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EMI Customer Relations Tells It Like It Is
hype7 writes "The Register is running a story about the most outrageous email sent from a customer services rep at BMI in Germany to a customer who had difficulty playing a copy-protected CD in his CD player. One of the most stunning lines from the translation: "If you plan to continue protesting about future audio media releases with copy protection, forget it; copy protection is a reality, and within a matter of months more or less all audio media worldwide are copy protected. And this is a good thing for the music industry. In order to make this happen we will do anything within our power - whether you like it or not.""
but it was copy protected.
Slashdot, home of supporters of free software, free music, and free speech.Except for Moderators that disagree with you.
the music died a few years back anyway, all we have now is non-talented crap filling the airwaves.... no great loss
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
What property is being stolen?
Now I can't buy anymore CDs, whether the music industry likes it or not. Which of us is going to blink first?
Can You Say Linux? I Knew That You Could.
If this customer service rep was not just a malcontent and really was telling the customer what was passed down from management, BMI is shooting itself in the foot.
You know, like programs. Would you like it if your coworker went to your boss and claimed that all the code you produced was his work and then got a raise out of it?
Complete and utter. However vile and loathsome record companies might be, I do not believe that any one of their drones would say such a thing. It sounds like typical FUD/satire/what-not. Can anyone establish the veracity of this supposed email?
Pax Digitalia
Think you could fix the submitters comments? The posted letter is from EMI, as the title correctly notes, and not BMI as stated in the submitters remarks.
The scary part is that this comes from a Customer Service Rep. CS Reps don't formulate their own ideas, they get them from management. This is a clear indication of the corporate doctrine being taught. It must be in full swing to have reached this level, and for this action to be already taking place. Feared...
I never, ever, play CDs anywhere but on a computer. I therefore will never buy a CD I cannot play on a computer. I am not alone.
Besides, their first attempt was defeated by a permanent marker. What will the next one be defeated by? A stapler?
Oh well.. give the RIAA enough rope, and it will hang itself. It's already acting like it's having a nervous breakdown. And with the GOP running the Senate, Fritz Hollings (aka Senator Disney) has no chance in hell of getting his SCCCCCCCCCCA bill passed.
Maybe I should buy some stock in Sanford (manufacturers of Sharpie markers)...
"All your Ace of Base are belong to us."
Don't they realize that they more they antagonize the music-sharing community the harder they will work to circumvent the copy protection? Even on the artists that really suck. It's all about principal now.
I can see the PR department at EMI kicking into high gear now...
I wonder if that CS Rep would like some salt for their foot?
Dark Nexus
"Sanity is calming, but madness is more interesting."
Which isn't to say that a platform can't fail - vis. the Mini Disk. But there's a difference between a platform failing and trying to imagine that simple competitive pressue exists for musical content.
Firstly, The Register is the National Enquirer of the net. Take it with a huge grain of salt.
Secondly, even if this letter were authentic, it could very well be the result of a disgruntled employee who had a really bad day and just didn't give a shit anymore. Unless someone can show me widespread responses along the same line, or a mandate that this is the official response, I'll take this as no more than one guy. While the truth is that they are actively pursuing copy protection, which is their right, I find the overly hostile and confrontational content of the letter incredibly dubious.
how much grief Garth Brooks took when he protested people reselling used cds...
I think we have a new "piss off the public" " king-of-the-hill now...
In the Portland, Ore area and like card games? Check out: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/portlandgames/
I won't buy any more Music CDs.
Unless of course they are not copy protected. Most of their music sucks balls anyways.
they will do anything within their power, apparently including going out of business by producing media no one can play or will pay for. Smart guys at BMI, they seem to have stumbled onto an alternate reality or somthing.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
excellent first post sir. But with pederasts like cmdr nacho and michael around, you really should be careful what you wish for.
Achtung! Die Kraftwerk CD ist Copie-Protekt. Ich mache es kaputt.
*shooting in background*
I know people have mentioned it before; but if you listen to some of the 128kb MP3 files out there, a recording taken from the headphone jack could be an improvement. Rather than fight copy protection, I think we should educate the "pirates" as to a good encoding system (Ogg, LAME MP3)
Overrated / Underrated : Moderation
I'm not a big fan of this action, but I can understand BMI's point. Imagine for a second how it would be if you wrote a song and discovered a few months later that BMG had released a CD in which someone had recorded that song without your consent.
You'd be pretty angry about it.
This is exactly how BMI feels. I know I'm not taking the popular stance by not denouncing "facists tactics" or whatnot. But the truth is that BMI needs to protect its property. I think we should give them credit for at least being upfront about it.
C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
Why don't we simply boycott CD's, it would take a lot of effort and restraint by people, but I think if we banded together and worked towards a common goal we could send a message to the RIAA and record companies. Belly aching about how they shouldn't do this does absolutely no good. We need to stand up in mass against the recording industry and tell them "No we will not be treated like criminals, we will only buy CD's that work in any equipment and the US courts have shown time swapping to be legal".
Lets do something about this. Something other then complaining and giving up.
To paraphrase the NRA:
You can have my money when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.
Most CD Players coming out these days use Data-Type CD units - which means most of the newer players will not play the newer discs. One case of where newer is not necessarily ideal, I guess. But the real numbers of "new" players should really include PC's too, and I'd have to wager that more PC's are sold in the US than new component CD players.
NONE of the PC's will be able to play these CD's.
So, basically they are dramatically limiting the market of the their discs because of a perception that less CD's are being sold due to file-sharing. This "lesser" amount is easily accounted for by the no longer booming economy. In case they haven't noticed, everything is doing worse, not just CD sales.
Do they really think that the dramatic loss of potential CD players is better than the small perceived loss due to file-sharing? If they do, they need to get a clue.
I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them. Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992)
The customer is always right! If we want free music then they should give it to us!
1) Copy-protection on CDs is a losing battles. Computers can always be modified to get around copy protection schemes. And even if they can't, there will always be the "analog" hole. I can always take an embedded device like a CD player and pipe it straight into my sound card. 99.9% fidelity, copy-free recording.
2) None of it matters, because if one person buys a copy protected CD, does the above, and puts it on p2p, the pee-in-the-pool effect kicks in, and the copyprotection-free version will be around forever.
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
They must be freaking geniuses if theyu can figure out a way to copy-protect vinyl.
With all the hype surrounding Microsoft and Sony wanting to place console/PC style hardware at the heart of every home's entertainment systems (taking on the role of the CD/DVD player), I wonder how long it's going to take the non-recording big boys to turn around, and start complaining that the recording industry is about to ensure that their plans are being rode roughshod over...
Also, considering that most people who buy stuff want it to work anywhere and everywhere, I wonder how long it'll take the general public to simply stop buying, as it's no longer 'safe' to do so..
Especially with some of the new laws in the EU, and the UK being put forward as also written on The Register. And if people buy even less than they did before they protected the media, who are they going to blame? Perhaps this is a case of things needing to get worse before they get better, and perhaps even be a case of the big recording industries shooting themselves in the foot and crippling themselves..
Malk
Anyone want to take bets on the one straw that will break the consumer's backs?
Personally, I think it will come when people regularly cannot play discs in their cars. Or PlayStations/Xboxen. There's a lot of 'convergence' devices out there. Furthermore, in the car example, many manufacturers are actually using CD-ROM mechanisms in dashboard players simply because they are cheaper and more error-tolerant (except of course, in the case of purposeful errors introduced by the record companies).
Ph33r my mighty analog plug, you slack-jawed marketroid fuckwits.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
on the radio, go to the concerts....that way the band gets ALL the cash and you are screwing the record company (aslong as you don't buy a cd at the concert)
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
But something touched me deep inside,
The day the music died.
The music industry is trying to copy protect something that isn't really physical. Information can be stored anywhere there is matter and when they sell you that information you must be able to listen to it. As long as we can listen to the music they sell, there is no way to copy protect it from duplication. It's all spin and hype so they can get a harder grip on their market. The sad thing is that I think some of them truly believe what they are saying. My these people are slow.
Well now that Bertelsman and EMI have made their intentions known about copy protection for Audio CDs. The used CD market will become much more popular. New CD's will take a noticable decline for at least 6 months. Note that the article at New Scientist, notes that copy protection will apply to PC CD drives, not to most personal audio CD drives. I don't think there would be anything wrong with hooking the line out from a regular audio CD drive into your computer audio in and RIPing the audio to MP3 or your format of choice. And there goes the fruitless attempts of copy protection. The computer game companies figured out a long time ago that copy protection is a hopeless cause. I wonder what will be next, mandatory registration of all audio CD with biometric restricted access!?
With customer service like that, how can anybody complain? (without getting arrested, I mean).
For many companies, marginal products are often offset by good support.
For the music industry, it seems that they offer 90% of the time is a poor product (and one that's getting increasingly poor as copy-protection makes them less compatible).
The attitude toward the majority of consumers is that we're all music pirates.
And now this. There is no customer service, and an increasingly degraded product.
And yes, they wonder why CD sales are down? Truly, what do the major music companies have to offer except a bunch of aging big-names and song-of-the-moment artists who have been caught in contract hell?
I'm always curious to find out how they get stats like this. Where do they get the 250 million blank CDRs and tapes number? Sales alone is rather inaccurate, as it fails to account for data and photo CDs, as well as what *could* be considered legitimate backup CDs.
But obviously, all CDRs that are purchased are for the sole purpose of piracy...
As a techie, I am quite confident I will never have a problem getting my music for free. With kazaa and my cd-rw, I havent bought a CD in years (come get me, jackasses). Even if I did buy a copy-protected CD I am sure I could break it (if I can hear it, I can rip it, duh).
My grandmother (and any other AOL user, really) on the other hand, if she had the experience mentioned on the register, she would be pretty much out of luck. So, this policy really only hurts the non-tech-savvy.
so BMI hates my grandmother
From now on, I am going to make a point of trying to find BMI stuff to download off kazaa. Guess I better learn to like n'stync
I think we can look forward to the same with the music industry.
As Mark Twain once said (something like), History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
Give a hand, not a hand-out.
So for years we have all bought CD-ROM players for our computers to play audio CDs. How many millions of them are floating around now-a-days? And now the music industry seems to be taking an attitude of thumbing its nose at us. You know, my wife and I don't have a stereo/CD/home entertainment center. (We've been saving up to one day buy a nice one.) On top of that, I haven't really bought a CD in a long time (aside maybe from a couple soundtracks). The way things are going, I might as well save the cash on buying a CD player component all together: I won't have CD's to play on it since in the meantime they won't play on my PC. Gee... start calling me Blue Beard, I guess. I never thought *I* would come to this. (sigh)
As others have already mentioned, it's questionable that the email is real, due to the absolutely combatative attitude contained in it.
That said, I'm going to treat it like it was legit for the remainder of this post.
1. there's something stinky in the music industry, and it's their general attitude that -all- of their consumers are pirates. Fuck that noise. They wouldn't -exist- if it were for the bands and their fans.
2. I play music on my computers -exclusively-. if a cd won't play because it's copy protected, then they obviously don't want my business. oh wait, that's right, they'ver already said they don't want my business....(points at point #1).
Seriously, though: a boycott here -will- -not- -work-. which is unfortunately. Why won't it? Because the bands' fans will still buy, regardless of the new effort it will take to listen to the CDs.
*mutters*
At one time (for most of history), musicians primarily made their performing live. Composers made money by having their music published (for musicians to perfom live...).
Anyway, maybe cheap digital recording, file sharing, etc. will bring about the end of the recording industry and the music industry will go back to the old model.
Maybe the last hundred years will be seen as an anomaly in music history and the music industry will primarily be considered a live performance and publishing business.
Yet Another Web Site
I have for the most part been on the side in this issue. People I knew who downloaded free music I used to encourage to buy the music they really like so that the artists get their cut.
/. when I am ready.
Not anymore. I have a CD collection of well over 300 CDs I have bought over the past ten years. I am no longer going to buy ANY pre-recorded music until the industry stops treating good, responsible consumers like myself as criminals.
I am going to catalog my CD collection and put it on eBay. I will donate the proceeds to the EFF.
I will send the link into
--Jon
They still have their precious data. And one more copy isn't going to break the bank. It's a victimless crime.
Hmmmm... so let me get this straight... These CDs are copy protected, yet we can still get them off Kazaa and other P2P networks. Yet the legit customers have difficulty playing these CDs. So exactly what did this accomplish for the record companies? Ahh yes, MORE piracy. Great idea guys! Way to go! This is like saying "Our software is being pirated because it costs too much. We are going to have to raise the price of our software to compensate". Any ways, why WOULD any one buy these RageAgainstTheKornBizkit Cds???
Branding all customers as pirates, giving out terse PR statements, and not providing satisfactory responses are just consequences of the record companies having exclusive access to popular media.
Look at the airline industry: polite, apologetic, and responsive. Why? There's hundreds of competitive airlines out there.
Look at the Record Industry: rude, unresponsive, and completely devoid of PR sense -- Consequence of record companies colluding with each other record companies to maintain their monopoly.
There ARE avenues of competition, such as pay-per-use Internet media distribution, but they nixed it at governmental levels because it threatens their monopolistic attitude.
What record companies don't understand is that if they treat consumers with respect and ship products at reasonable prices to compensate for a good piece of recorded media, consumers would be more inclined to purchase such products instead of downloading it off of Kazaa. What's worse is that these "state of the art" copy protection measures are so breakable that they tend to show up on Kazaa in no time flat.
------
Amadaeus
The last bastion of Mathie-ism
Time to get the news out.
Write you your representative in congres / parliment and ask what they are doing about this kind of monopolistic abuse. Ask them to consider making new laws to protect the uninformed consumers.
In europe, where consumer rights still exist, it has atlease some chance of makeing a difference.
- Ost
---- Sig. gone.
Boy, these music execs seem to be a bit dull don't they?
:-)
I mean, if they're going to copy-protect *all* CDs, how will they know whether it's a move that pays dividends?
Surely, if they are really going to get an accurate indication as to the effect that CP has on sales, they need to include a "control" represented by some albums sold on unprotected disks.
If the sales of the unprotected albums remains unaffected but the sales of CP disks goes up or down then they're much better positioned to determine the commercial merit of CP.
It's almost as if they don't care whether CP affects sales isn't it?
What next? Copy-protected audio cassettes that come pre-tangled?
I don't really buy a lot of CDs, nor do I get a lot of music online. The reason: some of the acts that the record cos. put on platters totally s*ck. The most salutary (and ironic) effect of this trend toward copy protection of CDs, movies, etc. would be for people to drop out of the slavish worship of mass culture-- the top-down delivery of music, movies, literature, and news. Whether it's because you can't afford it anymore, or because you are disgusted with their antics, it is increasingly becoming an attractive alternative. Wouldn't it be refreshing for us to drop a dime on a local club, where we can hear a band play live music? Hell, even if they are covering someone else's tunes, it would be better than stuffing the pockets of greedy record companies, who feel they owe us nothing and apparently think they own us. We owe them nothing.
Always look on the briight side of life! (whistle, whistle)
"Only this much: There are 250 Million blank CDRs and tapes bought and used this year for copying music in comparison to 213 Million prerecorded audio media. This means the owners are only being paid for 46 per cent of the musical content. For a comparison: In 1998 almost 90% of all audio media was paid for. " How do they know that these 250 million CDRs are used for copying music? And besides, I'm allowed to make a copy of music I already own. Just because I burn a CDR of music doesn't necessarily mean that I don't own the music that's on it.
The music industry has taken the stance that we are criminals until proven innocent. They have gotten tariffs imposed on blank CDs because apparently we're using all these blanks to copy their music, not back up our data.
Well Music Industry, call me a thief often enough and I'll adopt that role. It will be a cold day in Hell before I buy another CD from a major music publisher.
There you go, your prophecy is self-fulfilling, go take a long, hard suck on my ass.
Trolling is a art,
within a matter of months more or less all audio media worldwide are copy protected
this will never happen. they forget about the independent musicians who actually want you to copy their music and distribute it as widely as possible.
Gyrate Dot Org - "Where high-tech meets low-life"
... I have just recently implemented wallet-protection technology. It completely prevents the Record Labels from recieving any money from within my wallet. This radical step is necessary because their business practices force me to tightly control where my money goes. Only legitimate businesses should recieve money from people's wallets.
I haven't bought a RIAA CD in 3 years....
Jaysyn
There is a war going on for your mind.
I would think that we'd now be able to return cd's to the store stating that I wasn't capable of playing the cd on my player. Enough returns and the stores selling these CD's will begin cutting back orders.
I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widdowed bride.
But something touched me deep inside,
The day, the music died.
But you probably knew that anyways.
The tona was a little bit hars, at maybe the employee that wrote it will have hard times when the news about his actions spread, but it probably is honest. The music companies run for profit and they see the people that copy illegal their music as criminals (also copying from LP and MC-s have always been illegal).
On the other hand if I have bought an audio CD and I want to play it on my PC, then I SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO THAT, because I am not stealing anything!
And I have bought the audio CD as playable on all red-book compliant players and I have bought my CD-ROM drive as red-book compliant, SO THE CD SHOULD PLAY!
Also, it is just a matter of time, until the CD-ROM drives come with a simple button that makes them ignore all the tracks after the first one (on which most of the protections rely), so it becomes automatically CD-protected-ROM compatible. Maybe just wait until the december shoping fever?
I am not last, I am first counting backwards
ok, fair enough. I can deal with the desire to copy-protect, but whan I'm just trying to *play* the damn thing, it tends to get irritating. The attitude reflected in the story doesn't help anything, either. FWIW, the big music industry hasn't made $1 USD from me in >= 5 years, and they're not going to until they start to "get it". This especially means producing something that I might actually want to pay for, instead of an endless stream of recordings with one big hit on each, where the rest is "filler material".
Also, in case anyone is wondering: I remember very well having similar troubles during the transition from vinyl LP's to cassette tapes... and thence to cd. I still own my copies of the above-mentioned media, and it's rare indeed (perhaps once or twice a year) that I feel compelled to use p2p networks.
Practical upshot is, if I could find the music, etc. I love on cd or whatever, I prolly wouldn't use the p2p thing at all... but NO, we've got to have the business types try and determine our tastes thru their sales figures, and then listen to them bitch bout p2p, etc...
C|N>K
I haven't bought a major label CD for years. I've found more than enough good music through independant and small groups. I've even had a group accept a small payment online and download a few of their songs that I could burn to CD myself. The very few big-label songs I do want I grab off the radio to tape, and if I really want it on CD, I'll record it a few times and remaster it on my PC. Sure it takes a little time, but its fully within fair use.
frob.
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement
"Even without a degree in economics everyone should realise that such trends will result in the music industry ceasing to exist."
Ummmm, I dont think this will stop music artists from making music, or people from listening to the music they make. However, greedy, middle-man, companies may find that they have become out-dated and go out of buisness. I am sure we will find a way to go on without them though. Who knows, maybe a high school student from MA will come up with an inovative way to do just that, oh wait.......
