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CD Copying Kiosks Endorsed in Australia
Iron Sun writes: "While the story is somewhat misleading in stating that the plan legalises piracy, CD copying kiosks have been given the go ahead here in Australia. It will be interesting to see what the Australian Recording Industry Association says about this. Supposedly the plan involves royalty payments to ARIA, but where artists stand is not discussed."
As if I needed more people ripping off my OpenBSD ISO images and giving them to their friends.
--
Theo DeRaadt
Founder, OpenBSD project.
The minute you walk out of the kiosk with two copies of Eminmem's new CD... BUSTED! RIAA cops swoop in and take you off to jail where you're never heard from again. "Fair use is dead!" the RIAA police will scream.
with superior sound quality to home burners and able to outwit anti-copying devices
OK, Apart from $5/burn (or a whole 30CDs before you've paid for that burner), HTF am I going to get better than 44KHz out of a CD? The only interesting thing is that someone decided the copiers weren't illegal in and of themselves.
I have seen these around for a while in Australia. The first one I saw in Melbourne in January, the second in Perth at my university.
In the article it mentions they are superior quality to home burners - I wouldn't have thought there was a difference..?
--- Why are you wearing that stupid bunny suit? | Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?
This is not the man of OpenBSD fame. He spells his name as "Theo de Raadt " [http://www.theos.com/deraadt/]
Time to grab some Moby CDs and book a flight!
Everything will be taken away from you.
...the industry has been cornered into a compromise with the unstoppable pirating of music
When will this industry wake up and realize you're not being cornered into anything! Accept the digital future and capitalize on it! I bet the RIAA/MPAA was "cornered" into accepting VHS only to find out now that it's one of it's biggest cash cows. They never seem to learn from their history. I bet once the conglomerates see how well this works in Australia, we'll see some relaxation on the lobbying from RIAA/MPAA.
Hargun
Think nothing is impossible? Try slamming a revolving door.
Wow. So now, Australians get to watch some Winamp plugins while listening to their freshly copied CDs. When will the plugins be able to output to Ogg Theora?
Experts told the Herald Sun the CD-pirating kiosks -- with superior sound quality to home burners and able to outwit anti-copying devices -- will be a winner with older users.
Can someone explain to me how one digital-to-digital bitwise copy mechanism can result in 'superior sound quality' when compared to another mechanism, using the same data?
It's psychosomatic. You need a lobotomy. I'll get a saw.
Does this service only copy the audio from CDs or data also?
If you're religishitty, KILL YOURSELF!
This article is so slanted it is an outrage!
Has anyone else read it!?
Either the Writer is very very nieve, or is just extremly biast to anyone who copies things.
Even the title, "Pirates in from the cold".
And refering to them as "Piracy Stations" or something.
That articly is outragius, and that person should not be writing about tech.
Someone should write to that newspaper.
In the article, we have this comment,
Michael Speck, of ARIA's anti-piracy investigations unit, said: "Any request or application that is made of the industry is not just point-blank rejected. This is very much a case of watch this space.
"There are many legitimate uses for CD burners. However, experience has shown illegitimate uses as well."
So, when music sales are down, it's because of those damn pirates, but when we can get somebody to pay us, regardless of our principles, then it's a legitimate use.
Yeah, riiight...
wtf ever happened to integrity, or better yet just proper use of the english language? it's called 'copying' because i get a COPY, i don't go into this thing and walk out holding a pirate...
If ``music piracy'' is defined as something similar to ``the illegal copying of music'', then how can the sentence ``plan that legalises music piracy'' be parsed? Once its legal, its no longer piracy.
It would certainly be interesting if AMCOS subsequently tried to crack down on people burning CDs after permitting this. While they do take a royalty payment from it, could it still show that they have given tacit permission to copies?
how dare you trick me into clicking links of hot beautiful women
Yet another case of taxing everyone for the deeds of the few. Unfortunately, Australia has no laws about fair use (ok, they do have exemptions in their version of the DMCA, but only if the material wasn't copy-protected in the first place) so I guess it's better than expected.
