Slashdot Mirror
Ebert, Gillmor on the Music Industry
TTop writes "Roger Ebert has weighed in with a scathing critique of the Universal Music Group and its new copy-protection scheme which renders CDs unplayable in non-Windows operating systems, DVD players, and CD-compatible game consoles. It's nice to see the mainstream press start to come out against the idiotic copy-protection war the RIAA is declaring on their best customers, music lovers. Having to agree to a legal contract to hear a CD you've purchased on your own PC? Puh-leeze. Ebert compares these copy-protection schemes to Circuit City's failed DIVX DVD format." Columnist Dan Gillmor wrote a piece a few days ago about drawing a line in the sand.
If you really want to spite the RIAA, involve yourself in open piracy for no profit. Send the artists money directly or go see them in concert (which they get a larger take from, anyhow). That's what I do, personally. Look at free alternatives like Emusic.com - but don't give them another penny.
Canadian law says that the RIAA give up the right to procecute you for piracy done for personal use by your own hand. Make full use of that. The current levy hike they propose is insane, but since the government has decided to transistion music into a public good, you're stupid not to take advantage of it. I know I'll be trumpeting this little factoid at the top of my lungs to anyone who will listen if the price of an iPod goes up by over $100 or $150 because of this!
However, maybe this will give emusic.com and others the ability to break the RIAA stranglehold on music. That's what they're really afraid of.
And for those of you interested in a cool slashdot article, how about someone with a little money and time go out and get one of these copy protected CDs. Then do an analog sample with a nice quality headphone adapter cable into a reasonably standard sound card and then do some comparisons online (although, I'm not even sure if you could put samples up as fair use anymore!). Show them the futility of this first hand.
What, are ADC chips going to get banned next?
..don't panic
I used to think Ebert was some pompous windbag, who wouldn't know a good movie it it slapped him in the face. But the older he gets, and the more I read stuff he's written, the more I come to realize he's a guy who really "gets it".
It hurts when I pee.
p.s. Anyone else notice that /. seems to be /.'ed a lot lately?
You see, it's all great that Ebert came out to say something like this, but let's face it: he's not risking much. And the reason that he's not risking anything is because he's not directly involved.
What we really need are more BANDS (you know, the people that make the music) to stand up and speak for us. All it will take is for a few of them to say "wtf?! People are ripping them off because they don't want to pay $16 for a CD. Let's drop the costs, pass on more to the band, and give up on the protection." Then I'm sure we'd see more people buying more CDs and everyone could be happy. Besides, the greedy RIAA, of course.
I know quite a few people who are going out of their way to buy copy-protected CDs, then turning around and returning them to the store, complaining that they wouldn't play on their CD player/Computer/whatever.
One guy was up to like 10 or more.
Used to let their listeners bring recorders into their concerts and "bootleg" them. While JG was alive, the dead had a following you would not belive.
Their reason for allowing this was the band felt that they had "made thier money" Each member had enough to keep their families set for life.
So despite this lesson, why does the RIAA continue to hurt both the artists and listeners that underwrite their business? Lars isn't selling a BILLION copies of your record enough?
A true artist likes money, but that is never their motivation. Most artists starve until they are discovered (if that happens) and are more than happy to let people MP3 their songs just to "get the word out"
Someone somewhere will write some cool little app to circumvent this little bit of copy protection i'm sure. If people are really fed up with the RIAA don't buy any more big label records then. Check out your local hip-hop, grunge, punk scene and buy music from those guys, they ARE starving and are more than happy to let you copy their stuff.
Quantity does not equal quality RIAA, i'm not buying this noise shit crap you try and schleff off as music anymore. Fuck off!
Think it's idiotic the way the labels go about their copy-protected CD strategy?
Now I don't mean the specific technology used, or the fact that it's stupid in general. I'm referring to their choices of *which* CDs to use the copy-protection on.
So far, they've all been big releases that they're going to sell a million or more copies of (N'Sync, Natalie Imbruglia). They don't do it at all to the smaller releases, which basically ensures a lack of success.