1. CD's get copy protected
2. People can't play these CD's and stop buying new CD's
3. The music business sees the drop in sale and assumes more piracy
4. They encrypt CD's differently
5. Goto 2
It's a vicious circle....
A longtime /. reader (too lazy to log-in), I know this news would once bring outrage here. But now there's very little concern. No one cares if they copy-protect. It's not apathy - most people here know the RIAA and their cronies lost this battle years ago.
:)
The RIAA is an endless source of ha-ha for me. They wear the emporer's new clothes, but refuse to believe it was their own choice to wear them.
Popcorn, anyone?
...all they can do is (possibly) prevent people from making perfect digital copies. There is no way they can stop people from simply re-digitizing what comes out of a line out port. Seeing as how all compressed music sounds a bit funky anyhow, the slight distortion you get from re-digitizing is unimportant. They can't stop piracy, but they are doing a good job of pissing off their paying customers. This is good. Once the people that have a stranglehold on the music industry are floating tits up in their swimming pools, all those great basement recording artists will have a chance to get their music listened to. As a crappy basement recording artist, I couldn't be happier about it all. Art is not supposed to be an industry.
From the article:
There are 250 Million blank CDRs and tapes bought and used this year for copying music in comparison to 213 Million prerecorded audio media.
I'd like to see where these numbers come from. Personally, (yea I know, I shouldn't put my personal anecdotes on top of the population.) I have bought nearly 2000 CDRs for myself and school.
For school, we put our "Publication/School Newspaper" on the CD and give it to students for a keepsake. For my private use, CDRs are a cheap easy server backup format. Toss in a CD. scribble a date and put it on a spindle. If/when I need to roll back my home network server. viola.There it is.
Have I ever used a CDR to copy a commercial Music CD? Yes. Once. I have a Vitamin C CD (It was a gift--honest) and it wouldn;t play in my CD Player. So I ripped it (methinks there was copy protection on it) and burned it to a CDR. Viola. Now I can listen to the CD that was rightfully mine to listen to.
When The music industy pays to upgrade my listening equipment so that I can listen to their music, then maybe I'll consider not complaining.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"First things first -- but not necessarily in that order"
-- The Doctor, "Doctor
There's unlimited supply
And there is no reason why
I tell you it was all a frame
They only did it 'cos of fame
Who?
E.M.I. E.M.I. E.M.I.
Too many people had the suss
Too many people support us
Un unlimited amount
Too many outlets in and out
Who?
E.M.I E.M.I E.M.I
And sir and friends are crucified
A day they wished that we had died
We are an addition
We are ruled by none
Never ever never
And you thought that we were faking
That we were all just money making
You do not believe we're for real
Or you would lose your cheap appeal?
Don't judge a book just by the cover
Unless you cover just another
And blind acceptance is a sign
Of stupid fools who stand in line
Like
E.M.I E.M.I E.M.I
Unlimted edition
With an unlimited supply
That was the only reason
We all had to say goodbye
Unlimited supply (E.M.I)
There is no reason why (E.M.I)
I tell you it was all a frame (E.M.I)
They only did it 'cos of fame (E.M.I)
I do not need the pressure (E.M.I)
I can't stand those useless fools (E.M.I)
Unlimited supply (E.M.I)
Hello E.M.I
Goodbye A & M
"I don't think it's selfish, to eat defenseless shellfish." -NOFX
...you really have to admire their honesty! It takes sheer b*lls to send an email that so effectively packages the "internal voice" of EMI.
Question: Does "copy-protection" work?
No. Every CD that can be played can be copied.
(Unless there exists "trusted" hardware, where from pickup up to the D/A the data is encrypted)
So, what is the result. I still can download music from the Internet. It just becomes potentially even more uncomfortable to buy a CD and play it in my X year old Harman/Kardon CD-player, which just happens to expect a valid CD (speak, not intentionally corrupted).
How will this affect my purchasing behaviour?
The label avex/trax (Japan) already sells only "copy-protected" CDs. Not that this made buy more CDs from them. But since I'm not a good statistical test group, I can be wrong and it will improve the music business.
"Between strong and weak, between rich and poor [...], it is freedom which oppresses and the law which sets free"
In this case, it's EMI. The previous story was BMI. The title is wrong.
This kind of attitude really pisses me off. The straw man argument that, if you complain about our CDs not playing in your player you must be a pirate really makes my blood boil.
#include "SoapBox.h"
I have never pirated music. However, I do have the marjority of my CDs on my computer for ease of use. At the moment, I'm sitting in New York, 2700 miles from my home in Arizona, listening to a large sample of MY music on my laptop while I work. This is Fair Use, as I paid for all of my CDs. I have the same collection at work so I can listen to the music at work. In order to combat the music "piracy" threat, manufacturers are impinging upon my fair use. Grrrr.
I don't mean to be a troll. I personally feel that sharing music online is stealing, but at the same time the music industry must get up to speed with the realities of the 21st century. They need to modifiy their business model to include distribution of music in an inexpensive and easy way that allows people to purchase only the music they want. They also need to find more artists who create an entire album worth of useful music, but I digress.
Most of this copy protection, I expect, will be broken soon enough, and the record industry will realize that this is doing nothing but wasting money and alienating customers.
harumph!
C8H10N4O2 | Developer > Code
Hate me!
Please don't feed the trolls. Thanks.
Why not fork?
Case in point, I have a CD that's in my car right now that I cannot play since it is scratched to hell. Now, instead of replacing the media for a nominal buck or two like they should, if I want to have a replacement, I have to pay the $15 to buy a whole new one! NO way! When I buy a limited-edition CD, the FIRST thing I do is make a copy of it! The copy is the one that goes in my CD player, it's the original that stays stored away in a safe place. When that CD-R gets scratched to all hell, no fear, I simply make another copy. I PAID FOR THE LICENCE TO LISTEN TO THE MUSIC! I'm not buying a bloody disc, I'm BUYING THE LICENSE TO LISTEN TO THE MUSIC! That's what it is. That's what I pay for. With my 24x CD burner, do I own CD-R copies that my roomie has in original form? Yes, I have quite literally 5-10 out of my collection of 150-200 original CD's. In fact, one that I had had in CD-R format for 3 years I finally went and bought the original! (Hey, I love that CD!) So, while there are crap-heads who download entire albums and burn it onto CD, *I* don't do that! I use my CD burner primarily for backups, since I shouldn't have to pay another $15 to replace a CD that I could have made a backup for $0.50.
In my experience, in the past they have had more journalistic integrity and readily admitted when they were wrong about something than many other organizations. But the fact is that they communicate regularly with many insiders in the IT field, they have been doing it for a while, and a lot of people who know what they are talking about both read the Reg AND supply them with information. Please stop spreading FUD about the Reg.
So are speeding laws, that doesn't mean they aren't a good thing.
While you are busy copy protecting your stable of has-beens, boy bands, and warmed over focus group music, I will be investigating the wonderful world of non-label bands.
For every over-produced single that your 'A&R' people put out there for the clueless masses, there are two *albums* by talented, REAL musicians who believe in what they do.
Sure, they don't have the marketing power that your big company has, but while you are lumbering around trying to pin the tail on the donkey, you will find that the party is over and you missed it.
I will continue to seek good music that I can legally download, make good music that others can legally download, and push good music that everyone can legally download.
There is plenty out there. It might not be as easy to find as your latest Clear Channel release, but it's there. You are over. Your time is done. You won't see me at the wake.
I'll be listening to music.
Sincerely, teamhasnoi
How is it that if 250Million CD-R's vs. 213Million CD's comes to only 46% of the music content in the world is being paid for? I don't know about the rest of you, but I write a lot of CD-R's with data on them. Backups, e-books that my radio club writes and sells, etc. Maybe 10% of the CD's I write are audio...(and personally, for me, nearly all of that is unencumbered from a rights perspective.
If this were easy, they wouldn't need us to do it!
Yeah, and neither is making a backup CD in case your first one melts on the car dashboard. And neither is copying the songs into your computer or MP3 player or cassette tape so you can listen to them other places. And neither is excerpting 15 seconds from a song for a course on modern music or a review.
Oh, wait. Those things are all fair use. Oops.
At first there were records and they were good. You could easily seek to any song, but they weren't very portable. Cassette tapes were a step forward in this respect, so people switched. Later on there were CDs which are just as portable as cassettes with the added benefit of seeking. For the average music listener, 8 track, DAT and reel to reel offered no advantages and they sort of died out.
Now the music industry wants to change formats to encrypted digital disks. What are they offering us to switch? Extra content? Digital liner notes or cover art? DVD-esque interviews, band commentary? The disks aren't even a new color or shape for crying out loud. Hopefully people won't rush out and buy new players "just because".
JET Program: see Japan, meet intere
Wave of the future. Get all the music you want, without copy protection, and without those obnoxious high prices. What a concept. Quite frankly I've always been more interested in their music catalogs, only the very occasional band makes me want to go out and buy a new CD.
Also of note is that this is going to be a European experiment. So at least for the moment the US will be copy protection free. But it is probably worth boycotting BMG anyways, if their record sales completely erode, maybe they'll consider different policies.
I guess I'll also have to cancel my BMG music club account too.
BMG is a record company. BMI is a music publisher.
www.wavefront-av.com
I have decided to take the money I would normally drop on CDs (~$15 a pop) and spend it on admission and a beer at live performances of interesting and non-hyped bands. I suggest you do the same.
Let's get drunk and delete production data!
With bullet-proof copy protection now available, I should now be able to buy a CD-R in Canada without paying any tariff that goes to the record companies, right?
I mean.. that was the whole purpose of the tariff in the first place. To give back some money to the record labels that were losing money from dubbing of CDs that people would buy otherwise.
What are the odds of the tariff being eliminated? I'd say about the same odds of the GST being eliminated.
I give it a matter of 2 months before a boycott erupts. i'll join it.
Mozart, besides of being one of the worlds greatest composers, had the ability to listen to a piece of music and repoduct it word for word note to note, from only one listening. Perfect Pitch, and Photographic memory. If he was alive today, He would be thrown in jail for breaking the DMCA, Sience he instantly copies all that he hears into his brain.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Here's the bottom line, like it or not. The ratio of us (computer types, you know, educated...) and them (everyone else) is about 50:1 in their favor. Why is that important? (Warning: I'm probably going to offend some with this...)
As long as an item, be it copy-protected CD, DVD, PS2 game, etc.. is sold at Wal-Mart, Target, and the like, a boycott will never succeed. If all of us stopped buying CDs tomorrow, Cletus T. Bohunk would still go out and buy his Fullscren copy of Spider-Man. He'd still by the Allman Bros. Greatest Hits (no offense to fans), and its not going to matter if it works in his computer, because he doesn't use that to play music like we do! He puts it in his $49 DVD player and listens to it through his 20 year old Magnavox TV speakers. Or he puts it in the $20 boom box he also bought from Wal-Mart. While I agree that if CDs stop playing in cars, there will be a huge outcry from the public, calling for boycotts simply won't work in such a small community as ours...
(Yes, I realize it isn't a SMALL community. But in the grand scope of US vs. the population in general, we don't measure up.)
"Goodness, how did you people live long enough to invent tools?" -Hobbes (the tiger, not the philosopher)
So if I'm to understand this correctly, the music industry can not even fathom the idea of someone making data backups onto a CD-R that doesn't contain any music at all? I guess this makes me a pirate for backing up my resume last week...
Okay anyone else just plain sick and tired of this argument from the record companies as was found in this article - the ones that go like, "there are 1 Gajillion CD-R's sold every year, if even 50% of them are used for music then that's $20 Gajillion in sales we lost..oops I mean that the artists never get."
I don't know about you but out of the few hundred CD-R's and CD-RW's I've purchased over the past five years or so, exactly 2 were used for music. And every track on those 2 CD-R's are music that I bought and paid for.
On the plus side I haven't purchased any music in the past one or two years, except for the SE of Morrowind which happened to have a sound track - hmmm well I guess I actually have purchased 1 or 2 sound tracks - but after reading this letter I think I'll just not bother any more - I can always get music my style direct from the artists at MP3.com or similar sites.
Is this individual case relevant? Of course not. Is it in aggregate? Ask the guys behind DIVX.
sulli
RTFJ.
I recall reading that they claim the CDs are within spec and not the players. What's going to happen when I try these in my Sony? A CD produced by a Sony subsidiary? It's the player... No, it's the CD... I don't care, you make them both and it don't work. Not that I've bought (or downloaded) music in years. It's all crap except for some of the more obscure stuff that doesn't get air time and hence I don't know it exists. I'm gonna puke if I hear that Kelly bitch singing about her self again. Puke on her? I'd pay for a moment like that.
I recommend that you guys read, if you haven't, Courtney Love's speech about the labels and artist's pay.
I sincerely believe that it will happen: artists will go independent or to new label companies that cater to the fans and break the business process for the major labels.
The software industry tried many years ago copy-protection and mostly it didn't work. Only some holdouts like AutoCad remained copy-protected. Now MS is trying again and I doubt they will succeed.
Artists need to be paid. Period.
But I don't think we need to make some un-talented sons-of-a-bitch rich in the process. We want the music from the artist and the artist needs our money to be able to dedicate him/herself to art. If we cut the middleman, both the fan and the artist benefit.
Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out. - Cardinal Wolsey
I mean, I'm not sure why (in theory, at least) all these copyprotected CDs will run fine on my component player but fail in my computer.
And -- if this is truly the case -- then:
(a) why don't manufacturers make internal CD players that are identical to component players?
(b) why I don't just use the digital out my component player to create a copy of the CD?
(c) does this copy protection shut off the digital out my component player?
I don't like lots of the music today.
.......
That doesn't mean it is devoid of musical value.
You can see people dancing and moving and getting emotionally attached to it. That is music, that is art.
The fact that it is candy coated, semi-rebellious crap doesn't make it any less musical then it was in the 80's, 70's, 60's, 50's
Music is the voice of the generation, not surprising many don't want to listen, they'd rather dismiss it as garbage. Myself, I'll just live in the past. (And I'm in my 20's)
I dunno .. .. on average .. that i buy (or have bought in the past) most of the albums i have downloaded - if i like them. .. but i nuke the ones that have nothing i like on them, no space to keep the dead weight around.]
.. are no longer produced, or I cant seem to get my local cd shops to order.
.. if anyone can find me T-Ride's only cd .. I'll buy it from them .. until then .. ill have to use my only copy .. which i downloaded. [i still own the audio tape .. regardless of it being 1/2 demagnatized.]
.. if i like it enough .. ill buy it .. if i can find the cd around.
.. is at LEAST HALF of the 500 or so cd's i have were bought from 2nd hand music shops .. rather than pay $16 for a new cd .. i can buy it for $5.
.. that this costs the record lables a hell of a lot more than the people that download. they certainly don't see any of the 2nd hand money.
I have over 100 gigs of 192encoded mp3s.
thats over 600 albums
maybe 100 of them tops I do not own.
I would say
[i may keep albums that are borderline
A *LOT* of the albums i download are albums I have owned in the past
For example
Sometimes ill get new stuff that I have not heard yet. To see if I like it
What is really funny
I would think
--Ne auderis delere orbem rigidum meum, non erravi pernicose!
Exene Cervanka
John Doe
Billy Zoom
DJ Bonebrake
The music industry has had its way for so damn ... It seems that they are incapable of
... if the book publishing industry
long
believing that someday they won't.... Its like
they simply don't understand that people will
simply not want to buy copy protected music. Even
people with no intention of pirating.
Think about this
acted like this, libraries simply wouldn't exist.
"Hey j4cka55es! WTF is up with me not bein able to rip yor CDs and pirate them off to peeps?
Peace,
Mr. xxx!"
Trolls lurk everywhere. Mod them down.
From the letter in the article:
"There are 250 Million blank CDRs and tapes bought and used this year for copying music in comparison to 213 Million prerecorded audio media. This means the owners are only being paid for 46 per cent of the musical content. "
I've gone through a couple hundred blank CDRs in the past few months, and maybe 4 or 5 of them were audio...
CDRs are for data too!!!!!
I know, I really shouldn't feed the trolls, but...
Were you born this stupid, or did you have to hit yourself on the head with a hammer repeatedly?
Am I a pirate for wanting to:
Pay a CD in my computer?
Play it in my car?
Rip a CD I _fucking own_ so I can put it on my MP3 player?
Dumbshit.
Record companies need to figure out that they do not dictate demand, I guess they've become delusional due to their oligopic power, but sooner or later one company will figure it out and the rest will follow. The consumer wants digital music formats that trust the consumer. If the consumer does not have the ability to convert the music to different media and formats, they will not buy it.
Nope. Joe Programmer signed a contract before he was allowed to work. His company owns any code he produces there, and any thoughts or ideas he comes up with while working there. Joe Programmer is a machine that turns coffee into profits for Business People.
I dunno -- I kind of like this new "kindler, gentler" customer relations that calls it like it. This is way better than the more typical "Duh, I'm not sure what you mean?" or "Please hold while we transfer your call. Your call will be served in the order received. We value your business and thank you for calling. (click) (dial tone)" or "Thank you for your letter on BMI products! Enclose please find coupons good towards your next purchase!"
Ok, I'm going to say this plain and simple. We don't matter to them. The slashdot crowd doesn't matter. We can sit here and write about all these wacky protests we're going to do. How many people actually buy crippled CDs, open them, then return in principled disgust. I know I haven't. I know none of my friends have. Frankly, I don't know one person who has returned a crippled CD to a store because 'it didn't work'.
I can dig your music. Most of the people who write about their fav bands like indie stuff, or local, regional bands. That's cool. I don't think too many Slashdotters have front row tix for Pink or Justin Timberlake. Those are the acts that sell the majority of the CDs. Try explaining to a 12 year old girl with $20.00 burning in her pocket why she shouldn't buy the Britney Spears CD all her friends have because it's 'crippled'. It plays in her walkman and that's all she cares about. The worst part is, if it doesn't play in her player, she'll buy a new one.
Articles like this don't surprise me. To the informed crowds, all 2% of us, they might as well rent out big billboards and post a big "F*ck you" for all to see. We're not their bread and butter in their short term vision. Keep slapping a belly-baring shirt on a 17 year old with golden vocal cords and you'll never run out of $$$.
So in protest, we download the specific music we want. Morals or not, most people have done it or still do. It just adds the fuel to the fire. They cite pointless statistics about dropping sales. To us it's because the music might suck. As long as they keep putting the words File-sharing and Kazaa in the press-releases, people will assume the two are related, and legit file sharing gets screwed.
They won't go out of business because I don't buy their CDs. Or you don't buy them.