Since we're paying royalties, does this mean we're entitled to copy and give these copied CDs away? After all, the artist is being compensated so it's not stealing, is it?
"Einstein argued that [...] God is not capricious or arbitrary. No such faith comforts the software engineer." ~ Brooks
You sir, are a fucking moron.
Now that the first step is being implemented, we only need to take care of a few more steps.
1) lower copyright restrictions to 12 years.
2) require that if any work wants to have copyright protection, that it must submit it to a database for safekeeping
3) Open up all the works in that database that is older than 12 years old.
4) Network these kiosks to allow anyone to download and burn anything they want from the database
5) Now you have a library system that the founding fathers would be proud of.
I thought it was indescribably cool. The floorspace taken up by the dancing routine is a bit wasteful, but if you figure that you can replace several racks of CDs with one of these units I think it is well worth it.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
-a spring loaded fist that punches you if you try and copy any eminem cds
-a spring loaded built in lawyer that will automatically sue you if you try and copy any microsoft OS installation cds
-a beer holder (this is australia)
-australian friendly instructions such as "insert the bloody cd here!"
-anti-croc certification of all machines from the crocodile hunter
GoatPigSheep, the 3 most important food groups
world- first plan that legalises [sic] music piracy.
If it's legal, it shouldn't be called "piracy." Copying a CD as a backup is not piracy. I've always accepted the definition of piracy to be "illegally copying a tape/CD/book/game so you don't have to buy it yourself." Perhaps my definition isn't in synch with the rest of the world's, but piracy is inherently illegal, and there are legal reasons to copy a disk.
Of course, this guy may just be buying into the RIAA rhetoric that CD burners are only used to illegally burn CDs. I really hope nobody is that dumb.
The second reason this article looks amateurish is the technical specs.
with superior sound quality to home burners and able to outwit anti-copying devices
The last time I checked, my CD burner could create perfect copies of a CD. The Australian dollar may be weaker than the US dollar, but I don't think the same thing applies to CD burners.
Finally, there's this odd line:
"It is yet another angle in a technological nightmare the music industry is finding unstoppable."
At this point, I'm beginning to think the author is largely uninformed, but knows how to download music and burn it to a CD. His quote seems like wishful thinking, but the industry has had a number of successes stopping digital piracy (Napster, mp3.com, etc...).
In all, a poorly written article, but an interesting issue. There are some major questions left unanswered. What do the artists get out of it? And the AIRA? Is the technology really any superior to home burning technology? What does this legalization to Australia's status in international copyright treaties?
Finally, how are these copiers any legally different from a Xerox machine?
Since this has turned out to be more of a review of the article than I expected, I feel obligated to give it two stars out of five.
Slashdot has covered this.
The article just adds that some ad-hoc organisation by the of Australian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society has given its 'approval' for a single Melbourne business to trial the machines. AMCOS doesn't hold any official form of power - its just a lobby group.
Explain to me again how this is news?
Janie took my gun...
Unless they have some great plan for channelling the money back to the respective artists overseas this is really just lining their own pockets.
Hey, if I were flogging these kiosks I'd have one outside every music store in the country.
:-)
Customer walks in to music store, looks for suitably copy-protected CD, pays his money, leaves the store, turns left at the doorway, pays his $5 walks back into the store with original CD in one hand, the dupicate in his left, steps up to the counter and says "I want my money back, it won't play in my CD player."
Money changes hands, customer walks out with his new $5 CD.
Six months later the RIAA can't understand why the guy who operates these kiosks now has a bigger house, faster car and larger boat than any of the recording company bosses
Please, can we have a break from sensasionalism.
BTW I think this such is a cool idea. Way to go, Aussies !
That's two words
As an independant artists I would like to know how/if we could contribute music to these kiosks.
If so it would be a great distribution medium for us indy artists
// The fastest Alt-Tab in the West
but it's the funniest thing I read tonight. Cheers.
Been there, seen that. We've had MD song imprinting services here in Tokyo for quite a while. You stick your MD in, pay some money, and press the touch screen to select the song you want to copy. It copies music 32x faster than it takes to listen to it. So if you had a 32 minute song it would take 1 minute to copy.