All the copy protection does is make it harder for someone to make an illegal copy. It doesn't make it anywhere near impossible. If you want a copy in mp3 bad enough, you just find a CD player that can play the disk (if you can, of course), run a line into the back of your PC, record it to wave files, then encode to mp3. I ripped a record this way, it'll certainly work for CDs. At that point the guy doing it is probably pissed off at the labels enough to make his freshly made mp3's available on a P2P network of his choice, at which time they get copied over and over again, and the whole "copy-protected" CD is all over the net. Thus all you can really accomplish by putting that crap on a blockbluster CD release is a lot of bad press and a few weeks in delay before everyone has a copy on their hard drive.
With smaller releases, however, it could work. There aren't as many people who want a copy of the music, which means less who have the knowledge and desire to rip the stuff correctly. If the labels put protection on the under-500k-sales category, they might make a serious dent in the amount of pirated music out there because it would be a pain in the ass for all the hackers to get it into the mp3 format, so fewer would bother with smaller releases and the copies would never get made that crucial first time.
It astounds me that the record companies are to stupid to even use the technology they undoubtedly paid a mint for in the correct way. I suppose I should just expect any implementation of technology by them to be exactly backwards by now.
This tagline is umop apisdn.
When congress and senate just listen to big business ... well thats sad. I keep having these dreams where law makers will listen to the people whose votes they need to get in. Why does it seem like they just don't hear us and don't want to? Thats just dirty, underhanded and shifty.
If they were working for me I'd fire them.
We vote these idiots in and then can't fire them when they turn their backs on us. We vote them in, we should be able to vote them out.
Isn't that the grander problem: How to put pressure on politicians so they will do their damn jobs they already get paid for and ignore lobbyists. How do we put fire in their belly's? That feeling like - OH MY GOD I'm gonna lose my job if I don't listen to voters.
I'd like them to feel that for a change.
Greedy bastards.
It's good to see a mainstream figure like Ebert take on this issue. It's not so good that he did so in a column for Yahoo Internet Life. Really would mean much more for him to put this in his usual newspaper column, or to take up the subject on his television show.
they include unauthorized recordings made from radio and television and unauthorized compilation cd's containing tracks from more than one artist's cd.
I sure hope they mean the act of "selling" these types of recordings.
I can't imagine who they think they're preaching to if they mean the act of "making" these types of recordings. If they do, I'd like to see them try to haul 98% of the US population into court for violating their rights!
A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
I like Ebert's plan to take that protected CD and play it from your stereo to your computer in jack. However, I own not a single stereo system.
In the car, I listen to NPR. At home, I sometimes listen to music, from CDs that I have bought and subsequently stored in a safe place after turning them into MP3s. If I wish to listen to a radio station, again it is NPR and streamed off of the internet.
I normally never buy music. When Napster was out, I checked it out. Downloaded a few songs, used the chat feature and was turned on to a few more bands and groups. I downloaded their songs and later found myself buying them at the local music store.
Now that Napster is gone. I am back to listening to the music that my friends listen to. Sometimes, I pick up something that they listen. My listening circle has greatly shrunk these days.
All I can say is way to go RIAA! They get less of my money these days. Which works for me as it is always nice to save a few bucks.
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.sig seperator
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If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
I'm sorry, I can't let such a statement slide.
Think about it! If music lovers were the RIAA's best customers, how do you explain the preponderance of boy bands and Britney Spears? This is hardly music for the real connoisseur, yet it almost entirely fills the major label's profit ledgers.
The sad reality is that most people listen to their CDs in CD players, regardless of how many Slashdotters reply to this telling me something like "oh not me! I only listen to my CD collection on my computer using Linux!" The same goes for Windows. If people listen to CDs on computers, almost all of them will be doing it in Windows, because it dominates a large majority of the desktop and consumer PC market. As long as this market segment is catered to, no one will give a rats ass about the audiophile minority.