Start getting the 11-14 year olds to stop needing their N'sync fix and then you're onto something. I hate to say it, but with as much knowledge and purpose as we may have, we're no match for teenieboppers with mommy and daddy's money.
sig--we don't need no goddamn sig
You're right. It's not fair use. It is, as Larry Lessig has written, unrestricted use. Copyright law has built into it the idea that once a consumer has purchased a copyrighted work, the consumer is free to do whatever they want with it, except re-publish it. The copyright industry can try to suppress that fact, and right now they're trying to change the laws to take it away, but as consumers we have an obligation to fight for our unrestricted use rights.
Matthew Morse
Friends don't let friends Slashdot.
You're comparing outright theft to the disruption of fair use, not even close!
No Comment.
And raises should be decided by a roll of the dice!
From the email: "There are 250 Million blank CDRs and tapes bought and used this year for copying music in comparison to 213 Million prerecorded audio media. This means the owners are only being paid for 46 per cent of the musical content."
:P
1) The music industry gets a percentage of the price of every blank digital recording media sold in the United States.
2) How can the recording industry (or anyone for that matter) know how many CDRs were used for copying music, and how many for copying data? I've never seen this statistic before, and it reeks of propoganda. It's been months since I burned an audio CD, and I burn several data CDs a week. Musicians don't have as much to worry about as game/software manufacturers
And more: A conservative estimate is that 50% of these [sold blank CDRs] carry music.
These blatant assumptions just make me mad. I bought hundreds of CDRs for backups and I copied maybe one or two music CDs I already own to listen in the car...
Reminds me of the way software industry counts their losses: "my $600 program was posted on the internet. It must've been downloaded a million times, I just lost $600 million dollars!"
They definitely have an editorial slant, but that is not the same thing. In fact, it is the opposite, because by making the comparison with the Enquirer you are suggesting that they will publish anything as long as it is flashy
Many of the Register's stories tend to derive from anonymous, shadowy types, or "a guy who got it from some other guy who got it from some other guy". On this story we see them referencing "facts" that they derive from an Eric S. Raymond posting about a Microsoft document that he covertly received from some session that he didn't attend. This is par for the course for the type of Register articles that get posted here on Slashdot (I don't read it regularly, so it tends to be that I only see those "Some guy overhead a guy on the train saying that he heard that Bill Gates likes to kick puppies").
Bhahahahahahahahahaahahahahahaha!
You slashdot people are so easy! "Our trolls are the toughest!".Toughest my butt! Our entire marketing department is laughing their asses off!
Weeeheheehheehhehehehehehehea!
YHBTLAF!
HTH HAND.
Sincerely yours,
RIAA
P.S.: n00bz
You do three things when a disc won't play on a standard player because of copy protection:
- Insure that the disc has the CDDA label on it, that you legitimately bought it and that it's a standard player (car stereo, home stereo, etc.) and not a computer drive. Basically give the music guys no toehold at all to call you a pirate, unless they want to claim that playing an original purchased CD on your stereo is piracy.
- Return the disc to the store as defective.
- If the store refuses to exchange it for a working disc, or refund your money if they can't find a working disc, file a complaint about the store with your local government's consumer protection office. Don't treat this as an intellectual-property issue, that's playing into the music industry's hands, treat it as a defective-merchandise issue where the warranty and related issues are much more clear-cut and much more in your favor.
When stores start getting in legal hot water for defective merchandise and failure to obey warranty laws, their legal departments will take notice and have a talk with the music industry sales reps. Even the big chains will drop labels rather than take the legal heat on a large scale.Of course not. But in a perverse sort of way, I actually respect the writer of this letter for not heaping on a ton of condescending euphemisms and doubletalk. Why the hell do companies even bother with it anyway? because the consumer will get "offended"? Fair enough up to a point, but the only thing I get offended by is when somebody talks down to me as if I live in some sort of idealistic fantasy land.
... beyond the scope of this discussion anyway.
As for the music industry's attitudes... well, deal with it. Cut away everything you can and you'll still have the simple fact that huge amounts of music are indeed traded online. Much of it is not a lost sale because the downloading parties are typically teenagers (who can't afford the current extortionate prices) but much of it is. You can argue about try before you buy or deflect the issue by going into cartel discussions all you want but it's still not legal. If you don't like that, lobby to change the law. Not enough people give a crap to change the law? Then that's unfortunate but then, that's democracy for you, and the current state of voter apathy is
Or you could make your own 'label' of sorts, get some talent together and prove that a community-oriented, P2P friendly, grass roots music distribution system really can work, and will yield much greater profits to the artists. I I'm not sitting around whinging about the music industry, I'm putting my money where my mouth is and actually doing just that. f enough people got together and made such a thing a reality, it'll send the traditional RIAA companies flying like so many dead leaves; isn't that what we all want? Then again if it's just me and a few others it's quite probably a foregone conclusion that it will fail considering the immense problems inherent in getting some listeners, but it can't hurt to try can it.
There are 250 Million blank CDRs and tapes bought and used this year for copying music in comparison to 213 Million prerecorded audio media. This means the owners are only being paid for 46 per cent of the musical content. For a comparison: In 1998 almost 90% of all audio media was paid for.
Aside from the fact that most of the CD-Rs I buy go to record data (and the few discs I copy outright are out of print)... there's that little matter of the media taxes levied on tapes and other blank media. Hey BMG, whether we like it or not, we are paying for your damn music. Maybe we should call your bluff: the widespread implementation of copy protection should mean the end of blank media taxes period.
Even without a degree in economics everyone should realise that such trends will result in the music industry ceasing to exist.
You mean, the music industry as it exists today would cease to exist? What a tragedy.
Libertarianism is rich wolves and poor sheep playing gambler's ruin for dinner.
after all it was the politicians who urged us to finally introduce copy protection measures.
Ummm, yeah. It was the politicians that "made" you develop and implement copy protection measures.
These corporations seem to be of the mistaken opinion that they can make a decision like this without repercussions. There logic is probably that if they, Sony, Vivendi, and Time Warner, all decide to just put their foot down and tell customers to shove it, there will be nothing we can do.
Even assuming that all of them do agree to do this, and that somehow, they aren't prosecuted for illegal collusion for this seemingly coordinated assault, the only people that are going to suffer for this is the labels and the artists who sign with them. People will just stop buying CD's if they won't work in their players. Class action lawsuits will happen because the media industry is releasing intentionally deffective products.
My expectation is that over the coming years their sales will continue to drop because nobody wants to buy a deffective product. People who have, for ethical reasons, decided to go out and actually buy CD's will see no reason to do so going forward. They'll try to pass a bunch of new laws to save themselves from the beast they've unleashed, and though some may pass, eventually through citizen outrage these new laws are going to get shut down.
So, BMG, and EMI, I say fuck you and the horse you rode in on. I don't need your music, I've got local bands, freely distrubted independent artists online, and intelligently run on-line music services like E-music. You will not see one more dime of my hard earned money in this lifetime.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
More people need to do what I'm doing; since Napster shut down, I haven't purchased a single CD. Not one. While I was using Napster, I was purchasing about a CD a week, because I was getting introduced to quite a bit of new music. Doesn't hurt that I'm almost the RIAA's dream customer; e.g., I have quite a bit of "disposable" income, and I listen to *every* genre of music, from Country to Rap, from Classical to Industrial.
I get my music from local bands, used music stores, and the local Salvation Army -- seriously, if you like jazz and acid rock, you can find a ton of good stuff from the '70s and '60s, on vinyl, and rip it to MP3 with only about a $50 equipment investment. The plus side is that the encoding drops a lot of the hissing and popping you get from old records; the downside is that it isn't in stereo.
Sure, the drop in CD sales will get them to try and push more laws on us, but who loses in the end, really? We can still get music; local bands, used music stores, and the like, but without helping to line the pockets of the likes of EMI. They lose millions upon millions of dollars, and eventually go bankrupt and/or push the public too far. I'd say we come out ahead.
They appropriate our technology, use it to make billions, then turn around and tell us how it's going to be done from now on.
Well HERE'S how its going to be done.
ITS ALL A BIT STREAM.
Everything - disks, keyboards, the Internet, your software, your scanned artwork and your precious music.
People who wouldn't dream of shoplifting a CD wouldn't hesitate to rip a bought one to MP3 and put it on DalNet. People like me.
Because Physics Beats Ethics.
When everything is a bit stream - AND IT IS - you are going to have to change your business model Mr. Businessman. To what are you going to change it?
Like the US Customs man told me when I said I had waited a year for the convention he wouldn't let me attend -
That's not my concern.
It's Christmas everyday with BitTorrent.
Yeah, but expecting it to play in my _cd_ player is, and that's the point.
Theft is still theft just as it always was, that's not the point and this is still no excuse.
BTW: Fat chance ever seeing copy-protection on a Tory Amos album. It's her own label and distribution system, NOT one of the big boys, and I think that most fans of musicians such as Tory, would feel like a turd for NOT paying for a copy of her latest album.
I don't know ANYONE who wants to screw the artists we love, this is ENTIRELY about the big businesses in between.
No Comment.
That is a two way street my friend. (note my sig below...)
If you don't like music CDs with DRM, dont't buy. Go spend your money on books, clothes or "open" CDs, that don't impose DRMs. A good online catalogue of artists that have accepted it, and thus should be boycotted, should be published.
From the letter:
There are 250 Million blank CDRs and tapes bought and used this year for copying music in comparison to 213 Million prerecorded audio media. This means the owners are only being paid for 46 per cent of the musical content. For a comparison: In 1998 almost 90% of all audio media was paid for.
In other words, they believe that without the availability of blank CD-Rs, they would have sold 463 million CDs last year. Which is to say that without piracy, the annual growth in CD sales over the past 3-4 years would have been between 20% and 30%.
I assume that they're correct because they're so smart and all. Perhaps the world economy would have skirted the current recession if it wasn't for those bad pirates stealing profits from helpless corporations?
I'm a geek like the rest of you. I love free tools and OS's, and I prase those who work on them. But music is a different matter all together. I also out a recording studio with my Brother (www.screamalongsongs.com), and I can tell you that Bands (even independent ones) spend a great deal of time and money writing and recording music. It's simple not a cheap thing to do. We have a fairly small computer based setup, but we still spent over $10,000 on it. We have to recupe that cost, so we have to charge bands to record. The bands have to recupe thier cost, so they have to charge for the CD.
At the end of the day you are creating a product. And people create products to make money. It wouldn't be fare to buy a box of corn flakes and take it home, and put is in your Plexstor 24x corn copier and make all you want and never by corn flakes again... thats not right, and neither is copying a friends CD to aviod buying it.
Are all listeners pirates, no. Are all CDR's sold used to copy CD's that people would have bought otherwise, no. However, you show me a way to sell unprotected music and still make sure that you can make money on it, and make sure no one is stealing from you, and I'll change my mind. Until then this is the only option we have.
"Failure is not an option, it's part of the standard package"
There are 250 Million blank CDRs and tapes bought and used this year for copying music in comparison to 213 Million prerecorded audio media. This means the owners are only being paid for 46 per cent of the musical content.
So, every single one of those 250 Million CDRs are used for music huh? Well, they'll have to change their figures, because I have 17 of them with data on them, pictures, files, etc. No music at all. So I guess it's down to 249,999,983 now.
See my Home Theater
I can just find an explanation for this kind of answer: there are so many complaints that the consumer answer guy can't stand it anymore and started to spit in anyone that asks.
The Reg is no Enquirer. How many haunted computers, Jesus-image-in-mouse-fuzz or flying chimp-boy bullshit type stories have you seen on there? How many stories on there have been patently false and untrue? Just because it isn't dry as your grandma boring like the WSJ doesn't mean it's crap. Did you RTFA? If so then I guess you think Heise is crap too.
"Gold still represents the ultimate form of payment in the world." - Alan Greenspan, 1999
From the article:
Only this much: There are 250 Million blank CDRs and tapes bought and used this year for copying music in comparison to 213 Million prerecorded audio media. This means the owners are only being paid for 46 per cent of the musical content.
So, those 250 million CDRs must all be used for copying music illegally, right? Not one single one is being used for legal copies of music that they already own? Not one is being used by an artist who is recording their own material? Not one is being used by someone making a backup of files on their computer? Not one is being used to burn an ISO of a Linux distro? Not one is being used to make a backup of a software package that they own?
I think they've equated blank CDRs with lost sales when this is clearly wrong. No wonder they are so intense about fighting piracy -- they've based their whole strategy on a faulty assumption.
dennis
Does anyone know what stance the more indie labels (KRS, K Records, 5RC, Matador, etc.) are taking on copy protection schemes? They seem to be much more interested in online music distribution, and generally supportive of digital music, but I don't see many indie labels putting entire CDs online.
Trying to keep individuals from copying digital media is like trying to BAN SEX. Good Luck...
If there is an EF equivalent in Germany, maybe they would be willing to accept and publish specific donations. Specific not in the sense that they need to spend the money on so and so, but donations in the name of: F*** EMI or maybe something a little more political correct.
Help fight continental drift.
all confused in this thread.
BMI is the Broadcast Music institute, one of the bodies that license the use of composers (or the people to whom composers assign their rights):
http://www.bmi.com/
EMI is a recorded music seller, and a music publishing company, based in London:
http://www.emigroup.com/
BMG is the Bertelsman Music Group, a different company in the same business as EMI, whose headquarters is now in New York City (but used to be in Germany, once upon a time):
http://www.bmg.com/
MEK
Credo quia impossibilis -- Tertullian
Perhaps the best solution is to BUY copy protected CDS then RETURN them as defective.
...
Target large retailers with clout such as Wal-Mart, Tower Records, Virgin,
If the large retailers get hit in the wallet with copy protected CD returns they may push back on the media producers.
BMG's "Big-Time" artist list includes:
Ace of Base
Air Supply
Christina Aguilera
Big Mountain
Chicago
Color Me Badd (LOL!)
Foo Fighters
Kenny G
Kylie Minogue
N'Sync
Outkast
Dolly Parton
Pink
Dionne Warwick
Yanni
Not really sure why BMG is so upset over downloading sites... aside from Christina Aguilera, NSync, Pink, and Outkast I don't think they have much to worry about.
Although I have heard there is a HUGE black market demand for pirated Kenny G and Ace of Base cds!
Out
STOP BUYING COPY PROTECTED CD'S, or cd's for that manner.
listen to radio, XM, Sirius, make your own, etc.
maybe someday music industry will see that people aren't buying their copy protected cd's, pull their heads out of their asses, and realize that they (as a company) are susposed to be providing a service to people, and not just padding their bank accounts.
-1) As everyone has pointed out, analog will always allow for an end-of-the-line dump.
0) my band will NOT sell copyright-protected CDs ever. That stops word of mouth, which is how bands get more popular. Remember that, metallica? back when everyone copied your tapes and you got huge? Now look, how sad. You killed a method of word-of-mouth and your bass player quit... what a surprise.
1)Breaking copyright is already illegal. If it was such a big deal, then why wouldn't the RIAA, etc go after individual violators directly? It says on the disc, "don't copy this or you're a criminal." Napster wasn't illegal... copying music in the first place is apparently illegal.
2)PS. casette tapes have a physical copy protection that can be beat with scotch tape. OOO scary! Equally easy to break a digital encryption with a cluster of P4 3Ghz's or dual G4 1.25Ghz's.
sir_haxalot
stuff |
Oh yeah, the letter is completely fake. That's why all these news outlets are carrying stories about it:
Business Week
CNN
PCWorld
InfoWorld
ZDNet
IT World
iT News
I'm sure they all just publish any old story after all, and never check on or worry about the veracity of what they're writing.
"Gold still represents the ultimate form of payment in the world." - Alan Greenspan, 1999
Where is this happening again?
Second of all, only the big labels with lots of money are going to copy protect their CDs. It's not like the copy protection they're implementing is FREE. It was invented by someone who no doubt patented it and is licensing it to the CD makers (which, consequently, raises the price of CDs).
Personally, I don't care if Britney Spears CDs are copy protected - nor CDs from other no-talent hacks who claim to be artists. Also, I think this protection scheme could be a great instrument in the downfall of such crappy music[sic]. Afterall, teenagers are probably the biggest pirates of this stuff, and it's not like they have money to buy the CDs if they can't copy them, so it can only result in less proliferation of this garbage. Eeeeeexcellent.
There's lots of great music to be had out there, and you can have it without giving up your Fair Use Rights.
- Richard Shindell
- Edie Carey
- Lucy Kaplansky
- Dispatch
- Rockwell Church
- Erin Mckeown
Just to name a few...I have always bought my CD's. Since 1998 i have ripped them and put them on my computer for conviniance and to keep the original CD's in mint condition. To this date i havent had any problems ripping them and i have never ever shared them on kazaa or whatever.
If they make it hard for me to rip the CD's i buy and stop me from using them wherever i want i wont have a choice. I will have to buy my CD's and then D/L the songs from internet. The incentive to buy them darn CD's becomes pretty small by then i can assure you.
Meanwhile the pirates hook their computer to a half assed soundcard and loop the sound to another soundcard ripping into mp3/ogg/whatever. The pirating continues as before and I who pay gets to take the problems.
Copy protection wont ever work and its time they get that into their thick skulls. Palladium/TCPA isnt going to stop pirating either cause once the data is out of the trusted enviroment its not copy protected any longer. Pirating can only be solved by getting to terms with their customers again (lowering prices to an acceptable level would be a start). Then start a nice campaign telling why its wrong to pirate. No one listens to you if they hate you.
HTTP/1.1 400
I want to say that they're wrong, consumers not purchasing their products will change their minds about this whole idea. But, sadly, I believe people don't actually care enough to follow through on that and people will end up buying the CDs anyways.
.NET on Slashdot.
On a side and off-topic note, I find it halarious that I just saw an ad for Visual Studio
Derek Greene
Summary of the reply from EMI Germany:
"If you try to show us that our premises are total bullshit, we'll ignore you or worse, accuse you of piracy. The bullshit coming from our marketing departments is more believable to us than reality."
I'd phrase that more politely, but really, they don't deserve civility over this one.
They claim they know how many CD-Rs are purchased for the purpose of pirating music. I know that's bullshit unless they've got some kind of big brother infrastructure in place that can tell them what I did with the pack of 10 CD-R's I bought last week. Mostly I used them to transfer work back and forth to a home computer in a manner that's a lot faster than downloading.
They claim that anyone stating there are "multiple" CD players that cannot play their broken CD's is lying, despite the fact that they ALSO state they have to maintain a list of CD players that they know work.
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
...why people seeem so upset about music companies wanting to copy protect their products. Whether it will work (probably not) or if copying really hurts sales (maybe, maybe not), what's so surprising about it? They obviously think copying costs them money. It's logical that they try to curb that. If you could stick a book in your PC and have honest-to-God paper copies pop out all over the Web, book publishers would be awfully interested in copy protection, too.