If the RIAA doesn't like the idea of CD-burning kiosks then they should compete rather than litigate.
If they had half a brain (which they must surely be able to put together by scraping the craniums of all their members) they'd place the following in every record store in the country:
A kiosk that allows customers to "build their own" CD compilations by selecting from a huge list of individual tracks -- paying $0.50 per track or $5 per CD.
I've heard that these kiosks have been trialed elsewhere -- but they were probably shot down by the RIAA who seem intent on forcing us to buy the additional 8-9 tracks of dross that accompany the 1-2 good tracks on most newly released CDs.
But think about it...
This method means that record stores wouldn't need to carry anywhere as much inventory -- they'd be able to store their top 500 albums on a single hard-drive (or two) in the kiosk itself.
By cutting out the packaging, transport, interest on capital tied up in stock, etc, the profit margins could be higher for all concerned, while simultaneously offering a lower sticker-price to the consumer.
It's a win/win situation for everyone - except the freight companies and those who press the CDs we currently buy.
Of course it's such a simple, elegant and great idea that the RIAA are bound to think it must be a trick and therefore they'll never go for it.
Look for a new bill to appear before congress that specifically outlaws such kiosks -- after all, the US government is just another arm of the RIAA isn't it?
From the article:
An agreement was reached between AMCOS transmission licensing director Richard Mallett and Little Ripper CEO Greg Moore in an e-mail exchange late on Friday.
"The terms of the proposed licensing arrangement must remain confidential for now," AMCOS said in its letter to Little Ripper.
So AMCOS, which represents "songwriters and music publishing companies" are giving the green light on the condition that they get a cut of the profits.
But what right do they have to do that? It's not their technology, and these kiosks are clearly just as legal as any other CD-burner, so what gives them the power to muscle in on the deal?
Seriously, what is the answer?
Aussies have superior sound quality enabling technology?! How come /. hasn't covered this? And you say you cover "stuff that matters".
is that while Australias evil music empire thing gets a name like ARIA which actualy makes sense in a music context, we get RIAA, which really doesn't sound like anything. Maybe if they got a better acronym?
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
First you ban GTA3, (a very controversial move), and then you do this?? I wish our government had the balls to do what they think is the will of the people. What they do may not be the best thing in our eyes, but at least they arent tied up in beaurocracy.
Although, they do put vinegar on french fries and beets on hamburgers.... so its a toss up.
In australia the onus to avoid copyright infringement in on the user. So photocopying and CD burning in public and in private are treated the same. Oddly enough there is no need for some changeable, "fair use" docrine since you can copy whatever you like. If at a later date you are found to have breached copyright you can have the book thrown at you.
This approach has the benefit of being enforceable at least.
(one biased aussie's opinion)
imagination is more important than knowledge --Albert Einstein-
``Supposedly the plan involves royalty payments to ARIA, but where artists stand is not discussed.''
...which proves once more that those kinds of institutions care for themselves more than for artists. Seriously, though, I think that CD-copying kiosks are an excellent way to control copying of CDs, to make sure that everything happens in a legal way. Now of course CD-copying kiosks are not the same as CD-pirating kiosks...
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
Hint: it involves a lighter and gasoline!
I'm the Devil the Windows users warned you about.
But won't you rest easier at night knowing a portion from the sale of each OpenBSD CD will go to financing Britney Spears video clips? In fact, she may end up making more money out of OpenBSD than you do...
Xix.
--
"Thous shalt not Brintney Spear" -- TISM
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
Some of us are not poor and don't care, because we can actually afford not to steal all our entertainment.
Why in the world do you imagine they'd want to give that advantage up, even if it makes their position intrinsically inconsistent?
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
Rioters News: Foobaria supports piracy!
:))
After a hot debate, the Government of Foobaria decided to legalize self-serve photo-copying kiosks. Famous book authors are shocked.
CD burner, photocopier, what's the difference? Why does a CD- burner automagically become a piracy tool and at the same time a photocopier is considered just a necessity ?? Is it because the journalists just know how to operate the other one?
Stolen from another topic.