"I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots." - George Bush
This is not a flame and no offense intended but I'm getting more than a little sick of seeing people spouting that non-sense sentiment. What are we supposed to do, keep buying cd's because either way they'll put a spin on it. Fuck them, of course they're going to try and put a spin on it. If they could they'd pass laws requiring every US citizen to buy a certain number of cd's a year. That way they'd be sure of their prifits even with "rampant piracy". The solution is still the same. Don't buy them. Speak out against them and let them drive themselves out of business.
I'm the big fish in the big pond bitch.
Like a coked-out rock star being led around by the nose by his manager, the RIAA members are being led around the nose by greedy asswipe lawyers.
Think of it, the lawyers are probably pressing the hardest for these measures, because without a hard-edge stance, there isn't much for them to do. They are trying to justify their own existence.
Does that mean that RIAA members are innocents? Hell no!
What would be cool is if there was a "competing" record company(s) that weren't members of the RIAA that sold CD's at a decent price ($8-$10), didn't do jackass stunts like copy-protection, and actually did something to promote smaller bands instead of the megastars.
I am so surprised that the U.S. government hasn't disbanded the RIAA on the grounds that it's a monopolistic cartel. Get with it, dammit!
Here's something that struck me. Here's a quote from the legal site on the Universal Music Group's site (see the link in the submitted story)
"IF YOU DO NOT OR CANNOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO USE THE PLAYER OR CONTENT."
They are saying that this is a legal contract. They are saying that if you cannot agree then you are not allowed to use the content (listen to the music). Minors cannot agree to legal contracts. Tell me if my logic fails me, but does that mean that minors can't listen to copyprotected CD's? Shouldn't they be, therefore, prohibited from buying them?
It sounds ultra stupid, but it's the RIAA.
One wonders if nsync cds would sell worse without the cd's in the jewels cases.
Not that I am a profesional sociologist with reams of rock hard data, or anything other than just shooting from the hip.
But I would bet that having the music on the cd is less important than having the cd itself. I'm not just saying this because nsynch sucks, but that it might be more important for their "fans" to be part of the pop-culture phenomina than to be enjoying whatever entertainment value the music has intrinsicly. As such, 12 year old girls would be one of the last groups to turn away from the music industry, their not buying the music at all.
--Jimmy has fancy plans; and pants to match.
Roger Ebert has weighed in with a scathing critique of the Universal Music Group and it's new copy-protection scheme which renders CDs unplayable in non-Windows operating systems, DVD players, and CD-compatible game consoles.
Non-Windows operating systems? How did this decision get made I wonder? Has Microsoft leveraged their monopoly in the operating systems market against the music industry to keep out competition from other platforms (Apple) in the music and video markets as well? As one who has used the music and video tools in Windows XP and Apple's OSX, Apple obviously has a better, more refined product and Microsoft knows this. Like just about anything else in their line-up, Microsoft produces third rate products and then leverages their monopoly to prevent better products from getting a fair shake.
I would be most interested if anybody has information that might clarify why non-Windows operating systems are locked out.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
And the model presented (in such a long winded way) is even proven to work! The band marillion has used the method described by crosbie to fund a tour and at least one new album. See this article for more details. I realize they're an exception for now, but couldn't more bands use this method to achieve success and bypass the RIAA?
Political action can have results - even with the money.
Here's a little story. It might seem off-topic at first, but keep reading. After September 11th, despite the fact that general aviation had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks, GA (specifically, the smallest and least harmful aircraft involved in aviation) were grounded for a LONG time (on the order of two months).
The airlines and many politicians have always wanted to get rid of light planes. They are considered a "nuisance" - and this was a way to take our freedoms away (despite the fact the FAA wanted to have GA flying again two days after Sept. 11 since the FAA knows that an aircraft weighing less than a compact car isn't a big threat).
What's this got to do with encryption, the RIAA, MPAA, SSSCA (or whatever they renamed it to this week?)