Companies selling off-the-rack shrink-wrapped consumer software got burned on copy protection when it cut into sales. Most likely, the same thing will happen here.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
So will these rcord companies label which CD's are protected? So if i buy a CD after christmas (in a few months) will I possibly be stuck with a unplayable piece of plastic Also there are many many recording studios that operate with digital and analog methods, will every studio have to upgrade their software and hardware to comply with the record labels? All that has to happen is one unprotected song be made then distributed and copied a few thousand times --- then everyone with *old equipment will be able to listen to the music... maybe I am missing something....
> Joe Programmer has intellectual ownership of the code he produces at his company.
No he doesn't. His company does. And why? Because there are few companies who won't allow him to work without him signing owenership away.
How does this relate to the music biz? Same thing: The only reason IP is such a hot topic is because the groups with the leverage (ie, the suppliers) are able to use that leverage to claim that IP is an inherent right (and _finally_ are on the verge of aquiring the technology to enforce it at their discretion, which is really the more poingant difference today). Is it? Should it be -forever-? 90 years? 2 years? I hear you cheerleading IP alot, but you've yet to make any statement that actually defines what you believe the contraints to IP should be. Certainly a glib position to take, and all the more so when its a view championed by those who've the most to gain from infinate and absolute protection of one's work.
So state the nature of your position or keep your redundant and ill defined IP kissing to your lonesome. Believe me, you've yet to add anything new or relevant to the topic, and I've been following your 'me too' posts for awhile.
"Old man yells at systemd"
I'd *LOVE* to be given some suggestions of good music that is legal to download and try out.
List of talent, please!?
When will businesses learn that being circular and shiny doesn't mean its a CD!
So close and yet so far from the world's perfect ID number
The Siemens way - if it's not hard, it's not worth doing.
If the music industry can effectively block the transfer of information, than what's to stop countries like China from doing the same. Hell, they already do a pretty good job of it-- file-sharing networks may provide some of the best ways to circumvent those restrictions.
I'm in favor of the work being done on p2p networks because I don't believe anyone should be able to put their boot on information sharing, no matter how noble their intentions.
If piracy is the only way forward, then that's too bad.
So would I be, but not to people with legitimate concerns who are affected by their measures to prevent theft.
You might also want to see how much other crap they own. There was a page I saw which listed all the companies, but I can't find the link right now.. :(
i know what you mean...
why would you want to buy a cd that no one can listen to? when i can actually listen to it when i download it for free off of limewire...
The fact is, most of their stories are from respected analysts, representatives of the companies themselves, or rebranded content from Newsforge, Security Focus, etc. As you said,
Maybe you should read it more often before you speak about it authoritatively.
BMI is the Broadcast Music Institute, one of the bodies that license the use of music on behalf of composers (or on behalf of the people to whom composers assign their rights):
MEK
Credo quia impossibilis -- Tertullian
And apparently, the "thieves" are putting both illegal music and illegal programs on the same cd, as it seems both sides are claiming the same numbers...
I have no idea whether you're referring to the supposed customer relations email, or the Microsoft Halloween memo. In the former it was an anonymous posting on a message board: There is no veracity to it, and while mainstream media might perhaps report on it, they'd extensively disclaim that it's of no authenticity. In the case of the Microsoft thing: Even if it _IS_ completely real, and I was at the conference myself, I'd STILL laugh about their SOURCE being ESR (a raging anti-Microsoftite), who himself got it in some undescribed way. It's like information 5 steps removed, and it's usually the nature of gossip and other BS.
There are huge cultural differences between America and Germany, and it's important to try and understand those differences before over reacting.
I have quite a few German relatives, half in the US now, who I never considered offensive or rude since I grew up around them. It wasn't until one of my friends pointed out how incredibly rude she thought my aunt was when she told my mother, "That outfit looks horrible on you," that I even gave it a second thought.
While trying to avoid making broad generalizations, most of the German people I've met just tend to be extremely blunt. It may take some getting used to, but I prefer the brutal honesty more than the flowery, politically-correct BS that we deal with here in the US.
The music industry really tries to follow the marines saying "Adapt, Improvise, and Overcome!"... unfortunately for them, they'll never reach the Overcome part since their attempts to Adapt and Improvise fails miserably.
Assuming someone breaks this copy protection scheme (already done), won't this increase incentives to get your music from file-sharing services rather than purchasing CDs? The ability to rip my CDs to my hard drive is invaluable; I don't mind occasionally shelling out $15 for a good CD if I can store it on my laptop for travel. But if copy protection schemes prevent this, my only option will be to find the same music in unencumbered form online (or crack it myself).
There's a fundamental problem with CD's and Copy Protection as it stands currently, with the published specs. As it is currently, there is no designed method of copy protection built into the CD spec. Now, copy protection can be achieved, barely, by extending or twisting the spec around in order to destroy that ability, at a cost. I use as an example: Minidiscs. Minidiscs, while they may have achieved only bare minimum acceptance in the US and slightly better elsewhere, come pre-designed with copy protection a central core of the spec. In fact, the spec even goes so far as to permit a single digital quality copy from an outside source to Minidisc. Afterwards, only degraded analog copies might be made. The Specification for Minidiscs took this into account, it is fundamental to the architecture of all player/recorders, and as such, so far as I have seen, not so easy to get around. Compact Discs, on the other hand, did not originally care about copying. The spec was based on the premise that only expensive burners that companies could afford would be the only thing to actually make a CD. A truely 'Read Only' format. This lack of foreknowledge of copying data from the CD to another medium has led to this problem. A lack of a redesigned spec incorperating Copy Protection (and, likely, a new name or encoding method (CD-CP, for example)) further complicates this matter. Unfortunately, the only way I can see this being resolved is if the music companies abandon the CD architecture all together in favor of another medium, one that has protections built in from the start. Either that, or abandon attempts to copy protect CD's.
The Register's problem is not that they have opinions or that their stories lack facts, but that they often mix the opinions and the facts together into the same article. Newspapers have a separate Op-Ed section for opinions because they devalue news content. Ideally news would be all facts, but as long as humans write the news, there will always be a slant to it. The Register makes no efforts to keep their opinions out of the news.
That is why I don't read the Register. I don't want to let some journalist form my opinions and I don't have the patience to sift through their articles separating fact from fiction. Just give me the plain, boring facts, instead of making every event look like the end of the world.
Remember, You are unique...just like everyone else.
"There are 250 Million blank CDRs and tapes bought and used this year for copying music in comparison to 213 Million prerecorded audio media. This means the owners are only being paid for 46 per cent of the musical content. For a comparison: In 1998 almost 90% of all audio media was paid for."
I've used over 150 CDRs this year. Not one of them has any audio content. They were all data backups. How does this mean owners of the musical content have lost out?
Most radio stations transfer the audio to some kind of HD pool. The CDs with copy protection mostly end up in the bin.
Did Jane steal anything from Joe? Like credit? Yes, because Joe "owned" the code (if only in a moral way). Does it then follow that IP is a concept that makes sense? Yes. And does that concept apply to music? Yes, artists create music the same way Joe writes code. Does that mean that when you download music for free you are stealing? Yes
There is plenty of good music available from sources that aren't going to screw the consumer.
:-)
I stick with MP3.com and independent studios myself
Gene Davis
www.genedavis.com
I think it will be great if Virgin, Tower, HMV, and all the other stores start setting up new displays just for these copy-protected disks. Then rub it in and have the top 40 for CD's and top 40 for defective CD's. On the displays for defective CD's clearly mark everywhere that they are copy protected and will not work with computers and other CD players.
or both of your neighbors...
/. (not just the ones that think this is an infringment of their rights) didn't buy music anymore, from this day forward (which will never happen), the record labels would hardly notice it.
or your both of your neighbors and all their children...
People will keep buying music regardless. Their car cd-players, and home cd-players will play them, and if they don't, their new players will play their old CD's.
Consumers are so used to getting screwed into buying "upgrades" to correct home made problems, they won't even blink.
And people won't stop paying for music in the copy protected future anymore than they don't buy macrovision protected DVD's now.
Even if everyone that read
If it is the only way music is being sold, it is the only way music is being purchased. And people won't stop purchasing entertainment.
My great grandmother used to make tape recordings of music played on the airwaves. Your logic would put her in jail, if she were still alive. 25 years after she was doing that the law specifically gave her the right to do that and said that she had broken no law at the time she was doing it. The crime of 'illegal use of music', and of 'illegally obtaining music' that you postulate is an indication just exactly how far you have your head up your ass. If you lived on my block I'd warn my kids to never even walk on the sidewalk in front of your house because you are either a nut or dangerous, or both.
While you're at work, go into the supply cabinet, see the big black marker with "Sharpie" written on it? Ok grab that, put it in your pocket and take it home to your music collection.
Now after a beer/bongrip/blowjob or whatever it is you do when you get home break out your brand new Sharpie A.k.a. 37337 0-day cr4ckz and pick the first BMI music CD out of your collection that has copy protection.
Now apply your 0-day sharpie cr4ckz to the outer rim of the CD. Story was run on slash a few months ago, surprised no one else mentioned it.
I'm sure that statistic comes from the same mathematicians that produced the BSA's "number of new PCs minus number of new Windows licenses equals number of pirated copies of Windows." The BSA doesn't count those using alternatives to Windows, and I'm sure EMI isn't counting people who use CDs to backup non-music data or make mix CDs for personal use or for their friends (which is neither new or illegal). Besides piracy is not a function of the amount of blank tapes and CDRs in circulation. I am sure the largest amount of pirated music is stored on hard drives; of course this means next they'll be telling us piracy is equal to the amount of space for music on new hard drives.
This seems like huge assumption on the part of these companies. I guess this means that if everyone in the country decided to cook hamburgers and fries at home, and McD's or some other burger chains sales dropped, then we are guilty of theft.
I have never copied a music CD in my life. I refused to play the inflated prices that they charge. I can get the same product on tape for half the price, so why would I want to pay more?
The music industry as a whole is going to whine itself right out of business, and then maybe we will get some quality music to listen to.
From RTFA, I kinda get the feeling everyone is missing the point. The recipient of this letter wasn't (from my reading) blatantly intending to rip and share, he bought a CD to listen to, tried it in multiple devices, and in none of them would it play. He writes a letter of complaint, gets labeled a hacker, told he must be lying about the CD not working, and directed to roll over and take it without lube. I, for one, would be outraged. You don't tell your customers they're lying, nor do you presume to know their intentions. I'd be sending this up the chain of management as high as possible, demanding reparations and discipline/dismissal for the employee who sent that.
/.
OTOH, has anyone found/compiled a list of what players don't work with different CP schemes? Not only could it be interesting, but it might provide some ammo against the coming darkness.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Whoops, fergot, this is
Yeah, how dare they diss P2P! Kazaa forever! Copy protection sucks! Down with **AA! Hilary is a skank!
There, that should offset the big words in the first part of the post.
If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
It's more likely though that once a lot of labels using copy-protected CDs, the remaining holdouts will see their sales sky-rocket and take notice. They will start selling CDs with a huge phillips logo on the package and running marketing campaings showing "everyday people" with MP3 players and scratched CDs making a switch.
Also, watch out for other countries recording music specially for US and european markets and selling cheap, working CDs. Mickey Mouse will soon be cornered by Hello Kitty :-)
And the bottom line is that legal and economic systems are inherently public while the internet is primarily used by individuals in private.
Laws are there to regulate the public space and create an orderly society. There is very little need for laws regarding the behaviors of individuals within their homes. Many things that are criminal in public are perfectly legal within one's home. It only takes a few minutes to come up with a long list if you think about it.
For many individuals and organizations, this simple mental experiment is too dangerous to contemplate because it's so simple and it invalidates their assumptions about what is and is not legal. The same act can be both illegal in public and acceptable in private. Sharing music on the internet already is legal and so is all kings of other fair use of copyrighted materials that would be illegal in certain public scenarios. Even obscenity is only meaningful in public which is why the internet can be filled with obscenity that is illegal to display in public --it's not being displayed in public so no law is being violated.
If you can't imagine this, go ahead and get started with some experiments. Go outside to the street and take a shit in the street in front of your neighbor's house. Ask yourself, am I breaking the law? You'll probably catch on pretty quick, especially if your neighbors are watching. Taking a shit in your bathroom isn't illegal at all. But if you do it in the street in front of your neighbor's house it is. Holy multi faceted-reality Batman! Hmm, can you imagine other examples of things that are illegal in public but are perfectly legal in the privacy of your home? There are thousands of examples but many don't want to face that fact. The cool thing is that the law is not on their side. They've got nothing but smug refusal to face the fact that people do have liberties and they can keep it as long as they like.
It seems to me that the entertainment industry believes itself to be a giant cosmic pusher - and that all of us poor bastards who are hooked on their "drug" will allow ourselves to be subjected to any form of mistreatment in order to feed our addiction.
Don't get me wrong - I love music. However, if we are so addicted to pop culture that we'll continue to fork over unholy amounts of cash for CD's, DVD's, etc, in the face of more and more restrictive copy protection methods/licensing schemes/consumer rights violations, then may God help us all.
We're not going to beat the record companies by bitching about how unfair they are. They have no reason to serve any interest but their own... and they will do so as long as we fund their efforts. Starve them for money to pay their lawyers, and then we might get somewhere. We've got the power, because we provide the revenue. It's simply a question of how much we're all willing to put up with.
Not to mention the number of CDRs that become coasters.
How is that good? Because it will lead to the downfall of the music industry, or at least wake the public in general up to their tactics.
Personally, I don't really care anymore. I have stopped buying CDs, and I just don't care all that much. They have made me not care. If they want my business, they are going to have to win me back. I am not making any demands, I am just sick of their shit. If they fold, I am not worried - music will rise again on its own. If they succeed with copy protection, I simply won't buy any more CDs, ever. I can live without them, really. So instead of making me feel like music is important, and something that I should always have in my life, they have turned me off of it. Hopefully they will turn everyone else off, people will revolt, and the big record companies will fold. I can't wait for the day when I get to see the news story of Hilary Rosen eating out of a KFC dumpster.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
just wondering, how many cd-players and sound cards have their S/PDIF outputs/inputs crippled in any way? as it is possible to make bitwise copies like this, I assume the music industry will use their dirty hands to try and stop this. personally, I've been using a old, but high-end Harman/Kardon cd-deck (eats anything) and a semi-professional sound card with digital inputs to rip new, so-called "copy-protected" CD-s, so I can listen them with a custom-made 80GB mp3-player and share them with my friends.
Their name is Thorn-EMI.
Arms manuafacturers.
That they don't care about people is not shock.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
I wouldn't hesitate to say that this punk (the customer service rep.) doesn't know what he's talking about... check out this article from New Scientist where John Halderman, a computer scientist from Princeton University, argues that any type of audio-CD copy-protection is futile with the advent of upgradable firmare in CD players. As long as we can reverse-engineer their copy-protection, we can play our CDs in our computers.
Our faithful parent has been handed a list of desired media by their spouse. They go to one of the big media retailers, like Sam Goody (is there a listerine for the brain...I hate that place!), collect the desired titles and endure the latest R&B female vocalist performing an orgasm over the PA system (shudder) while waiting at the counter.
"Hi, are you ready to check out?"
"Yes, uhm, could you tell me if this," the customer holds up the first title for the clerk to see, "is copy protected?"
The clerk has this "uh-oh" look and nods.
"Yes," the clerk hesitantly replies trying to avoid the attention of the other clerk who is busy ringing up someone else's order.
The Customer holds up each title and each time the clerk nods, looking less happy as the customer puts them in a seperate pile, until at last there's only the pile of copy protected titles.
"Well, it was nice shopping. See ya." The customer shrugs.
The clerk watches as the customer walks away from the counter, leaving the small pile of titles, probably near $200 worth, sitting on the counter.
The worst part...if this kind of thing happens a new policy of ignorance will emerge, where the clerks will simply say they don't know or can't say. And then the store will refuse to accept any media for refund or exchange once it's been opened.
Oh, and don't forget, there's always a charge for refunding purchases made with some form of plastic, so there's going to be many people who will simply "eat it". Especially the passive cattle with plastic in this great land of diminishing returns.
Cheers.
Every new form of media has it's own Requirimento
Music industry can suck my big weanie. Due to the tactics of the RIAA/DMCA/etc, I am now ONLY going to download my music from P2P. I don't give a damn if it is illegal(or alleged to be). We are getting ripped off by these f-ing bastards who have price fixed cd's for almost 20 years now. I HAVE HAD ENOUGH. Now i can't even play the cd's i purchase on my computer (where i listen 90% of my music anyway). I'll just download every song ever created by mankind, setup a 1000 terrabyte server, and give it out free to the entire world. Then I'll email every Music Industry person and tell them to KISS MY ASS!
sick of it...
If I actually bought music put out by the big labels, I would really be pissed off right now.
Hey they underestimate the amount of pirated musid. I actually burn MP3's on those CDR's so I fit 10 albums in a single CD, so only 10% of media is paid for :-{}
ato
When I purchase a CD what exactly am I purchasing?
Am I purchasing the right to own a copy of the CD's content or am I purchasing the CD itself and whatever is on it, is on it.
For example, I have a CD that's scratched beyond use. It simply won't play in any CD player without horrible skipping, and I'm sure I'm not the only one in this situation.
However I still own the CD. So isn't it legal for me to download from another source the content of that CD or is that illegal?
It would seem to fall under fair use and the right to making a backup copy, wouldn't it?
So if I buy one of these new, protected CDs and I can't make a backup and no one else can, what do I do when my CD is scratched beyond the ability to listen to it? Do I still have a right to the content and if so, how am I going to get it?
I don't disagree with you there, but I hardly think that this warrants a comparison with the National Enquirer.
I for one don't mind the mixing of fact and opinion; in fact, I read the Register more as a big editorial board...I can assume that there is going to be some commentary in every article. But I also respect the fact that they will respond to my emails if I have a disagreement or comment on one of their pieces, they will offer different viewpoints on the same issue from different sources, and they look critically at what the big companies are saying--which is something I especially don't find at any of the other big tech news sites, like zdnet or cnn's tech section or msnbc's tech section or whatnot.
So, I guess I'm giving up a bit of 'just the facts ma'am' for 'just the facts and somewhat slanted, but critical analysis of the facts ma'am.'
I also need to make note, as you suggested, that it is very difficult to find objective news out there--we should be reading everything critically if we are to formulate our own opinions well. So, in a way, it is good have an obviously opinionated site like the Reg out there, as that gives us one perspective to compare against the others, whatever you want to say about them.
There are 250 Million blank CDRs and tapes bought and used this year for copying music in comparison to 213 Million prerecorded audio media. This means the owners are only being paid for 46 per cent of the musical content.
Are they assuming every single blank CDR purchased is used for copying music? How do they come up with such a figure?
Who buys tape any more? Or are they counting my DLT tapes.