This is pretty sad. One the one hand, the industry is trying to tell us not to copy, and then on the other they allow it. I'm confused, does this mean it's now okay for me to copy discs at home?
$5/disc seems kind of cheap too. I don't agree with the industry's prices, but why does the government have a right to decide how much money goes back to the record company and artists. Surely $25-$5 isn't the cost of manufacture and distribution for a single disc.
What's going to happen when we have 3D printers that can duplicate anything in the future. Will we be able to then copy a DVD player for $5 at some kiosk. Where's the incentive to design and produce DVD players going to come from if this happens?
I reserve the right to backup my own music collection, but piracy hurts us in the end, not just the musicians who's work the pirates supposedly appreciate. If you like the music, pay for it, and then hopefully there will be more. At the same time, hopefully some other royalty stream will open up and allow us to pay less while at the same time returning more percentage to the artists.
...is spelt with one "l".
Is it just me, or does it surpise anyone else that derivatives of the word "pirate" appear no less than 12 times in this article. I think it is kind of odd that they refer to the kiosks as "CD-pirating kiosks," as well. Who said the CDs had to be pirated. It could be a photo CD of someone's last vacation for all anybody knows.
It's nice to see that the news agencies in Austrailia are just as "objective" as those in the US.
All data is speech. All speech is Free.
That's $5 Australian, between $3 and $2.50 US per burn. ($1 Aus this morning was 57c US, but it's been less than 55c US for most of last year). But since according to here CD writers in Oz are only about $125 Aus, then you're right.
Zoe Brain - Rocket Scientist
i see stupid americans, their everywhere
There is a double meaning for the company name "Little Ripper".
;-)
In Australia the word "ripper" is slang for excellent or great.
You often hear someone exclaim "you little ripper!" when they hear good news.
Guess it now also describes the 5-year old burning Wiggles CD's for his mates
smile, it makes everyone else wonder what you're up to
Compared to the Herald-Sun, just about anybody is an expert.
Buckets,
pompomtom
"There's an exception to every rule. Except for some rules"
This isn't something that the artists really CAN get a piece of unless the kiosks track whose songs are getting copied how often. If they have arrangements for a cut of royalties, that's all well and good, but if there's no way to determine who gets how much, the record companies will just hold onto all of it.
In the Netherlands legal problems are often solved by legalizing the crime. This is of course an exaggeration, but think of the infamous drugs and abortion legislation. In that line it is not surprising that although you are not allowed to copy music to (analog) audiotapes for commercial purposes ("fair use") you pay a certain fee for each empty tape (typically $0.25-0.50) as well as any new CD/LP/tape? with contents. (The same fee probably goes for empty CDRs, though I'm not sure)
The money collected does not go back directly into the record industry's pockets, but is distributed by an organisation called Buma/Stemra. (Link is in Dutch only, so use the fish.) Each (Dutch?) artist gets a share, which is statistically determined by Buma/stemra, based on record sales, radio broadcasts and festivals. This "intelectual tax" constitutes only a small amount of money for an individual artist (typically $10-$100 per year, for an amature band that sold 1000-5000 records), but it seems to be a fair start.
Could a system like that work in Australia as well?
Allright, when are we going to realize as a group that the artist's don't see ANY of the money they make off album sales unless they get REALLY BIG?
After lawyers, management, and agents, I'll bet your average musician doesn't get JACK. JACK.
Musicians make their money at the SHOW. IMHO, if you really want to support a band, you steal the recorded music, and buy a ticket to the show.
Why steal the recorded music? Well, because (as has been proven, although I won't cite the proofs 'cause my right hand's been cramping up all day).
Ok, the reason *I* BLATANTLY pirate music (Yes, I said "pirate", I really do rape and pillage and burn down record companies) is because I do NOT want my money to go to the record companies. I work damn hard for my money, and I"m not about to surrender it to some freak who just needs it to support his coke habit. Fuck him.
Let's not forget that Metallica became superstars by promoting piracy (then called bootlegging) of their music. THAT'S what put them on the charts. It sure in the fuck wasn't talent.
