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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."
...I'm glad to see this trend started where labeling similar to software packaging is required and the companies are required to take some reponsibility and provide a kind of warentee on this disk (even if it's just 30 days). I hope that it'll convince other companies and CDs to adopt these policies and not just stick with the Charley Pride album and blindly continue ignoring the consumers.
A guy can't wish, can't he?
If you think education is expensive, you should try ignorance -- Derek Bok, president of Harvard
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."
hmm... how are they going to possibly be able to inforce this, since all downloads are anonymous?
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.
It's interesting that the music companies would use a term which sounds like "timeshifting" (a legally protected consumer right for recording television programs) rather then just "copying".
Perhaps they are anticipating laws that would regulate moving music files around for your convenience.
I'd like to spaceshift to a warmer climate.
-Paul
"I'm nobody suspicious... That makes me sound even more suspicious, doesn't it?" - Spike (Cowboy Bebop)
I think the last time I bought a music CD was about a year ago. The last time I bought a music CD from anywhere but a used CD store, I can't remember.
Boycott the RIAA? Who needs to? I've simply and effectively removed the RIAA from my life by just not buying music. If they want to play hardball, they can play all they want. I just won't play the game.
And before I get irate comments about me stealing music, I don't download any music from any of the big name file sharing networks. The free stuff at MP3.com (well, what used to be free, haven't been there in awhile) from independent artists in the kind of music I listen to is more than enough for me. If you want Charley Pride or Metallica or whatever, go on right ahead. I've ceased to care.
Yes, but this is still a problem for people who buy most of their CDs online, and so don't have the opportunity to inspect the packaging before making a purchase. Even if this settlement makes music stores more willing to take back (rather than exchange for the same item) non-compliant CDs, the hassle may make the whole experience just too irritating.
Imagine buying 10 CDs at cdnow and finding seven of them have warnings on the label. So you send them back. Then you open the other three, to find that two of them have warnings inside the shrinkwrapped package. Even the imaginary more liberal return policies are unlikely to help you now.
--
I don't want to rule the world... I just want to be in charge of mayonnaise.
Overall, a great settlement. But, I wonder if the warnings will follow the obfuscation standards that liquor and cigarette manufacturers use. (Why the pregnant woman warning before the drunk driving warning? Surely there are more drivers than pregnant people!).
I wonder if the warning would like this:
PLAYS IN ANY CD PLAYER. TO ACCESS ADDITIONAL DIGITAL MUSIC FILES ON A COMPUTER, YOU NEED MICROSOFT WINDOWS 98 OR LATER, MICROSOFT WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER 7.0 (INCLUDED FREE ON THIS CD), AND ACCESS TO THE INTERNET (ALSO INCLUDED; TRY AOL FOR 50 HOURS FOR FREE). ACCESS WILL REQUIRE NOT MORE THAN SIX DOWNLOADS. NOT DESIGNED TO WORK IN DVD, MP3, OR COMPUTER CD-ROM PLAYERS. FOR A LIST OF KNOWN COMPATIBLITY PROBLEMS RELATED TO COMPUTERS, CD PLAYERS, AND DIGITAL MUSIC PLAYING DEVICES, PLEASE VISIT WWW.RECORDSTORE.COM/01lOI/|I\!.HTML
(Yeah, I know it's in upper case. It's meant to be hard to read. That's why liquor and cigarette labels use it...)
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
Universal can go right ahead and copy protect their CDs however they chose, and label them (or not) in whatever manner they want.
But now, armed with the precedent from this case, plaintiffs will be able to take down the labels easily. To avoid legal expenses, the labels will likely voluntarily comply.
there is nothing illegal with any of these copy protection schemes
What about misrepresentation? The user is sold a disc with the Philips Compact Disc Digital Audio logo on it, but the disc doesn't meet the Compact Disc Digital Audio standards. Fraud is a felony.
at the *most* you will get gov't imposed labelling standards and requirements.
And ad campaigns to "look for the logo" on behalf of independent labels and Compact Disc logo trademark holder Philips.
But when N*Sync releases their album with fully-labelled copy protection, do you really think it won't sell to the teen masses?
Ever heard the old joke about the three fastest forms of communication? Telephone, television, and tell-a-girl. Negative word of mouth will kill the *NSYNC franchise rápidamente.
get used to this idea - it's their IP
IP stands for "Internet Protocol" or a numeric address assigned thereunder. The notion of "intellectual property" exists nowhere in the letter of United States copyright law; Congress presumably passed the copyright act "to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts," not to create a new form of property.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Of all the artists to be picking on! I am not a country music fan, but I am a huge fan of Country Charlie Pride. We were deployed to Panama for "Just Cause" and of all the "celebrities" that do or did USO shows, he was the only one to visit us at our base camp in the boonies. He sang and, afterwards, talked with the troops. He raised morale and made the months of being away from home and sequestered from normal life almost bareable. As a person, performer, and patriot, he is number one in my book. He didn't use it as a publicity ploy, like many do now. He did it because it felt good to him. He made us feel good too.