0xfeedface
there are very few artists I will blindly go out and purchase a CD from. Thanks to "pirates" I can now listen to the whole CD in the comfort of my own home without haveing to be distracted. Thanks to RIAA, BMG and others like them I will no longer purchase any CDs
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
Y'know, I hate to point this out to the RIAA, but blank CD-R's are used for a lot more than music. Between work and home, I maintain a collection of several thousand CD-R's that contain various kinds of archival data, (legally purchased) stock images, my own photography and design work, source code, and so on, including legally purchased MP3s (from Emusic) and legal free MP3s (from MP3.com, among others. The assumption that CD-R's sold equals music CDs pirated is just plain false.
I'm fortunate in that the majority of the music I buy comes from independent labels, so this won't affect me much, especially since, henceforth, I'll be buying all of my music from independent labels. It's not a great loss -- for each of the hundred or so acts the RIAA manages, there are thousands of better independent acts. Which is, I suspect, what they're really afraid of.
Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
I work for a multi-national corporation, with a lot of people in Microsoft. For the longest time I would get very offended by e-mails I would get from our Microsoft colleagues.
For example, we would send around a proposal for how we thought we might do something in the future.
A Microsoft colleague would respond with a tersely worded message to the effect of "You are an asshole. If you don't do it this way, it will lead to the end of the company and we'll all be unemployed."
After a while, and after actually meeting many of these people face to face, I discovered that's just their way of saying "You are an asshole. If you don't do it this way, it will lead to the end of the company and we'll all be unemployed."
After reading the letter from the CSR, I realized that this is probably the same situation. It sounds really harsh, but it's not intended to be that way.
There are huge cultural differences between Microsoft and Linux, and it's important to try and understand those differences before over reacting.
Sincerily,
-Steve Ballmer
I was discussing a billing error with them last night. They said to me, flat out, "It doesn't matter who's right, we're a big company and there is nothing you can do to touch us. We say you owe us the money. Pay up." It's not just BMI. Corporations know they can roll right over any single one person and they are happy, happy to do it.
Maybe the state's highest function is to grind out insoluble problems. (Zelazny, Hall of Mirrors)
Sounds like the EMI Customer Rep had a previous job as a television programmer at ABC.
My guess is that in a few days, we'll hear the same sort of reply:
Dear Customer:
Very very very sorry, overzealous insensitive person fired, did not reflect company philosophy, blah, blah, blah, fully support technology, homina, homina homina, we like you customer, yadda yadda yadda, etc.
Sincerely,
Pointy Head VP
Mod Karma -1: I sed bad wurds. If I cep my mouf shut, I wud be at riyses.
I mean, come on, he was trying to listen to a Toto CD! ;P
There are very few real things in this world...this isn't one of them.
I dunno about others, but I tried to educate others. When I first read about BMG doing this on the Register, I wrote to my fiancee who is in school in Paris write now, she's French. I detailed the matter to her, explained how BMG was selling crippled discs and claiming they were functioning CDs, then blaming the hardware. I explained exactly how it would impact people there, and why they shouldn't tolerate it.
You see, CDs cost more in France. In my experience, unless a CD is on sale you're going to pay around 20 Euros for it, if not more. An import CD will cost even more and I did not see a huge market for them (the Virgin Megastore on the Champs Elysees had a tiny section devoted to imports. I've seen bigger reggae sections at the local Sam Goody.). To be unable to play a disc in your CD-player just because you bought it in the last couple of years won't appeal to them, methinks. Neither will the idea of having to pay even more for an already expensive product just to get one that works.
Even CD-players cost more. My fiancee recently visited, and before she left she took a look at players at the local Best Buy because they were so cheap here (sorry, I didn't think to ask how much one would cost in France). So regardless of the situation--buy a more expensive import CD or buy an expensive CD-player... the French (and probably many Europeans) are getting screwed.
I asked her to forward it to her friends, and to translate it into French if she felt they would need it (a lot of them probably wouldn't). I also suggested a boycott, and to let the companies in question (and possibly music stores as well) know just why they wouldn't be buying anything from them anytime soon.
This doesn't affect me in the slightest, but it still gets me going. She had no clue this stuff was going on though, and I have a feeling it is the same way with a lot of people. Our best weapon is to educate people, and let them know exactly why it's bad for them.
This is not the greatest sig in the world, no. This is just a tribute.
A decent p2p for linux/bsd doesn't come out soon.
If you can hear it, you can rip it.
.ogg in the end.
How does these copy protections stop me from hooking up my Portable CD player to my PC through the Line in jack, and record the music playing off of the Portable CD Player? Are they using "Macrovision-like" watermarking to where if it's encoded into wav it sounds distorted or garbled?
Sure it might take longer and you'll have to listen to the whole CD, but it still is an
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
"spend my days pissed at the world"
yuo arent gonna go postal on us by any chance?
I'm surprised at the gullibility here. Perhaps a EMI person did write this, but there are warning flags. First, where is the rest of the communication with EMI? We just get this letter out of context. What did the recipient send in the first place? Second, it makes a great troll which is a peculiar thing for a custumer relations person to write but a great thing for a hoaxer to write. Finally, most of the letter hasn't been translated, just enough to get us mad. I don't buy it.
A real EMI Germany customer service rep would have said, "You vill buy our CDs. Ve haff vays of making you buy our CDs."
Not worth much in the general outrage, but I would just like to say to any BMI employess reading these forums, I have not bought a CD for a year now, and I will never buy one again from BMI or any other record company that sells or tries to sell me broken CD's in this form.
Even if this isn't true, it IS true that media corps. definately want to make unbreakable copy-protection the standard. They have a right to it! But, my problem is when well-spun rhetoric makes it RIGHT for media corporations to charge whatever prices they desire, and to force people into mindless buyers who don't care about prices, but just buy because the cover is spiffy. It's inevitable that music will be controlled to the utmost degree, so the media corps. can squeeze as much money as possible from us. I feel that the medium has been totally redifined by the internet, but how the redefinition goes will be another matter. It (the internet) is just too big.
I find this line from the letter amusing. I don't think that EMI's fear is that the music industry will cease to exist, but that the music industry will continue to exist in a new form without big labels like EMI.
The whole copy protection and DRM thing is just a way for the big labels to stay in business. After all, if artists can promote and distribute music by themselfs who needs them?
...maybe that's where all those CDR's are going...
:q!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
the big record companies, the RIAA, the MPAA, DMCA, etc. guard a world that existed before the internet. they are attempting to reverse history. let them go on with their bad selves, they can't possibly win. pandora's box is already open.
;-P
we are not in gutenberg's time anymore, my german media company friend. we live in a world where information like music and books and movies is as transmuteable as water. in a way, information wants to be free. entropy naturally leads to the release and spread of information. trying to contain information is a losing game like trying to fight gravity is a losing game.
music is about nothing specifically, and is enjoyed for it's own sake. this should be free. you can steal atoms. but you can not "steal" data. you can steal a car. but you can not steal a song, or a book, or a movie. think this doesn't make sense? kazaa, etc. are NEVER GOING TO GO AWAY. think intellectual property law is pretty damn important and should be a pillar of modern society? meet the internet my living-in-denial friend. disseminating information effortlessly and freely with no chance of shutting it down IS WHAT IT WAS DESIGNED TO DO. close their servers, block their ports, do whatever you want. someone, somewhere, will circumvent. copy protect your cds. people will buy black sharpies. add a dongle, do whatever! you have to turn the info on the cd into audible music at some point. at which point, the audio signal can be captured, digitized, and distributed. there is absolutely no way to defeat this! if it can be heard, it can be copied. END OF STORY.
send armed guards out with each cd purchase to go home with you and make sure you don't copy the cd. that is all you can really do.
whether you like it or not, free music, books, movies, etc. is the way it is now. this is what the promise of the internet is all about! i mean come on people, weren't we getting excited about exactly this kind of dreamy stuff ten years ago? and now we want to put the genie back in the bottle? the internet is pandora's box, my lawyerly friend. litigate all you want, pass as many laws as you want, line as many political pockets as you want, you can't reverse the flow of time. YOU ARE FACING HISTORICAL OBSOLESCENCE NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU KICK AND SCREAM. why would we want less convenience? should we throw out all of our cds too and go back to vinyl while we are at it? these corporations and their lawyers are fighting simple, obvious progress that a kindergartner can understand.
but who will make money off of music! no one will!???
so the future is about the status quo? things change dramatically because of new, historically-ground breaking discoveries, and not always for the better of everyone. just ask the aztecs or the incans. the internet is exactly such a historical, groundbreaking discovery. the death of the information middleman is exactly the dramatic, bloody side effect that is warranted. these companies are being replaced by not a better business model, but a better DISTRIBUTION model. who said it had to make someone money!
the convenience of millions versus the fate of a few middle man music companies is an obvious choice. besides, there are always alternative models for turning a dime. someone will learn how to stand at the internet portals that tell people what they might want to listen to, and artists or the groups that represent the artists will pay them to put their name on that portal. everyone has to go somewhere to figure out what they might want to listen to, given the plethora of choices out there. there's money in that statement somewhere, and someone will figure out where.
i think radio has been handing out free music for decades, and we don't see them worrying about their economic model. nor do i see the publishing industry quaking in their boots over the existence of libraries with free books on loan. i think barnes and noble found out that if you let people sit around and browse their book selection for free, you make more money. on it's face, this is antithetical, but it is a centuries-old well-established business practice that handing out freebies leads to customers who feel obliged to patronize your wares.
no one is going to read books on a clunky, expensive ebook when they can read the paperback version for three bucks. no one is going to copy a paperback to digital when it is so much cheaper in time and convenience in the pulp wood form! a book is a BETTER TECHNOLOGY for reading than any computer version can ever hope to be: convenience, power consumption, viewing contrast, ease of use, etc. check down the list. ebooks are a dumb idea. so the publishing industry need not worry.
and i don't care how many movies you have on your hard disk. there is a reason people go to theatres when they all have tvs at home. people like the anonymous company in the darkness munching popcorn when they watch movies, movie houses our like our new churches of worship. it is human sociological thing, a group mob human principle of enjoying the emotion of a movie with the rest of the herd... it makes the movie more enjoyable. so movie houses are never going away, and can charge $9, $10, $12, $20 PER VIEWING (not per copy!) for a movie well into the future for decades. nothing on the horizon threatens this business principle. so the movie industry need not worry.
but the music industry? worry, worry, worry. they produce a product enjoyed in private, and easily copied and digitized... unlike books... unlike movies. WORRY A LOT my music industry friend.
the artisits? the artists will make money the old fashioned way, by working for it. live concerts. or they won't make money. they will do it because they love to do it. teen age boys will still try to play guitar or scratch vinyl or fiddle around with 808s even if they know they will never be millionaires... it was always about getting the chicks anyways!
ok i have ranted. LOL
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
No, actually, I've already quit buying CDs. The RIAA and their kind have finally irritated me to the point where I simply won't willingly send any more money their direction.
Sure, there are a few things I'd really like to own on CD -- but I can go to one of the many used CD/tape/record stores in town to shop for them, or even buy used on eBay.
There is so much music already floating around on CD, there's really no good reason to buy new product anymore, unless you have to have the latest releases. (And with the poor quality of most new music being released, I'll pass on that.)
If I only have "so so" interest in something, I'll copy it/download it.... I already got tired, long ago, of paying $15+ for a disc just for one or two good songs on it. Since the recording industry refuses to become flexible enough to sell "burnt to order" discs made of your own individual selection of songs - I refuse to give in to their marketing model of buying stuff you don't want, to get the few songs you do want.
2. Copy-protect music CDs.
3. ???
4. Profit!
While the responses that people have gotten from the customer service departments may seem outrageous, their tone isn't always reasonable, either. Consider this exchange (it's in German, I've translated the bits I quote below):
:-)''. I fully agree with this statement, but I can see how it would lead people to believe that you do, indeed intend to crack or circumvent the copy protection (note the emoticon).
;-)
``On the back of the CD, it reads:
"It is designed to be compatible with CD audioplayers, DVD players
and PC-OS, MS Windows 95, Pentium II 233 MHz 64MB RAM or higher."
These statements are definitely false!''
That _is_ definitely false. Just that the CD doesn't play on _your_ CD audio player or DVD player doesn't mean that it can't be designed to play on such hardware.
``Finally, the copy protection doesn't fullfil its purpose, for clearly copy-protection = purchase-protection.''
Nowhere has he proven that the copy protection is at fault here, or even that the CD has copy protection. Both are likely the case, but suddenly attacking copy protection out of the blue strongly suggests a biased view.
``Unfortunately, you oversee that your reduced tunover is not solely the fault of copy pirates.''
Again, he's assuming the common prejudice that the music industry are pursuing copy-protection because they blame their lost revenues on illegal copying. While this may indeed be true, it, again, suggests a biased view. After this, he mentions a couple of (IMHO probably valid) reasons why revenues might have decreased for music companies (mostly boiling down to ``consumers spend their money elsewhere''). He then says ``There is no copy-protection that cannot be cracked
At multiple occassions, he asserts that the CD he bought is ``useless'' (more literally ``valueless''). Flat-out stating that somebody's product is useless is clearly offensive.
He also states that every consumer is allowed to make a copy of any CD that they bought, and that EMI's copy protection prevents this, and is thus illegal. Assuming for now that this statement is true, and the copy protection is, indeed, illegal in Germany, it is still a very strong statement.
I think that, considering the tone of this customer's message to EMI, it is not surprising that their response is less than friendly in tone, and seems biased towards assuming the customer to have at least a positive attitude towards pirating CDs.
If we want to show the world that copy protection is a Bad Thing, we need to at least sound objective. Yes, CDs should play in devices that can play CDs, even if they are copy protected. Yes, using the CD logo on your disc suggests that it does indeed play on CD players that adhere to the Red Book standard. We need to make those points if we want people to reject techniques that violate these principles. But accusing companies of all sorts of ideas and policies, without backing up your claims isn't going to help.
What I want to know, before I take a stance on these issues is:
1) Do copy protected CDs actually violate the Red Book standard? AFAIK, current copy protection schemes exploit the fact that CD audio players read the first table of contents, whereas CD recorders read all TOCs, where the last-encountered entry counts. Is the reason the CD doesn't play that the _CD_ doesn't conform to the Red Book, or the _player_ not conforming to it (but following, say, the Yellow Book (CD-ROM) or Orange Book (CD-R, CD-RW) instead?
2) What of the ``we are allowed to make copies for personal use'' claim? To which countries does or doesn't this apply? Does this mean that copy protection can be introduced in some countries, but not in others? Isn't there a point in saying that the benefits of making pirates' business harder outweighs the losses for customers? How many people actually make copies for personal use, and how often are copies made for illegal purposes?
Personally, I wouldn't buy any CD that I couldn't backup. I don't redistribute my music (or software) illegally (well, not on purpose, anyway), and I don't think others should. If you think that CDs are too expensive, don't buy. If you need the music, then pay for it. If you like, you can search for cheaper music by looking at alternative bands. But there's no excuse for illegally distributing music (or software)!
Please mod me up, I worked on this post for a long time
---
If an S and an I and an O and a U
With an X at the end spell Su;
And an E and a Y and an E spell I,
Pray what is a speller to do?
Then, if also an S and an I and a G
And an HED spell side,
There's nothing much left for a speller to do
But to go commit siouxeyesighed.
-- Charles Follen Adams, "An Orthographic Lament"
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
You won't find the ability to copy music CD's enshrined as a basic human right anywhere. Most people in the world have a few more basic issues to worry about before they have the luxury of getting irate about copy protection.
This is an economic issue and the market will decide. If enough people buy copy protected CD's, companies will keep making them. If not, they'll stop making them. People will simply have to decide if their "right" to hear Band X is more, or less, important than their "right" to copy CD's.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
On the other hand, see how fast you can drive on the Autobahn...
Warp 5 if my engines could take it!
"i'm giving her all she's got!" =)
Imagine for a second how it would be if you wrote a song and discovered a few months later that BMG had released a CD in which someone had recorded that song without your consent.
Even worse, imagine for a second how it would be if you wrote a song and discovered a few months later that BMG had released a CD in which someone had recorded that song, seventeen years before you even wrote the song, and now you're being sued for infringing the song's copyright. It has happened. It has happened again. And with four notes considered sufficient to establish "substantial similarity" of works, and with only 50,000 possible four-note melodies in the Western musical scale, how can anybody possibly write music that a court will consider original?
Will I retire or break 10K?
The Rolling Stones are playing at Pac Bell Park in SF tonight, if anybody still cares. Tickets have been on sale since May. You can still buy tickets. Price is in the $50-$100 range. The good seats are in the open. It's raining.
From EMI letter: There are 250 Million blank CDRs and tapes bought and used this year for copying music in comparison to 213 Million prerecorded audio media. This means the owners are only being paid for 46 per cent of the musical content. For a comparison: In 1998 almost 90% of all audio media was paid for. Even without a degree in economics everyone should realise that such trends will result in the music industry ceasing to exist.
[breaks out calc.exe.... tap-tap-tap...] OMG! By similar calculation, I calculate that, allowing for deaf people, there are 12 Billion ears on this planet used for listening to EMI cd's, in comparison with the only 50 million or so microphones in the world. That means 99.995833% of all the world's hearing power is used for EMI music, but EMI's 1996 sales were still only about £2.7 billion. That puts the entire music industry's annual sales for 2002 at about £3 billion. Therefor, each individual ear only pays about £0.25 annually for the more than 213 Million CD's EMI gives to them. That's £0.00000000117370 per CD. Now subtract the greedy musician's 15% royalties, and poor EMI has only pulls in £0.00000000099764.5; not even enough to afford a spot of tea to quench their thirst after a hard day's work.
Oh, and I DO have a degree in Economics, but I didn't use one bit of it to write the preceding rant.
$8.95/mo web hosting
Someone who worked with American, German, and Japanese managers on a project explained this to me as Hamburger Theory. The American managers subscribed to a style of surrounding all criticism with positive remarks, like a hamburger is surrounded by bread. The German comments were all meat. The Japanese were all bread.
(1) CD's dont work in my computer
(2) mp3 and ogg does work in my computer
(3) hmm... looks like I will just have to download music and never pay money for CD's ever again
I'm not excited for copy protection or DRM, yet it almost seems like an unavoidable reality. Once DRM is in place, business will *own* us. If you think wide spread customer service is bad *now* just wait until they have control over what you can and can't do with your machine. They won't have to listen to a single complaint.
.MP3's of indie bands, please respond with a link!
I'm tired of the attitude of the record companies and don't want to send them anymore money. On that note, what are the best places to download and listen to indie music? I know that various links have been provided before, but I've never bothered to bookmark them and can't remember where to find them. If you know of ANY decent site where you download and listen to
Thanks.
until they encrypt the data being sent to the speaker itself, and the speaker coil has to decrypt the signal. then i will have to go back to using a microphone held up to the speaker to rip CDs...
. . . where corporations are our lords, and we, the great unwashed, are their vassals.
Now, shut up and buy.