Same reason I steal software from Microsoft. Because I don't want to give them my money. They've got plenty, the don't need mine. It was fun for awhile, then I "got real" and threw Windows out my window. Why? Because just running it (even if it was stolen) promotes the platform. This is different than the music industry.
So, I'll keep stealing my music, and I'll keep going to shows and giving the bands my dedication and support. Consider: $20 for a CD, $25-60 for a ticket.
Later on, we'll talk about TicketMaster ripping off artists...
There have been two such machines at Murdoch University here in Perth for at least two years.
These have been at my university (UWA) a couple of months now. The machine is right outside the photocopying place, which sells blank CDs.
It seems to be intended more for backing up data - it'd be a right pain to have lost your thesis because the CD it was burnt on was lost/unreadable/etc
Bah this always happens...
The currency conversion factor does not make as much a difference as you think...
Yeah a 32x burner can be acquired for less than $100 AUD, which turns out to be $57 US - now compare that to the US price - anyone care to comment?
Mostly because it works for them and they would rather fight tooth and nail rather than have to relearn a job that would pay less and a bit less secure.
I would think someone like MP3.com would be all over this. Then I doubt it would be of a matter of linking these kiosks to their site and people could actually hear the songs before sliding in a roll of quarters.
Then one thing still gets me, where did the term Kiosk come from?
There are at least 2 of them at the local shopping centre, AU$2 to burn a CD, you supply the blank,
If you live in a contry that tax cd-r/w
you propably allready pay for the "posible"
music you gona to steal
So go buy CD-R, and fell free to downalod and
burn mp3 that you dont own track.
Personaly, i dont do it because ther published
music suck!... maby ppl will pay (more ?) if thers stuff was good.
-bob
exactly. Same thing with patents, also - the intent was NOT to lock up ideas so that no one else could use them, the intent was to encourage the release of ideas into the public domain by allowing a "grace period" for the inventor to make a few bucks... it was intended to discourage manufacturers from keeping trade secrets. Since we have a government of the rich, for the rich and by the rich, lobbying flipped the intent of intellectual property law 180 degrees. Disney actually got the law changed specifically to protect the first Mickey Mouse films from entering the public domain in a few years.
This space available.
Hardly surprising that news.com.au label this as "legalizing piracy." - they're owned by Rupert Murdoch, the biggest media mogul in Australia, who also owns several recording companies and music stores.
CD Burners make exact copies.
Photocopiers produce highly imperfect replicas.
... they can always add a Internet connection to the kiosk and check with the common cd databases (like cddb). If the CD is found it's probably a audio CD and they could ask more money to copy it or give a disclaimer about copying such cd's.
I am not against copying audio CD's but am also not for it; it's the best of both worlds it should happen for private usage but it should not happen for piracy.
my 2 eurocents.
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
Then I won't have to take my iPod with me "shopping"....
I assume we are talking about the CopyCat CD burning kiosks , made/sold by Multi-Tech Australia .
These kiosks copy the bips 'n blips on the CD track directly through hardware, they have no software to read the track, or the formating information on the CD, for that matter.
So any errors or copy protection gets copied too & it doesn't matter if its a non-ISO or part non-ISO formated CD being copied.
They will copy HFS, BFS or packet formatted CDs, no problem.
I remember reading a a blurb about these kiosks (some supermarkets in Adelaide have them) & the CD reader just records the bip 'n blips on the CD being copied & the burner just copies those blips 'n bips onto the new CD in realtime.
Really they work more like punch-card copiers than tradition PC CD burning apps.
Consequently there's no way for these copiers to tell if the CD is copyrighted or has copy protection, as such there's no 'by design' copy protection by-passing software/hardware built in. Plus as there's no way for the machine to tell if a CD is copyrighted there's no 'moral perogative' to reject such CDs.
In a way the machines get arround the copyright laws the same way the Kazaa P2P network did in the Dutch courts. Like Kazaa it has legit functionality (backing up personal data or tranfering personal data, as is the case with Kazaa) & like Kazaa the design from the start has no ability to tell what's being copied & whether it copyrighted or has copy protection.
