requirements for playing the downloadable encrypted digital music files on a computer, including Microsoft Windows 98 and above and Microsoft Windows Media Player 7.0 and above and access to the Internet;

Spaceshifting Notices
8. Defendants shall include a warning that the Charlie Pride CD and encrypted digital music file downloads are not compatible with MP3 rippers and players and are not compatible with MP3 electronic playing devices; .

9. Defendants shall include a notice to visit a web page with a simple URL for an updated list of known compatibility problems related to computers. CDplayers, and digital music playing devices;

10. Defendants shall include a warning that the downloadable encrypted digital music files of the songs contained on the Charlie Pride CD may only be downloaded six times.