People will be up in arms the same way they were when the local McDonalds went and changed the sizes and prices so what used to be a small is now called a medium and costs more.
Oh, wait, that didn't happen. Maybe people accept what they're given because they don't pay attention to 90% of what goes flying by. Yes, that applies to you and me as well. We just miss/ignore a different set of items. (Did a t-shirt always cost $25?)
I've argued IP cases in front of the state supreme court. And I know for a fact you are talking out of your ass.
As long as their cd's will play in regular players, and as long as we have audio out on our players, and as long as we have audio in on our sound cards THEY CAN'T STOP US!! (ha ha ha!).
Here's a google translation of the original letter sent out by Mr xxx, the original German can be found here.
Mail of EMI (attention, long text) RF600R (27 October 2002 17:13) Hello,
after bought CD ran in none of my devices, I had one Mail written EMI. Here can do you my Mail and the answer from EMI read.
schnipp --
Ladies and Gentlemen,
yesterday I acquired the CD of TOTO "Through the looking glass". Up the back is to be read:
"It is designed tons compatible with CD audioplayers, DVD players and PC-OS, ms Windows 95, Pentium II 233 MHz 64MB RAM or more higher."
These statements are definitely wrong!
* Only the pieces of 1-8 in my DVD Player leave themselves actual play. The pieces of 9-11 appear not and are not playable. A common CD Player does not possess I no more, so that these CD becomes worthless.
* My Macintosh with MAC OS X 10,2,1 with that actually plays Software of itunes only the pieces of 1-7. All remaining pieces appear as only one audio TRACK, which is playable to the half only. Result: the CD is worthless.
* My PC with Windows XP actually plays the CD only with up that CD Player present off. Unfortunately you conceal the fact, that this Player is mandatory on the CD Cover. There I very much carefully the software selects, which I on my computer is installed and I do not force themselves leave, proprietaere Software to use, is worthless as result these CD.
I insured myself fortunately with the purchase that I these CD if necessary under refunding the purchase price to return can. This is but only possible, since the dealer was so obliging.
In the long run the copy protection does not fulfill its task, because it applies obviously: Copy protection = purchase protection!
This is the more unfortunaty, there I an expressed fan of the group of TOTO are and all albums possesses among other things. Too it harms that IT prevented that I also the most current work at my cabinet to place can. Because I tend to also hear the music, which I buy. PilotFederal Labour Office-close I do not need.
Altogether I would like you from given cause mine comment to Topic copy protection convey:
Unfortunately you that not only the bad robbery copiers debt survey on Their recession in sales are. Rather are the rather following reasons decisive:
* The main consumer - young people - give a majority of their Budget for Handys out, * with the DVD a competition medium appeared on the market, that deeply into the Gefilden of the music industry it fishes because it applies that one a euro only once to spend can and everyone more or less limited budget has * by the copy protection is playing the CDs on DVD Playern not or only very reduced possible. Many households are only still with DVD Playern equips. Unfortunately you cut yourselves thereby in own meat. Much toericht. * there is no copy protection, which is not to be cracked: -)
Altogether you ignore simply the fact that each salesman by law is permitted to make a copy of its bought CD. Their behavior is altogether illegal. Unfortunately it shows up here that those Disk industry obviously a too strong lobby has.
Result: I become no more CD from their still from another house buy, which is equipped with a copy protection. They are in my household not playable and thus worthlessly.
How do you intend to recover me in the future as customers?
Faithfully,
xxx
||:|::
they forget about the independent musicians who actually want you to copy their music and distribute it as widely as possible.
Independent musical recording artists still usually have to license their underlying musical works from a songwriter, who gets a royalty of 8 cents per track in the United States.
Will I retire or break 10K?
You're following their line by associating the damage they are doing with so-called theft at all. The ability to play your CD on your computer, for instance, while it's certainly desirable if you want to 'steal' the music is not by any mean only desirable for that purpose. My laptop is my portable do-it-all device, and with my mobile lifestyle it's also the only cd player I own. I'm in the minority on that, but these days it's a pretty sizeable minority, this is not at all an uncommon pattern. If I buy a CD and it won't play on my laptop, then I'm screwed unless I am willing and able to go to some lengths to defeat the copy-prevention mechanisms and rip the sucker. Now, if I were a big-time "music pirate" I would doubtless do just that, and the music would be on Kazaa or maybe flowing from my assembly line if I were really bigtime in hours. But since I'm not, my only option is to return the defective CD and get my money back. If they try to deny that option too, and call me a 'pirate' the results of that are unpredictable but certainly not beneficial to them.
I guess the point is that this sort of crap will hardly slow down the pirates, not the amateurs and certainly not the larger more organised commercial groups that sell unlicensed CDs, it's really only going to interfere with those who are doing nothing illegal, who just want the CD they bought and paid for to work on their laptop or their carstereo.
These companies are doing nothing but pissing in their own cornflakes... the only way this makes any sense at all is if you assume it's a ploy to play for some huge government bailout... that's the only way a company can treat their customers this way without destroying themselves.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
It's worth skipping from The Register to the original German, then running the customer's letter through babelfish. You might get a better idea of why he got such a response - the letter talks about the inevitable hacking, and how BMG have lost him as a customer. Read it...he's being fairly inflammatory himself.
Cheers,
Ian
Just like musical "aritsts", under "pay for hire" laws, are machines that turn cocaine into profits for business people.
If the business people want to copy protect what they paid for, more power to them!
Errr, of course, consumers could chose not to buy the music if it's not provided in a format that will play on the CD player in their Mitshubishi Eclipse.[*]
([*}Did I hit the right tone with the Eclipse crack? From the TV, that's the kind of car that they seem to be selling to kids who are "clueless consumers" and "like music" these days.)
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
but i haven't bought any cd's for years mostly because the quality of mainstream music is so shitty that i had lost nearly all interest in it.. instead i had turned purely to internet bhased sources like spinner.com to hear diffrent artists of a widely varying and electic range of cultural musical backdrops and hopefully more and more people will find out that like one of the parents above this one pointed out they have been obsolete for several years and are jsut now figuring it out and trying to stave off their inevitable demise.. they're not needed as middle men so they better find a way to "add value" from the *consumer*'s viewpoint instead of theirs
All this copy protection crap is garbage. It's like I was reading about the DVD-Audio and SuperCD formats and all that jazz. Currently it's impossible to find one with digital out because there's no copy protection format for digital out. When there is, get ready for all new SP/DIF hardware.
BUT THE WHOLE POINT IS.... Somewhere in the magic box of circuits, there is a binary signal. There's no getting away from that. And just like the xbox, some genius, who does it for love instead of money, will reverse engineer the chips and create a piggy-back chip. Just like all other locking mechanisms of late: instead of making harder-to-break locks, they just put a stick through the padlock holes, and say it's illegal to break the stick.
"Oh well." is NOT the attitude to be taken here. This is serious. We have to stop feeding the beast that is looking to destroy us. What I found most interesting about the letter quoted in this article was the the arrogance. We are doing this and you can't stop it, but here is the thing, we can, we absolutely can... we can bankrupt the "Music Industry" it's all within our power, we're the customers and we are always right, and it's time they learn that. Fuck the major labels. As everyone on these boards mentions, the music out there sucks and you couldn't be more right. Their music sucks, soon it'll be copy-protected but who the fuck cares, let the baby have it's bottle. We need to stop whining and realize we have power. Music is everywhere, in your own state alone you could find dozen's of independent label's putting out every kind/genre of music imaginable. It's time to support those labels and the artists under them. Those labels can't make their artists rich, but they take care of them, and they are fair. This is art, this isn't business and as a result the music is good and pure. My CD collection is now aproaching the 1000 mark, about 33% of those are from major labels, and in the past 2 years i'd say only 5% of the CD's i bought were from the "majors" I am very committed to this, and if others were too, music wouldnt' be suffering the way it is and the "majors" wouldn't have a leg to stand on. So lets quite whining, lets quit eating the shit they feed us, lets change their arrogance into fear. At the very least we discover great music and rediscover our love for music, we stop paying the "majors" exorbitant prices, we enjoy fair use of our property, we use the internet and filesharing to broaden our taste in music, we learn to support real artists by buying cd's, merch and concert tickets. Best case scenario though, we bankrupt this so called "Music Industry" There is nothing to lose.
"If you plan to continue protesting about future audio media releases that are leaked onto filesharing networks, forget it; peer-to-peer filesharing is a reality, and at this very moment more or less all audio media worldwide are available online. And this is a good thing for the music industry . In order to make this happen...oh wait, it already has -- whether you like it or not."
"I may be quite wrong." - Socrates
I for one find customer service like this refreshing. Don't lie about your capitalist ways.
When I read this, I laughed so hard.
"This means the owners are only being paid for 46 per cent of the musical content... This is also the reason why record companies increasingly have to protect their CDs. "
No. This means EMI is only being paid for 46% of the the industry created to rob the owners of their musical content. Refresh my memory, who does this employee work for again? Who gave him the employment contract? What name appears on his paycheck? The fact that an employee of the record company calls them 'their' CDs says it all.
"Should you really have a problem with playing the CD in question, we would like you to name the exact model of your player. Then we can compare this model with the list we have of players that our CDs run on without any trouble."
Any player with an incorrect model will be forced to be labeled with a sticker of a golden six-pointed star. At a later time, you will provide this player to the IP police so that it can be shipped off to an appropriate facility.
"Even without a degree in economics everyone should realise that such trends will result in the music industry ceasing to exist."
Oh no! And if the music industry vanishes, that means no more music!
"We forward these cases immediately to our copy protection-provider, which is trying hard to adapt the technology accordingly and solve the problems."
Meaning, you have to buy another player, cause we just broke your existing one.
"The officials of the consumer rights ministry won't tell you anything different - after all it was the politicians who urged us to finally introduce copy protection measures."
Why would politicians urge industry to change their practices at the expense of a portion of their constituency? Come on, guess.
"In order to make this happen we will do anything within our power - whether you like it or not."
And that's what makes democracy great, after all.
I think shooting feces into a crowd of dancing kids is a statement. .
In fact such a statement would be a rather humourous expression of "your music is shit", this could even be considered an artful (yet offensive) way of expressing your opinion
As to your disapproval, I think it would be interesting to know what sort of things you did that the previous generation didn't agree with.
Its quite simple really. If you have an artist you really like (one who puts out CDs with more then one or two good songs), pirate their entire work. Find out how you can send them fan mail and make a 20 - 50$ (depending on number of CDs and quality) "donation" to their bank account. In the letter, finish it with a "P.S. MP3s rule!", so they know where it came from. This is hundreds times more then they would get from the recording group, and will be most likely less then you would have paid for over priced broken CDs.
Simple, eh?
... and that's not the point of their efforts. There has always been (and will always be) those who will (quite easily) circumvent copy measures and share illegal copies to others. They know they can't stop them, and that it's futile to try.
No, what they are doing (under the guise of the above argument) is making sure Joe Average user never gets to be able to exercise their fair rights through simple, legal means. Let's face it: right now when someone buys their kid a copy of the latest Disney movie on tape or DVD, there is no simple and cheap means for him/her to make a personal copy for backup. When the tape gets eaten by the VCR or the DVD gets stepped on, the only option is to go out and buy it again. This doesn't even touch on the holy grail of media distribution: pay-per-use media! Having DRM that can't be legally by-passed means that non-techies will have to swallow it, regardless that fair-use dictates you have the right to use it much more freely!
What the media distributors fear is that Joe Average will start to clue in to the fact that backups/spaceshifting/timeshifting are *legal* and start to have access to tools to make such activities happen *easily and cheaply*. They would lose FAR more money because of this than to Internet sharing (since most sharing doesn't actually affect sales: most would never have bought the product to begin with).
These guys know the facts, and where the revenue is *really* gained or lost. But they have to publicly spin it right. After all, it would look rather bad to say:
"We want to restrict the public's ability to make *legal* use of the music/movies they purchase".
It's much more palateable to say:
"We want to restrict the public's ability to make *illegal* use of the music/movies they purchase".
Our job is to educate Joe Average on why this is important. They need to know their rights, and the efforts being made to restrict their rights. There must be a mass of people to reject these "solutions" so they fail in the marketplace, and there must be even more to protest any more legal enforcement of these "solutions".
Look at the tomato! Isn't it sad? He can't dance! Poor tomato!
For the month of December, one of their biggest sales months.
Every slashdot reader should email, ICQ, etc all of their family and friends and get them in on this.
Wise men speak because they have something to say, Fools because they have to say something!!!!
I just heard that Gilligan's Island is not near Hawaii. But, is actually in the Bahamas! Can anyone confirm this?
Here's the reality: a principled few may boycott. But can there said to be competition for music? If people like Band X's music, and Band X's music comes out on Label A, then a boycott of Label A is going to mean nothing for fans of Band X, and that's the end of the story.
There's a lot of truth in that. I think the key is to get to new musics before some label signs them.
Record labels really screw artists over, if there was a mechanism for artists to be successful without being signed, the RIAA would die.
Here are some unsigned bands in LA: Breech,OO-Soul, and Powder. Go to there sites, try out their music and if you like it buy the CDs direct from the band!
Anyone else have unsigned bands to recommend?
There are 10 types of people in this world, those who can count in binary and those who can't.
Alright, this is a totally broken analogy, but I'm going to do it anyway:
How much good attention did Winston get for being the honest cigarette company? "No" additives? How come we can't get a Winston out of the top five labels? Someone that will put a "We support fair use" sticker on their CDs and sell them for $9? It seems like they'd get some press, and customers would go out looking for the labels. I know I would.
Hell, it could motivate me to buy a CD in a store, which I haven't done for... God. Four years now. Then I'd go home, rip the CD, and throw it in my closet.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
Why bother with going thru analog?
I have a couple of these at home. They supplement my turntables, mainly for when I only have a song on cd or need to use something I can only find in mp3 format. They're dirt cheap nowadays, under $100. Not great for dj-ing, but they will play ANYTHING. I had a cd I stepped on that cracked almost in half (a crack running from the center all the way to the outside edge) and it didn't even skip. I didn't realize the thing was cracked until I tried to rip a copy of it. Doh! I had copy protected it! But fortunately the cd player itself has a digital output, so I just ran it into my friend's Audigy. I had to record it at 1x speed obviously, but I got a digitally perfect recording. As more people get dvd players and other gizmo's with digital output, sound cards with digital input will explode in popularity. The most copy protection can offer the music industry is that a couple years from now people won't be able to rip at 16x, but they'll be able to copy at 1x. A lot of you out there may have an Audigy or Extigy already. Do you also have a dvd player? I'm sure your dvd player can play cds, so you already have a means of creating digitally perfect copies of protected cds.
There are 250 Million blank CDRs and tapes bought and used this year for copying music in comparison to 213 Million prerecorded audio media. This means the owners are only being paid for 46 per cent of the musical content. For a comparison: In 1998 almost 90% of all audio media was paid for.
Wow, I didn't realize it was only possible to burn MUSIC on to CDRs.
With fucking idiots like this in the biz, it almost makes you want to pirate their overpriced shit to get his ass out of a job.
I can tell you this though, their current stance and "fuck you consumer" attitude WILL increase piratism of music, and WILL decrease sales of music. Their ignorance prevents them from seeing that, but it will happen. Never, NEVER slap someone in the face after they give you money.
In the future, the music industry will think they won.. But I can promise you, I will not buy a single music cd again. I will pirate every last little song, and support my favorite bands by purchasing concert tickets and memoribilia at them.
It's the way it should be anyhow.
It should be fairly simple for most people to boycott the recording industry, if you really want to, because so much good music is out right now, right in front of you, on independent music labels. These labels are barely holding their financial heads above the water, so I would certainly say that they could use your/our support much more than the big 5 ever could.
Let's start with someone you may have heard of: Slobberbone. These guys tour constantly (they were just in my town Wednesday night for the 6th or 7th time in about 2 years). Though no recording can really do their live shows justice, they manage to cram more of their immense musical talent into each subsequent album they produce. They are really an amazing rock band, and you should definitely listen to them or go see them.
How about another example? Here you go: Kirk Rundstrom: Blue China (review) - Kirk Rundstrom, lead singer/songwriter/guitarist of the bizarre bluegrass band "Split Lip Rayfield" is out on his own now, and the albums he's putting out these days are completely insanely good. Seriously. I won't do him as much justice as the review I've linked here, but I will tell you that what this guy does with rock and bluegrass is completely different than anything else that has ever been recorded. His new album manages to sound entirely different even from his own usual style, which in my opinion shows a growth sadly missing in nearly all of the RIAA's "artists".
Don't forget to visit this site as well: Bloodshot Records - Maybe you missed the whole alt-country genre when the recording industry thought it was going to be the next big thing and signed a whole bunch of bands like the Old 97's, Ryan Adams, Uncle Tupelo/Wilco/Son Volt, and so forth. This style of music (called "insurgent country" by Bloodshot) has already passed through a brief, sort of popular phase, and back into relative obscurity. There are A LOT of really talented bands on Bloodshot that never got a big break, but blow away anything the RIAA has ever managed to put onto an album. I suggest you check out some of these people, like Neko Case, Split Lip Rayfield, The Sadies, Alejandro Escovedo, The Blacks, and anyone else who sounds interesting there. Prepare to have your musical knowledge broadened.
If you're ever around my area (Lincoln, NE), we have some really good local bands as well. It would do you some good if you're from around here to check out some of the shows. Besides the local talent, nearly everyone I mentioned above has been through here quite recently. If they're in a little town like Lincoln, chances are you can see them in your town as well.
The article talks about BMG (the publisher) and EMI (the publisher), not BMI (the performing rights group).