Political action worked for GA. There are only about 300,000 active GA pilots in the entire country - i.e. about the same as the total number of Slashdot readers. AOPA organized a day where all pilots would call up their local congresscritters - all on the same day.
Every representitive's office in the country got HUNDREDS of calls on the issue of VFR pilots still remaining grounded. They were still getting calls the next day. And the next day.
Very quickly, the issue was a hot topic. Not long after that, the restrictions were pretty much totally dropped.
Slashdot has at least as many regular readers as aopa.org - and this issue has MANY more than 300,000 people interested in the SSSCA (or whatever it's now called) being passed as law.
So it's time for political action. Slashdot should do the same as AOPA did - organize a single day where everyone calls their local representitive and spells out this issue. A few hundred thousand phone calls from voters and they WILL listen. It worked for AOPA and GA pilots - it should also work for us!
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
If you haven't checked out his other collumns, you should. He seems to be a smart guy.b ert&date=011001&page=01 u mnist=eb ert&date=010801&page=01 ...i st=eb ert&date=010101&page=01
In this one: http://www.yil.com/columns/column.asp?columnist=e
he explains why forwarding virus warnings, urban myths etc is a bad idea, and even explains why sending HTML formatted email is bad.
And this one...
http://www.yil.com/columns/column.asp?col
he speaks out on the demise of Yahoo's Adult clubs.
And
http://www.yil.com/columns/column.asp?column
privacy issues at Amazon.com
It almost sounds like he's just a regular geek who likes to watch movies.
The (Hopefully) Great Slashdot Blackout Apr 21-27
We were talking about the latest RIAA atrocities and I offered up my oft-repeated idea of a new record company that's founded with the idea of "Don't screw the artist, don't screw the customer". The foundation of this idea is:
My friend responded to my idea this way: "But if we don't screw the artist and we don't screw the customer, then WHO ARE WE GOING TO SCREW?"
She went on to say "I'm joking of course. but that's how the record companies think. It is completly foreign to them to think that they can make more money by giving up their iron fisted control of the medium. They absolutly believe that if they don't control every aspect of the recording, distribution, promotion, and sale of "their" music then their business will collapse."
This is why the RIAA is not swayed by studies that show that people who describe themselves as "avid Napster users" buy 4 to 6 times more CD's than the average consumer. This is why they don't understand why record sales are this year are 43% of what they were when Napster was alive. This is why they think that Tower records sells more Recordable CDs than pre-recorded CDs because of "piracy".
They don't realize that the reason we're not buying albums is because THE MUSIC SUCKS! I'm sorry but I really don't want to buy any CD by Britney or Cristina or N'Sync or O'Town or any other headphone wearing pop icon manufactured band. And oddly enough, even when they shoot themselves in their own wallet (like when Capitol paid Maria Carey upteen million dollars to "Get The Hell Out Of Our Label") then they STILL don't get it.
So don't be surprised if these articles fall on deaf ears at the record companies. Remember what guitarist Adrian Legg says about record company executives and deafness: "It's actually quite a benefit for them as it allows them to make sound business decisions without being distracted by something so trivial as the tunes".
Two examples: 1) I WILL NOT shop at a CDW location because they INSIST in order for you, the customer to enter, that you turn over your bag with YOUR valuables (cell phone, PDA, laptop? $2000 worth?) to a minimum wage shlub in a cheap uniform. I actually had one say to me,"You have to GIVE ME YOUR STUFF if you want to BUY SOMETHING!" I declined that deal and took my money elsewhere.
They practically strip search you on the way out after you buy something. (AFTER you pay, you have the items and the paperwork reviewed by the security guard before you get YOUR stuff back.)
BTW, CDW, my Fortune 50 employer would OK my purchase of a lot of stuff from you. I don't purchase from you. You keep telling me you think I'm a thief.