Hence AMCOS only choice other than a 6% levy was a long court case that they'd most probably lose. Really multi-Tech (or who ever) just decided to agree to the 6% levy because it saves a long drawn out court case & its easily passed on.
There's not much new here, only the roylaty payments stuff.
Here is the earlier story from april.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
So this kiosk will be paying royaltist, and its being put up there legally. So why do they use the word pirate (or other variation of the same, pirating, etc) 10 times? This is not piracy. Its legal! HELLO! Get a clue people.
Oh, hell, I'll bite. How about a 32x12x40 burner for $49 US with free shipping?
I hope that comment sufficed.
If Australia's laws are anything like Canada's, it may not have been illegal anyways. See:3 6621
http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/C-42/36498.html#rid-
and tell me if a CD copying kiosk would be illegal in Canada. I'm sure the record companies don't want the Canadian public to know about this law.
... and two "m"s.
When you're done, you should notice some substantial differences in cost, effort required, and quality of the resulting copies between the CD burner and the photocopier. Those are more than enough to make the latter infeasible for most piracy uses.
It's very easy if you cut the binding off the book and use a copier that has an autofeeder tray for the source documents.
Granted this is a little more effort to duplicate the book, but the basic premise is valid.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
You still end up with an imperfect copy with no binding.
If you copy a CD, you get a perfect (well, almost perfect; you can't hear the difference) copy, with no "binding".
Also, photocopying a book generally works out costing more than just buying a copy new, or at least, it does here in the UK. At an average of about 5p a copy, 2 pages per sheet, and say 300 pages per book, that's 150 copies or £7.5. The book probably only costs about £6-£7 brand new; what's the point?
Cheers,
Tim
It's official. Most of you are morons.
You may be familiar with this new concept called "digital" that makes copying easier. Digital is really cool, I'm expecting slashdot to do a story on it any day now.
It's a win/win situation for everyone - except the freight companies and those who press the CDs we currently buy.
It's not a win/win situation for the record companies. Go have a heart-to-heart with somebody who benefits from the current situation-- anywhere from an enthusiastic studio exec to a recording engineer or financially successful artist. Ask them how they feel about the "CD model", and what they think of your idea.
That conversation will pretty much blow away your hopes for voluntary change. The problem is simple: CDs are too sweet a deal. By packaging 9-12 tracks of varying quality onto a single album, the labels can often pull in a reasonably high take even if the album only has one or two hit singles. This reduces promotional costs, and increases profit ratios. Even if CD prices dropped to the ultra-low $5 you suggest, the labels would still be far better off forcing you to buy packaged CDs vs. mixing and matching.
This is not a fortuitous coincidence. This situation is responsible for an enormous share of the labels' revenue. They will fight like demons to keep it in place. They may lose that fight, but they won't do it quietly.
How do they even know that someone deserves royalties? If I copy a an audio CD of me singing songs I wrote, will they waive the royalties?
Yes and you can get gasoline from water, gold from lead and cold fusion works. Are you just trying to drive traffic to this site or do you have a grudge with them and want to see them /.'ed? I looked for substantiation of what you said and I don't see anything that makes such claims on the page you linked (and I'm to damned busy to waste my time ferreting the site).
Please don't provide bogus claims and links. You just waste electrons which pollutes the environment.
The Music Industry is only hanging on because they have legally enforceable contracts which musicians continue to sign. The Industry currently performs two functions: promotion, and making copies for people who can't do it themselves (or are afraid to). As more bands promote themselves on the Internet, and these kiosks take over the copy-making function, there will eventually be no reason for a musician to sign one of those contracts.
Poof.
The USA has huge protections on its domestic market, adding insane tariffs to imports (like electronics from Japanese companies.) For example a Toyota that costs US$X in the USA will cost (approximately) CAD$X in Canada, even though US$1 == CAD$1.52 (woo, it's gone up!!)
I have a habit of buying retail CDs, I don't bother downloading or copying unless I'm desperate or broke. Only time I'd download a song just so I can listen to it more and 99% of the time I buy the album of that artist I heard the song from. I have well over 520 CDs stuffed under my bed and still going. And yes, Moby's new album isn't very good.