Here is the Babblefish translation, it is a little rough on the gramatical end, but what can you expect form a machine? Mail of EMI (attention, long text) RF600R (27 October 2002 17:13) Hello, after bought CD ran in none of my devices, I had one Mail written EMI. Here can do you my Mail and the answer from EMI read. schnipp -- Ladies and Gentlemen, yesterday I acquired the CD of TOTO " Through the looking glass ". Up the back is to be read : " It is designed tons compatible with CD audioplayers, DVD players and PC-OS, ms Windows 95, Pentium II 233 MHz 64MB RAM or more higher. " These statements are definitely wrong! * Only the pieces of 1-8 in my DVD Player leave themselves actual play. The pieces of 9-11 appear not and are not playable. A common CD Player does not possess I no more, so that these CD becomes worthless. * My Macintosh with MAC OS X 10,2,1 with that actually plays Software of itunes only the pieces of 1-7. All remaining pieces appear as only one audio TRACK, which is playable to the half only. Result: the CD is worthless. * My PC with Windows XP actually plays the CD only with up that CD Player present off. Unfortunately you conceal the fact, that this Player is mandatory on the CD Cover. There I very much carefully the software selects, which I on my computer is installed and I do not force themselves leave, proprietaere Software to use, is worthless as result these CD. I insured myself fortunately with the purchase that I these CD if necessary. under refunding the purchase price to return can. This is but only possible, since the dealer was so obliging. In the long run the copy protection does not fulfill its task , because it applies obviously: Copy protection = purchase protection! This is the more unfortunaty, there I an expressed fan of the group TOTO among other things are and. all albums possesses. Too it harms that IT prevented that I also the most current work at my cabinet to place can. Because I tend to also hear the music , which I buy. PilotFederal Labour Office-close I do not need . Altogether I would like you from given cause mine comment to Topic copy protection convey: Unfortunately you that not only the bad robbery copiers debt survey on Their recession in sales are. Rather are the rather following reasons decisive: * The main consumer - young people - give a majority of their Budget for Handys out, * with the DVD a competition medium appeared on the market, that deeply into the Gefilden of the music industry it fishes because it applies that one a euro only once to spend can and everyone more or less limited budget has * by the copy protection is playing the CDs on DVD Playern not or only very reduced possible. Many households are only still with DVD Playern equips. Unfortunately you cut yourselves thereby in own meat. Much toericht. * there is no copy protection, which is not to be cracked : -) Altogether you ignore simply the fact that each salesman by law is permitted to make a copy of its bought CD. Their behavior is altogether illegal. Unfortunately it shows up here that those Disk industry obviously a too strong lobby has. Result: I become no more CD from their still from another house buy, which is equipped with a copy protection. They are in my household not playable and thus worthlessly. How do you intend to recover me in the future as customers? Faithfully, xxx ANSWER OF EMI -- Very honoured Mr. xxx, we save it to us, on those remarks from your Mail to be received, those are obviously unqualified. We would also not like you with one it bores detailed explanation why the music industry under duress copy protection begins, although we also rather something other one would do. Only as much: in this year become over 250 million Blank Discs and Tapes for music overacting again bought and uses opposite 213 Millions before-taped clay/tone carriers. That means : only for 46 % everything again used clay/tone carrier becomes also for musical contents to those Repertoire owner paid. To the comparison: 1998 still became for nearly 90 % all clay/tone carrier paid for the use of contents. Also without economical study might be clear to each reader that not continue to exist to such a development the music industry can. Massive clones of before-taped clay/tone carriers by burning CD R-S can only one opposite become i.e. , copy protection. That is also that Reason, why record Companies increases its CDs protect must. One Alternative one for the stop of this abuse is not unfortunately in view. We are not afraid only, all these facts become you at all interest, because with these measures the end of the free availability of Music on CDs one rings in , which might not please you at all. You should actually a playing problem with the lodged a complaint CD have, we would ask you to call us the exact Playertyp . We can then this type compare with the available list of that Player, up those our CDs problem-free run. From it it results whether that Problem really because of the copy protection is or however completely different reasons for it are responsible. The case spoken by you that same several different Player does not play, can after our experiences only out the range of the fairy tales come. Of us used Copy protection technology is State OF The kind, i.e.. there is to time nothing Better. If there should be something better, we become this also begin. The Abspielbarkeitsprobleme with conventional CD Playern are minimum, but and again occur it that copy-protected CDs up a Player do not run. We indicate these cases immediately ours Copy protection Provider of far, which is also endeavored, the technology accordingly to adapt and repair the problems . If you intend, to crack copy protection measures and itself the CDs otherwise to burn, we must point out you that this in Shortness with the conversion of the European copyright novella to German Quite is punishable. Kind of such injuries of copyright become then also criminally to be pursued . The responsible persons of the Consumer protection Ministry will say to you nothing different one - it were the straight politicians, who requested us in addition , finally To also begin copy protection measures . If you intend, against future CD publications also Copy protection further to protest, then we can calm you down: Copy protection Yes or No is long answered, and it is a question of months, to world-wide all CDs copy-protected to be more or less published . And that is also well like that, so that the music does not remain on the distance. But become we everything do, what is possible for us - whether it pleases you or not. Yours sincerely Their EMI _ team EMI Music Consumer relation In the MediaPark å D-50670 Cologne Fon 0221.4902.2557 Fax 0221.4902.124 info. emi@emimusic.de www.emimusic.de www.emiclassic.de www.bluenote.com
The problem with this is that the concert and radio businesses are monopolies. Any artist seen as anti-business will soon be a street artist.
:) If artist can sell music through their own web pages, why would they sign their souls away to a big label?
Then buy music from unsigned musicians and street artists!! There's a lot of good original stuff out there that you can find if you look for it. Any more most bands have a web page where you can sample their music, buy a cd, and find out about a show.
Here are some great unsigned bands that I've found: Breech,OO-Soul, and Powder. Go to the sites, try out their music and if you like it buy the CDs direct from the band!
This music isn't free as in Napster, but it's close to being free as in freedom
There are 10 types of people in this world, those who can count in binary and those who can't.
Sir, you are a rambling idiot. Comparing The Register to the Pravda??? That is just _plain_ stupid. Sure, TR journalists will not ditch any good story if they can. Absolutely, TR does NOT like MS. But your comparison is as off as... well very very off :-)
Why bother buying CDs when there are so many other worthwhile things to do? I'd rather go hiking in the woods www.geocaching.com, read a book or listen to live local music anyway. I'm sick and tired of the media, their pandering to politicians and politicians pandering to them. I'm sick of them trying to create a world that is bland, pointless and fake.
I'm tired of corporations trying to replace what is real with what is artificial. I'm going to go find things that are real: adventure, creativity and the building of my body and mind.
The music industry can eat my ass.
If I buy CDs used is that evil?
Wherever you go, there you are!
Here's where to send your comments/criticisms/death threats:
e .com
EMI Music
Consumer Relations
Im MediaPark 8a
D-50670 Köln
Fon 0221.4902.2557
Fax 0221.4902.124
info-emi@emimusic.de
www.emimusic.de
www.emiclassic.de
www.bluenot
"Anonymous Coward" is for whistleblowers, not unpopular opinions.
I KILLED THE MUSIC!
This reply seems to indicate that the complaining customer claimed the CD didn't play in multiple players. If the players that won't play it really are a small minority (and that's not hard to believe) I'd also be tempted to think this complaint was nonsense and that the complaintant was a whiner. And if the complaintant really had difficulty but resorted to exaggeration, perhaps he'll recognize that it didn't help his credibility and will make his next complaint more reasoned and mature. So where's the letter that prompted this? For the record, I don't think "fair use" obligates record companies to make copying easy. As long as a real-time copy can still be made via a CD player's audio out, as it's been done for decades. I also don't think they're obligated to make their product work in all new products that come along (computers, game consoles, etc). But if I bought a disc I couldn't play in a device it was intended for (an audio CD player) I'd want my money back. And if I couldn't make a *digital* copy, even if only in real-time, I'd buy fewer CDs. And if I complained I'd expect a more professional response. Amy
Also (I forgot):
The Asylum Street Spankers are very,very cool.
BMI? You mean Broadcast Music, Inc., one of the licensing bodies that ensures composers and songwriters actually get royalties for public performances of the music they have written?
Slashdot editors, you need to EDIT. That means correcting anything in a submission that is factually incorrect.
Simply pasting in some text and putting italics tags around it doesn't count as editing.
Most of my favorite music (experimental electronic composition, musique concrete, noise, electronic minimalism) is very obscure, put out on tiny independent labels. But my listening and buying habits really don't occupy the concerns of the EMI's of the world. They are quite happy making billions and billions of dollars selling boy-bands and overnight-pop-sensations and formula-metal to the 99 percent of the CD-buying public that isn't club-crawling for the newest thing.
Thank goodness in Texas we have Lemon laws, meaning you can get 3 times the amount you paid if it can be determined you paid for a defected product!
"This isn't a study in computer science, its a study in human behavior"
Because of course, none of those CDR's were used for data, and none of those tapes were used to record original works.
"Aw, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. Forfty percent of all people know that." -- Homer Simpson
I find as time goes on I'm buying fewer and fewer CDs. Maybe it's just that my musical tastes are changing.
More and more of the music I listen to is put out by artists who are not on major labels and I think if this is how the major labels are going to treat the buyers then that is only going to continue.
Yes, I do buy an aweful lot of CD-Rs compared to CDs (this year about 300 to one), but I've NEVER burned a CD-R of music I wasn't entitled to. That is, music I had written permission from the artist to make copies of (one of my hobbies recently has been collecting music for an online radio station that hasn't gotten off the ground yet... all of it with full permission from the artists and copyright owners to make MP3 copies for use by the station to by-pass RIAA efforts to tax the hell out of the little guy. In that capacity I've made live recordings of some indie bands with their permission and even been asked to send them copies)
On the other hand, most of the CD-Rs I burn are chock full of free software (open source or otherwise freely distributable) so I resent music industry efforts to make me pay the big labels for the right to buy blank CD-Rs, NONE of which will be used to copy thier "property".
As German is my mothertoungh, I agree on this letter beeing very insultive. Though I often saw real letters beeing insultive. It's things like "fairytales" ("Maerchen" in the original), that directly implys the customer is lying.
Sadly quite normal nowadays.
Good ambient - electronical - naturemusic can be downloaded for free from www.kahvi.org in .ogg and .mp3 formats. You also can order a CD from there (obviously, not copy protected).
What exactly is your point, bucko? Because I seem to remember something about quite a few high-quality home and car audio systems using the equivalent of a computer CD-ROM in their systems for various reasons. Why does this matter? It's the point of the exercise, my friend. Those are pieces of equipment that everybody and their dog owns right now, as we sit and bitch about this.
Wanna know what happens when everybody and their dog buys even one CD that won't work in their players, and later finds out that most new CD's will have the same problem? Yeah, you got it: pandemonium.
And if you think the slashdot crowd is the only group of people with computers that like to listen to CD's, I think you should look up the national sales figures for computers. What's that? Oh yeah, that's the sound of millions of computers no longer playing new CD's and just as many people screaming bloody murder as a result.
But you are right. This has little or nothing to do with people like us. It's everyone else the music industry needs to worry about.
Read: Rabbit Rue - Free serial nove
I've thought several times that the one media where an open audio license could really work is with vinyl. Think about it... a record company releasing techno/electronic music to club dj's. Distributed under the open audio license so that it actually becomes LEGAL for the dj's to make mixes and sell them, and becomes LEGAL for the dj's to spin in a club without paying any artist collection agency. Legal for fans to listen to however they want, legal for them to share with their friends, suddenly the company doesn't need to be dedicated to stamping out fair use to make a buck selling music.
Club djs worship vinyl, always have, always will. The interface of working with vinyl hasn't been equalled by any of the more technologically sophisticated music formats. So when a dj wants a song, they buy it on vinyl. And they spend like 1000% more on buying music than any normal person would dream of. So yes someone can copy the song into mp3 format and distribute - fine. That's just a promotional freebie if you're planning on making bank from distributing the vinyl. Vinyl (not cheaper acetate) is very hard to copy into new vinyl, you really need a record pressing plant for it to be economical. The record company itself would probably distribute mp3 copies of songs, if 10,000 ravers fall in love with a song, 500 professional dj's will go out and buy it on vinyl, and after hearing their favorite big name club dj spin the track 5000 amateurs will go out and buy it too. The rave scene spends an unbelievable amount of money on music and electronic equipment, and are only served by niche record producers for some reason.
Are there any angel VC's reading this? Call me, let's do lunch.
1) EMI recently moved their headquarters to Berlin (from Hamburg). People in Berlin are known to be kinda rude. (Believe me, I lived in Europe's most interesting city long enough.)
2) Having read the letter, I may add, that it's tone is far from 'outrageous'. It may be a little sloppy, but it's still friendlier than the original inquiry sent to EMI. It seems to be very honest, though, and, honestly, I would like more companies to be as honest with me as a customer as the EMI guys are.
Babel Fish's translation: http://babelfish.altavista.com/urltrurl?tt=url&url =http%3A%2F%2Fwww.heise.de%2Fnewsticker%2Fforen%2F go.shtml%3Fread%3D1%26msg_id%3D2482963%26forum_id% 3D34995&lp=de_en
Sorry for the ugly URL.
-Valiss
One thing that I find very funny is that companies and people are forgetting about that little line in jack on their computers. I use it all the time to rip my grandfathers collection of classical music vinyl into MP3 so I don't run the risk of damaging these priceless (to me) disks. If a cd player can send the analog singal to a reciever, it can send it to the computer which can be recored into a wav file and encoded. you may have to do a little tweeking in sound forge or something like that but it works.
..because it rests on a couple of assumptions that are clearly wrong:
1) There is no such a thing as intellectual property.
2) copying a CD is not illegal or immoral
3) You're somehow equating an artist with a distribution company (they're different).
I think you should reformulate your argument (because you might have a point), but try to incorporate these few ideas:
1) Theft is different than copyright violations
2) You're allowed to make copies of your CDs for personal use.
3) Talk about how the artist and distribution methods are affected in different ways.
4) Finally, talk about how any kind of copy protection must incorporate the notion that once I pay for a CD, I may listen to it in whatever device I decide, and at any time it is convenient for me.
Again, I believe you might have some really good thoughts, but you've sort of muddled things together.
Lets try again, shall we?
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
...if a normal CD player can read these CD's, that a CDROM drive can't also be made to read them. The data is there, it has to be available to be read in order to play it. Hence, there should be a way to get a computer to read it.
Now, I do understand the bit about it having corrupted indexes, etc. But can't surely there must be a way to tell the CDROM drive to ignore the index in the same way that a normal CD player obviously does, for this to work?
-- Even if a god did exist, why the fsck should I worship it?
RailGunner: Yay, the GOP-led Congress will stomp all over the SSCA.
Me: GOP-led Congresses have shown no particular desire to get in the way of other copyright-industry-backed legislation in the past, so celebraing SSCA's death is naive and premature.
You: (Something or other, which I didn't quite understand. Could you clarify?)
Incidentally, the GOP is courting a number of Southern Democrats, in the hopes that they'll change teams. Seems to me that Fritz Hollings is an ideal candidate for buttering up... Southern, fairly conservative Senator whose major causes are copyright legislation and Congressional pork. I can't imagine why the Republicans would go out of their way to squash his initiatives, given how useful it is to keep him friendly.
's indicates posession, not plurality.
"This CD's mine" == "This CD *is* mine"
"These CD's" != "These CDs"
Learn engleesh proper like you i want.
"There are huge cultural differences between America and Germany, and it's important to try and understand those differences before over reacting."
Exactly!
Here's another example of the differences between Freedom-loving American culture and authoritarian Germany. America A-bombed it's enemies. Germany just wanted to.
"The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin..."
Who is this Anonymous Coward character, how does he post so much, and why is he always such a whore?
you're making me hungry man :)
That is what pupils get tought before they are sent to America for some student exchange:
"Do not criticize. Do not wonder, that all theese
people there do not critisize. If an American says he want to hear your real opinion, he wants to say you shall praise his opion as only truth with only 90% of your voice, if you have think his is absolute bullshit."
One has to understand, that after Hitler the skill to criticize is a very important goal of German school system. Rudeness is a very lesser bad in comparison to that what happened because to majority did not open its mouth.
Bad analogy - it's already quite common knowledge that Bill Gates likes to kick puppies.
No money goes to the Big Five who effectively own the industry (and the RIAA). Good.
No money goes to the artist. Bad.
Of course, you could buy second hand and mail some of the differential to the artist. Five bucks would be several times the royalty they'd see on the album, anyways. If enough people did it, it might get musicians thinking, although based on the way pop bands allow themselves to be wheeled out for pro-industry ad campaigns, I suspect most of them aren't really capable of it.
I believe the RIAA and all others involved with the music industry know thier time is almost up. technology has given artists control over thier workl. I believe in the not so distant future
artists will distribute thier work over the internet for a "very small fee". This will allow them to bypass the record label. Also bands that we never even heard of will get airplay over the
internet streaming stations.
I might be looking into doing such a thing, I play the tenor saxophone myself and like to play
rock & roll, rock (Pink Floyd, Bruce Springstein, George Thorougood) I also played some some Grover Washington style tunes when in
High School.
Anyway I think if artists get thier act together we can get a revolution going, who knows, maybe
others will follow.
When will the RIAA realize that a 192k streaming mpeg does not sound as good as the CD it came from. Also haven't these guys heard of the analog output jack?
Your idea WAS the stupidest thing ever and you're now unemployed and posting from a fast food joint.....
There are 250 Million blank CDRs and tapes bought and used this year for copying music in comparison to 213 Million prerecorded audio media. This means the owners are only being paid for 46 per cent of the musical content.
This is not correct. Where is the proof that all 250 million CDRs are being used for music? Don't they realize that many folks use CDRs for backups of data and software? Heck, some people are also making clothing out of CDRs. Sales of CDRs are not indicative of music theft.
If you read the entire letter, not just the juicy bits posted here, you might notice this is a reply to a letter we haven't read. My guess is the original was belligerent, accusative, haranguing, and likely with erroneous facts. I don't know that for a fact; these are my suspicions. **IF** this is true then I say kudos to the Deutsch for slapping this idiot back into his cave. Having a bit of experience with the German psyche I judge them to be very much like Americans in that when they get into this 'customer is always right' pose neither group is particularly polite or reasonable. I've worked in an organization where "customer service" is presented with enough religious fervor to cause projectile vomiting. Employees on the front lines are forced to be flak catchers and subservient to anyone with a bitch and an attitude. Sorry, but the world doesn't revolve around these self-important masturabatory a**holes. To have someone stand up to these guidos is a breath of fresh air. If I can't do it myself, then I can at least enjoy this letter vicariously. Hooray!
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
While it sounds rather bogus at face value, i also got a ranting letter many years ago from a support tech from Mouse Systems.
He went on for several pages telling me how stupid i was for asking if drivers for NT would be available in the future for one of their scanners.
A simple 2 line question, got me 3 pages of inane babble.
That said, this still sounds fake.. who would be stupid enough in this day and age to trash their public opinion like this?
Perhaps a little documentable proof? And if its given, we publish it EVERYWHERE.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Ehh, I'm not the author of the parent message, but if you're into metal, you may like century media. (I'm pretty sure that they're not a part of the RIAA...please correct me if I'm wrong)
CM
Go to the audio section and check out the long list of mp3s you can download. Usually each band has a few listed.
Hope this helps!
Bitstream Dream
;-)
Britta Phillips (Formely the voice of "Jem")
Ghost in the Machine
Jonne Valtonen (formerly of Future Crew)
OS1
Red Delicious
I don't know if/which these groups have "real" recording deals, but you can at least download their music, legally, to listen to. Those particular artists I listed have at least a song or two that has made it to my default playlist.
The biggest problem with finding good indie groups, you have to listen to a lot of them to find something you like. Let's face it - A lot of them suck.
However...
You can listen to as many of them as you want, for free, before you commit to sending THEM (not their label) money for a CD. If you only kinda like them (or really like them but for some sick reason want them to fail), you can settle for their MP3s available, legally, on-line.