2) I just wrestled for three weeks with a brand new Directv/TiVo that insisted the Directv access card wasn't valid. It had a bad card reader but it took a attempted card replacement to figure that out. I BOUGHT the thing. As a customer I was arranging to PAY for the service but I couldn't convince it that I wasn't trying to steal.
I walked out of a CD store because of similar "strip search" policy. I had already decided to slow down CD purchases since they're overpriced and now copy protected.
I also hate it when you have to fight with some scheme to activate software that you bought. They need to be less concerned with the possibility that we will use the product without paying for it and more concerned that we want to use the product at all!
We HAVE TO refuse to do business with companies that assume we're thieves!
Ever dream you could fly? Get up from the Flight Sim. I Fly
The logo doesn't really matter. Most CDs I've bought in the past few years only contain the logo on the inside. It's especially common on CDs where the artist made an effort to make good album art - they rarely put logos like that over the artwork, so its in some inconspicuous place inside the case. Which means you won't know if it has the logo or not until you've already bought the CD.
Brilliant, but one observation:
The biggest mental block facing business today, both online and even with interactive TV companies, is to be unable to think of dealing with the market except as a collection of individuals.
I think this can also be read backwards. Business' mental block is also being unable to deal with people as individuals first. They still cling to the myth of the "mass market" when there is no such thing. Laundry detergent is a mass market product. Everything else is a niche.
The Cluetrain has this concept down cold: craftsmanship will return to the marketplace, and the customers will come to expect it, because craftsmanship is more valuable in the long run than mass produced generic brands, especially for creative products like art and books and software.
So instead of a handful of huge corporations building things on an assembly line (which worked REAL WELL with software lemme tell ya... *gag*), there will be a thousand tiny shops each serving a tiny but growing market and making the economy a thousand times more valuable.
For those businesses that are still chasing the elusive, non-existent "next big thing:" hear that sound? It's the customers you are ignoring knocking on the door and wondering why nobody answers, and then leaving for a much smaller competitor who *does* answer the phone, and on the first ring even.
Years ago (back in the 80's) I read an article in Reader's Digest written by a man that complained about how stores were treating their customers like criminals: making them check their bags at the entrance and later on with anti-shoplifting measures. He was saying something to the effect of never again going into such a store. Today, he would have a very difficult time finding one he could still go to.
Just as nowadays we are completely used to those detectors they put at the door and the tabs that stain clothes when removed, we might grow used to copy protection in our cds if we don't take action now. The next generation will take these measures for granted.
BTW, anti-shoplifting measures are a good thing (imo) as long as they are not intrusive to the customer.
No sig
Since we're on annoying grammatical habits, anybody read "What Color is Your Parachute", or whatever it's called. I read about the first half of the first chapter. The guy writes a warning about how, he knows, he doesn't use commas correctly, but rather, he uses them, wherever he would put, a pause, during speaking. I found it, really, really, hard, to read. Feh. I don't care if the guy doesn't know how to use commas, but why the heck did he feel compelled to require the editors to leave that mess?
People aren't buying anywhere near as much stuff as they used to. If you have everyone selling at the same price, but have a lower floor, all it'd take is someone to shave into their markup some to undercut the competition and sell a LOT more product (remember, selling product is their goal- so they're going to price things according to how much they think they can gouge out of you...).
What makes more money? One $18 CD with a $12 margin or 3 $10 CD's with a $5 margin... You're more likely to see more purchases with the lower cost; if you can balance things right you can make more money by selling for less.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
The RIAA and media companies are using this idea that people of violating copy rights to mask the real objective of their proposed legislation.
Their real goal, is to force independant artists (musicians, videographers, filmmakers) to have to use the big name media companies to get their work to market. The big companies cannot stand the fact that independant artists can produce Hollywood grade material and get it to market without them.
That's what this is really about. They've chosen to use the copyright issue because they feel the general audience (consumers) can understand
such a topic but that consumers would not support such drastic measures if the truth was known.
The people that will feel the suffering the most should all of this crap pass with be those independant artists you find at places like Atom Films or MP3