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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."
They have agreed to a list of 10 items that were the basis of the lawsuit.
Too bad none of those ten has to do with the fact that country music makes your ears bleed.
--------
Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...
I see this as the most important point:
6. Defendants shall include a warning that the Charlie Pride CD is not designed to work in DVD players or Computer CD-ROM players;
As long as they mark the cd, and people know ahead that the product will not work for them, they can protect all the cds they want to. People will just learn to avoid cds that are marked that way.
Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do.
They agreed to ten demands and even coughed up lawyer fees. Seems like one of the most powerful weapons one can use is public humiliation. If this went on, more and more of the public would learn about this.
The only problem is they're going to continue using this copy protection. How many other distributors will adopt this or similar protection schemes in the future?
I'm not afraid of falling, it's the sudden stop at the end that frightens me.
IANAL, but two points on this:
My understanding is that a settlement is _not_ an admission or wrongdoing. So while this settlement may give moral support to others, it won't give you legal leverage against a music label in the future. (the whole point of a settlement is that it's cheaper and quicker than going to court, and since no legal decision is made, no precedent is set)
Second, it's not clear how much the label can get away with if their CDs give consumers explicit warning. People will just "avoid" CDs that are hobbled? There are five music labels that control the industry, from signing artists to what gets produced and distributed to what gets played on the radio.
Courtney Love, Tom Petty and others are suing those labels on the basis that their contracts for artists are basically identical - and uniformly screw the artist. We could be looking at a parallel situation here.
Teaching, coding, coffee, revolution.
...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
People are still stupid enough to buy it anyways. They don't read warnings simply since they are jaded by the sheer amount they get daily. Not on CD covers (besides, the RIAA would probably print it with a 2 point font) not on styrofoam coffee cups from McDonalds, not on aerosol canisters, not on ladders. Record stores will only have more unhappy customers, like the 45 year old secretary who hasn't a clue about this whole debate and buys Kenny G's greatest hits so she can listen to on her work computer, only to find out that she isn't responsible enough to do it without the permission of the RIAA.
Maybe it is good that the RIAA lost in the long run, but they are now absolved of any liability for stupid people who could potentially help our cause...
On the flipside, this may raise more awareness as to the dirty deeds of the RIAA by creating more unhappy customers.
I think one of the vital contributing factors was that Music City Records provided the CD playing software that would track user habits - NON-ANONYMOUSLY - and use it for free marketing research.
If this had not happened would the RIAA have not lost?
No, it's more than that. The settlement requires the CD maker to put warnings on the protected CD. If a manufacturer has to alert buyers to the fact that this CD won't work on some computers, DVD players and MP3 players then that's going to hurt sales.
And manufacturers are going to think twice before implimenting something that hurts their sales.
The efforts we've seen so far have been low key, trying to put protection on without making a big deal out of it. Forcing such protection schemes to be advertized on the product will be a big disincentive to their use.
If you notice, everything is specific to the single instance of the Charley Pride CD. Who cares? What was really needed was an agreement like this for labeling *ALL* future discs.
Given that... I don't see how this is much of a victory; a draw at best.
--Rob
BTW Ignore this text down here. I had to write it to make
-- SIGFPE
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
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;
What a breath of fresh air. I think this is what the music labels are really after here. Not mass piracy (ala asian copy shops) but abridging first sale rights. And the good news is that in this and the adobe vs. softman case, the courts are upholding our rights.
So now the battle shifts to hardware and standards bodies, as the content cartels will try to get through firmware what they can't achieve in the courts.
When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.
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.
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.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.