There is a huge difference between digital copying and VHS. The delivery mechanism: The content for VHS tapes came either from the store or over the TV/Cable. Sure, you could tape movies off the TV or through cable, but it was a huge hassle. You had to start and stop the tape at the right time. You couldn't go search for the movie you wanted a copy of etc.
Internet file sharing networks change all that. You can ask for the song (or soon movie) you want and make a copy in a couple of minutes.
VHS was a new delivery technology that required a tape plant, trucks, retail outfits, etc. There were choke points where IP laws could be enforced. There are none of these now.
The analogy doesn't hold: MPAA was wrong about VHS. It didn't hurt their industry. They may very well be right about P2P and CD burners. These may prove highly damaging to an industry that produces, like it or not, a signifigant portion of our mass culture.
... can also be described as:
[ ] a crime against humanity;
[ ] training for terrorists;
[ ] WAKE UP JEFF!
[ ] infringing Wags the Dog's copyright;
[ ] CowboyNeal?
--
E_NOSIG
It had better be a perfect copy. Some people are probably going to use these for data CDs
-no broken link
MUSICAL TROLL RULES! MUSICAL TROLL RULES!
UnF! UnF! UnF!
Oh BaBy!
UnF! UnF! UnF!
http://goatse.cx http://goatse.cx http://goatse.cx http://goatse.cx
Given that the cost of the media and packaging is barely 50 cents (when bought in bulk), and the artists only get about a dollar per CD sold, this is a good way to eliminate most of the overhead, and give MORE money to the artists while still selling CDs for $5-$6.
Large record stores lined with shelves of CDs could be replaced with smaller shops with a number of kiosks where you can listen to samples, and then burn a CD when you're done. There would be a server in the back room to which the kiosks are connected, with terabytes of music files and a system for tracking how many of each album is sold so royalties can be paid.
Instead of receiving a scheduled truckload of inventory plus maintaining perhaps a large storage area somewhere, regular delivery of the inventory could be either a small box of media or by broadband connection. Smarter stores would have a web site where you could pre-order the CDs you want and pick them up later at the store or have them mailed to you.
With all the reduction in that overhead of real estate, delivery, packaging and storage, it should still be possible to sell the CD for $5-$6 while giving the artist $2 and make a decent profit. And because they are so cheap, most people would buy more CDs than they already do now, bringing even more profits.
But alas, where are the record companies in this deal? That's why they're fighting against technology so much. To get an album on the market, all you'd really need is a recording studio, and some stores willing to reserve a few hundred megabytes on their servers for your music. And I expect they would be much more willing to give up a few cents worth of disk space than to do what it costs them now to stock your album.
I wonder how these thigs would go copying copy protected CD's. Would you have to take to them with the texta first or would it jam up the machine and screw the firmware :)
According to ARIA figures, blank CD sales are now about 450 million units a year globally.
We go through several hundred CD-R's a year for entirely legitimate use. Attributing blank CD sales to piracy is moronic.
/* Linus is The One
From the Australian Copyright Council Fact Sheet: (PDF)
"Einstein argued that [...] God is not capricious or arbitrary. No such faith comforts the software engineer." ~ Brooks
You can discuss this story at Zeropaid, too.
I attempted to inquire about investing in some of these kiosks from a site called Copyvend (can't remember the URL - do your homework). They wanted 100k upfront for the licensing rights to the north eastern US. Unfortunately this vendor could not produce anything more than a couple of photographs for this kiosk. There was skimpy ROI and target audience information on their web site. There was also no indication of a place that I could go and see this in operation (ie: 7-11 or Walmart type location). The operators of this company also wanted the license owners to deploy their own marketing plan including creation of brochures and whatnot. Either this competing company hasn't a clue what's going on or isn't ready for mainstream investing. Either way, they're in up to they're dingo eyeballs in copyright infringement. Think the RIAA cracks down hard on the Internet Radio stations? Check again - the companies are bound to fight for the VCR-oriented defense, but it's not going to hold ground. Good luck to them.