And...
I have yet to receive a copy-protected CD from an indie artist.
Exene Cervanka
John Doe
Billy Zoom
DJ Bonebrake
And they are the best American punk band.
Where do they get this number? I personally have over 500 full cd-r's, and none of them contain any music at all. (nor do they contain movies, warez, or even porn).
Nearly all of them are backups, ISOs of Linux distributions or various BSD versions, mirrors of archives, picture CD's I've made from my digital camera or the like. (the rest are sitting on a spool on my desk, waiting to be used.)
The music industry seriously needs to re-evaluate its paranoid stance. Not everyone is out to rip it off (pun intended). Someone needs to let the various governments of the world know that the music industry has forgotten to take its big purple pills that make everything OK, and that they shouldn't take the music industry seriously during these unfortunate episodes.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
No, let's all buy LOTS of CDs, take 'em home, unwrap 'em, then bring them back to the store and complain they didn't work in your player. If nothing else, the returns statistic of the record chains should make someone sit up and take notice...
I'm sure I'm in a very small minority but I understand and agree with the perspective of the music companies. People steal their 'product' and they want to stop it. Fair enough.
Rather than slamming the music companies for trying to defend their livelihood (which they are entitled to do, however rich they are and however many lawyers they have) wouldn't it be better to slam the pirates that are causing the problem in the first place? But no, we have countless pro-piracy stories here on Slashdot and all over the web.
Here's what annoys me: I love downloading my CDs onto my portable MP3 player. I'm legally allowed to do this. But soon, probably within a year, I won't be able to do this with any new CDs without resorting to awkward cracking tools. This is the fault of *pirates*, not the music industry, and yet every time I hear/see the issue being discussed, people are blaming the industry and hardly even mentioning the pirates.
I'm a legitimate consumer. Anti-piracy measures are anti-consumer. But they are a necessary evil and despite the inconvenience they will cause me I fully support them.
that was the whole purpose of the tariff in the first place. To give back some money to the record labels that were losing money from dubbing of CDs that people would buy otherwise.
Funny thing about that levy - same thing happened to it that happens to most money that gets sent to the government: none of it has gone to the people it was supposed to.
But most bands, composers, etc. put out crap. That's because, it is very difficult to write anything better than crap. Very difficult indeed. How many Beatle quality bands have their been? How many fantastic Beetovens? Few indeed.
But even so the music industry is stifling new innovation and good bands by giving us regurgitated Brittney shit. The music industry will create a music scene with their network, then kill it with their network.
Was this less so in the past generations? Probably not, except that they have perfected the art of, "fad control". Good Bands don't start fads, or control them. The "big Man" of the "Fad Control Industry" ie: (MTV) is like the uber-fad-control-interface-module.
A Good Troll is better than a Bad Human.
Unless... you're a band or artist who writes your own material?
There are only 50,000 possible four note melodies in the Western musical scale, and almost all of those melodies are probably copyrighted to somebody by now. In light of those facts, how is it feasible to create original musical works without accidentally infringing on somebody's copyrighted musical work?
Will I retire or break 10K?
If the legit CD`s (or silver discs which may be compatible with cd players) are unplayable, you will have no choice but to buy a pirate copy which is on a CDR and fully playable.
Also you will have to obtain pirate copies to exercise your "fair use"rights.. For instance, I would never put original only-copies of CD`s into my car... why? because of the extremes of temperature causing damage... and the likeliness of someone peering through the window, seeing a stash of cd`s and putting his fist through to grab them.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
This guy sounds like one of the nazis in an old war movie:
"Soon, all of ze music will be under Nazi control, and you Allies will be powerless to stop us!"
Oh yeah there is the anti-reverse engineering copy protection (cartel) legislation in DCMA... unless Lik Sang is going to do it (and for how long) we will NOT be able to get around the CD protection... this is a matter for lawyers to fight protected CDs... I want to know what happens when the Car stereo manufacturers (Kenwood, alpine et al) get complaints from their customers that the latest Ja Rule CD wont work in their top of the line player w/ mp3 support.... Use one industry against the other... there are competing views and we are stuck in the middle... complain to the "other guy" and see what happens... _C
Bad spellers of the world untie!
Please mod the parent down for inaccuracy.
Amy
And I think there is a right of consumers to know what they buy. This "copy protected" wording is a very nice eupehmism for "the maximum brokeness that it might still work on some machines".
A data-tape can be copied. Otherwise it is not data-tape. Music is only data. It has to be made broken in some way. And selling broken things at will for the purpose of profit is no right in my eyes.
Bullshit!
It's one thing if these guys seize control of all broadcast media, shut out anyone smaller than say Polygram, lock out all the rack jobbers and Wal-Marts so it's flat impossible for a competing record label to get in, ever, and brainwash the people into believing they are the gatekeepers to *feh!* quality. Fine. Go ahead and do that, oops, done it already, cheers.
However the set of all audio media is not equal to the subset of all RIAA-controlled audio media.
You know, I produce audio media myself. There's the main page where I've got songs so new I don't even have a CD for them yet- also has a number of full CDs of other types of music. There's the other page which also contains numerous full CDs, this time of much more unusual and eccentric music. These are for sale, OK?
Just because the RIAA has poisoned the well so completely that people won't even fscking buy CDs from anybody, doesn't mean that these aren't commercial, for-sale, professional quality, dithered-and-mastered-from-24-bit, Red Book Compact Discs. It is THEIR fault indies are struggling (which they are). Thanks to them, people have a vague notion that it's important to never give anybody money for 'audio media', including me.
Thanks to them, they manage to set the terms and expectations for all these things, even when they have no right or jurisdiction. I mentioned the CDs I sell through Ampcast. I mentioned they're Red Book compliant. That means they are rippable, back-upable, iTunesable etc etc. Now, I also have mp3s up on the page. I used to have a lot more- and the page got so it'd take forever to load. I axed a lot of the mp3s- those songs are still on the CDs. Does that mean I want to suppress trading of the mp3s? NO, in fact on every CD I put out through Ampcast, written ON THE CD ITSELF is the message 'Please copy this CD for your friends'. And I mean it.
If I ever earn money through CDs and music, it will be because I do such good music, and conduct my business in such an enlightened way, that people WANT to support it by buying CDs of mine, and getting the cover art and stuff along with it, and knowing they contributed to my doing more music.
Thanks to the RIAA, this enlightened attitude is so UNTHINKABLE that nobody in the world would ever for a second consider it possible, so people come to one of two conclusions: (1) I am moneygrubbing slime like the RIAA, or (2) I want to work for years and blister my fingers and labor endlessly over music solely for art's sake and would be offended if anyone offered to buy a CD from me, because obviously I'd rather they download the mp3s and burn their own.
*scream*
I have to say, I am very angry with the RIAA for bringing about this state of affairs. They make a fscking mockery of anyone who wants to try and earn the occasional buck by working really hard at producing music. Music can be an all-consuming thing- some people who can do music aren't much good at anything else. I'm a lot like that in some ways. And I understand, I can accept if there's no place for it, if I can never even after decades of practice and work earn a poverty level living from making music. But GOD DAMN IT, is it necessary to poison the well so completely that nobody can even pay for their own guitar strings through selling their music? And then, to make public announcements that 'all' audio media worldwide will now be copy protected, further putting across the meme of 'there IS nothing but us' and having people eat it right up and fight over, pay attention to, only what the RIAA produces...
Now I know what being an 'unperson' feels like. And as it happens I need to go into the studio and work tonight- there's a tune I need to get on tape and get out there, based around a lyrical hook of 'this town ain't small enough for the two of you anymore', pushing the concept of third party politics. I have a killer chimey guitar hook for it. I don't have all the lyrics but one verse is going to end with comparing the Republicans and Democrats to 'Tweedledum and Tweedledee with fat and dirty faces'. I care about this stuff, I'm going for the throat and the stress of trying to produce something that can get OUT THERE and actually be heard is grating on me in a big way. It's a very tall order. Even if you know a lot of the tricks, making a hit song is damned hard work and will leave you wiped out with the ends of your fingers shredded.
And for what? I'm an unperson. I'm a serf and don't matter. The RIAA says so. And, odds are, YOU believe them without questioning it, because you're fixated on whether to, or whether not to, freely trade the stuff THEY make.
I'm a stubborn unperson- I'm going to go ahead anyway even though nothing happens and nobody notices and the RIAA will probably make uncopycontrolled media illegal next, forcing me to be not only an unperson but a criminal, and still for basically nothing.
A lot of life feels like that these days- maybe partly because I _do_ have that 'musician' gene. So rather than just despair about being made the unwilling serfs of psycho corporate Republicans, now I can pour heart and soul into music which I can then despair about its never being heard, due to years of determined work by guess who? Lord RIAA.
Maybe THAT would make for a good song- a song called Lord RIAA. Bearing in mind that it's not terribly singable like that, also to keep the length between three and four minutes (closer to three is better) and keep the hooks clear of overcomplications, and be sure to have the song title recognisable as the hook of the chorus.
Which is of course How You Do It, pity that by now it's completely a moot point because nobody will ever hear it regardless.
Gah. Kill me now :P
*stubbornly goes off to record anyway. hitting drums sometimes helps.*
Even without a degree in economics everyone should realise that such trends will result in the music industry ceasing to exist.
They say that as if it were a bad thing.
Fuck these assholes. The sooner these parasites are out of the chain, the better. Money paid for music should go to musicians, not scumbags like this.
And all the whining about CDR sales is crap - we are ALREADY paying extra for those to placate thses scum, yet tey are still denying fair-use.
"that's not encryption - it's a new perl script that I'm working on..." - from some Matrix parody
I doubt this message is authentic. If it is, then someone is going to become part of Germany's unemployed very soon, since you DO NOT EVER SPEAK TO A CUSTOMER LIKE THIS GUY DID. It is arrogant, rude and patronising and doesn't even prove a point, since it's really only repeating old statistics, the veracity of which cannot be independantly confirmed. IMPORTANT: I CANNOT vouch for the accuracy of the following summary. If you need the precise wording, get someone to translate it word for word.
Firstly, the writer regurgitates some statistics, dealing with the number of CDs sold versus number of CD-R, not even taking into account the fact that many people use CD-Rs for data(!), to "prove" the necessity of copright protection, and that the music industry could not exist if the current developments continue. It then suggests the author is himself a pirate (last sentence of first paragraph). It also states that their technology is state-of-the-art, and that, according to their experience, the possibility that multiple players are unable to read the disc is a "fairytale". He goes on to state that if they discover any problems, they report them to their copyright protection vendor, who "adapts" the scheme.
In the third paragraph, the writer reminds that "cracking" the copright protection mechanism is illegal, and that the consumer ministry won't tell the reciever anything else, since it was they that encouraged the application of copyright protection.
In the final paragraph, the writer discourages the reciever from protesting, saying that decision whether or not copyright protection will be used has already been made and that it is a matter of months until all the CDs in the world are publicised with copright protection. He then says the music industry will do everything possible to "prevent music from coming to a halt", that they will do everything possible for that, whether the reciever likes it or not.
I am sick of the Record Labels stating CD-R sales as a argument for their cause. I use all my CD-Rs for data backup and making sure originals don't get scratched. Therefore, telling us raw sales figures is worthless because they cannot prove that all CD-Rs are used for copying their precious overpriced music.
Internet anonymity for Linux newbies
Data security for Linux power users
Certainly, it's tabloid journalism. It is also useful tabloid journalism. It's written in a chatty, informal style. Guess what. Bill Gates' speeches are NOT The Sermon on the Mount and press releases by various vendors are taken far too seriously by the computer industry trade press.
It's fashionable to bash The Reg among the people who mistake mass media news for the real thing. For me, if a person whines publically about it, I start wondering about the writer... which of his toes did The Register stomp on... I'm willing to assume deservedly. They have enough credibilty so I can make that as a default assumption.
BTW, I freelance, I've been writing lately for one of the major online tech news publications. (Hint: NOT ZDnet) I frequently find The Reg useful in spotting things that are worth looking into in more depth than they can provide.
Tech Public Policy stuff
... new car stereo, new home stereo, new portable and no you can't listen to music on you PC.t
Guess what this initiative will do? IT will **encourage** people to break the (trivial) and copy the music they *own* so they can fsck-ing listen to it.
Oh I can hear it now: "you don't own the music you have only purchased the right to listen to it in controlled settings". Well if I don't "own" my music and I have to license its use then I want it to be *CHEAP* not 30$ per CD full of crap. Sell me music at 1$ per song and you can encrypt it all you want.
The question isn't one person: the artists are under contract to the recording labels and can get sued for breech. The question is if all, or enough of the major artists would work together as a group -- which they may not do unless they can be shown an economic advantage to take on their "bosses" in such a way that they can't be individually sued or blacklisted.
...Open Source isn't the only answer -- but it's almost always a better value than the alternatives...
So the hapless buyer who doesn't read /. takes it back to the store, and gets another CD that's also defective. He tries it on his computer CD audio and it still doesn't work. And this time, they won't give him his money back. So he's stuck with a CD he can't use.
How many times will he do this before he stops buying music CDs entirely? If he's a serious fan, he'll write the artist to tell her why, and the record label fan club will trash the mail.
Being told at the store that "maybe you should buy a new CD player" isn't going to make him any happier, especially since a new CD player that isn't intended for the SACD standard is even more likely to have a CD-ROM drive in it.
If I were your hypothetical BIG NAME ARTIST and found out that I had no choice but to allow my label to put out CDs that an increasing number of my fans can't play, I would be pissed.
It's only a matter of time before a name artist currently in the charts (Prince bugged out some time ago, but who cares?) publically defects.
Tech Public Policy stuff
So, soon all new CDs will have copy protection which results in them failing to play in some players, including some that I own? No problem, I will just buy the CD and return it if it is defective. Oh, returns are no longer accepted? I'll just buy disks from other publishers which are guaranteed to work. Oh, there are no such disks anymore? Then I guess I will buy NOTHING. Dang, no new hippety-hoppity music. I'll be stuck listening to the Bach I already have.
There are two kinds of societies: sustainable and doomed.
The original text of the email to EMI: per BabelFish
"Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation." I don't think that that's a problem, yet.
Sounds about like most of what I read on Slashdot or the Register.
Carthago delenda est!
Why dont they get it? If teh CD can be read AT ALL, it CAN BE COPIED!
the only way to copy protect a CD would be to make it unreadable. Or not to publish it.
For some bands, the last option would be welcome.
I wonder when Taco gonna start selling sigs by the pack... hell even the carton... You subscribe... ya get 3 sigs with the option to get 5 more for only US $19.95 ...
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
Can't say if they're real or not, but I myself (located in Germany) believe that the original posting is authentic.
Its original author posted the headers from the response in the same forum.
Have a look and come to a decision.
Remembering similar conversations with EMI some months ago, I pretty well can believe it.
42. Easy. What is 32 + 8 + 2?
"There are 250 Million blank CDRs and tapes bought and used this year for copying music in comparison to 213 Million prerecorded audio media. This means the owners are only being paid for 46 per cent of the musical content. For a comparison: In 1998 almost 90% of all audio media was paid for."
... finally they gave up (thank god) but guess what, the game companies are still here!
Well, that's great, but this statement is relevant only in a world where you expect owners to be paid for EVERY COPY EVER MADE. There's absolutely no proof that those CD-Rs are replacing CD purchases. You know, jolly gee whiz, maybe people are using them to replace music that _wouldn't_ever_have_had_ (bought/afforded) before.
Just because there is MORE music out "in total" there doesn't necessarily mean that people are BUYING LESS music.
This whole thing reminds me of all the shenanigans about people pirating games, game companies installing all kinds of "anti-piracy" measures which just lead to cracks
Simon
home page
What is everyone getting so worked over? Remember the source. I think this letter passes for "nice" in Germany. :)
1) You buy Slonimsky's Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns--it's a thick, scary book--and use some of those.
or
2) You think up something different.
Hence the non-resemblance of most good music to other good music.
Only Michael Nyman and Shellac get away with making music out of four notes, and that calculation is supremely retarded anyway, since it ignores rhythm and harmony (but "50,000" sounds better than "infinity" to techie types who're obsessed with denigrating the skill and intellect of all non-dorks).
Your mouth is like Columbus Day.
If I were lucky there would only be my ISP and the artist's ISP between me and my music, but it would still be a middle man. If there are only two choices of middle man, MSN/ATT or Time/AOL/Disney, I'd be just as screwed as neither is likely to provide "internet" service as we know it.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
this is a reply to a letter we haven't read. My guess is the original was belligerent, accusative, haranguing, and likely with erroneous facts. I don't know that for a fact; these are my suspicions
Yes, the original letter was indeed accusative, a typical flamebait.
The response is just adequate for such a complaint, although not very professional.
Finally, view these two responses (and no doubt many others out there) as an example of how cuddly, responsive and customer-centric the music business will be when it has DRM. They really are looking forward to the day when you have no rights.
Well, you alsways have the right NOT TO BUY any of their crap. The way I see it: if the music industry makes it impossible for me to record the CDs i bought (so I can play them anywhere I want) then I won't buy them anymore! And as the CDs are harder to copy I am sure ripping them will more and more be carried out by "professional" crackers who offer songs to download and so even fewer people will buy original CDs in the first place because theiy are utterly useless.
This is the German to English of the original German from the register... Seems like they got the translation pretty good.
honour honoured Mr. xxx, we save it to us to deal with those remarks from your Mail which is obviously unqualified. We would also not like to bore you with a detailed explanation, why the music industry uses under duress copy protection, although we would also rather do something else. Only as much: in this year become over 250 million blank Discs and Tapes for music overacting again bought and used opposite 213 million before-taped clay/tone carriers. That means: only for 46 % all again used clay/tone carrier is paid also for musical contents to the repertoire owners. To the comparison: 1998 were paid still for nearly 90 % all clay/tone carrier for the use of contents. Also without economical study it might be clear to each reader that with such a development the music industry can exist not further. Massive clones of before-taped clay/tone carriers by burning CD R-S only one can become opposite, i.e. copy protection. That is also the reason, why record Companies increases its CDs protect must. An alternative to the stop of this abuse is not unfortunately in view. We are afraid only, all these facts you will not at all interest, because with these measures the end of the free availability is rung in by music on CDs, which might not please you at all. If you should actually have a playing problem with the lodged a complaint CD, we would ask you to call us the exact Playertyp. We can compare then this type with the available list of that Player, on which our CDs runs problem-free. From it it results whether the problem really is because of the copy protection or is responsible however completely different reasons for it. The case that directly several different Player do not play, spoken by you, can originate after our experiences only from the range of the fairy tales. The copy protection technology used by us is State OF The kind, i.e. there is to time nothing better. If there should be something better, we will also use this. The Abspielbarkeitsprobleme with conventional CD Playern is minimal, but and again occurs it that copy-protected CDs on a Player does not run. We pass these cases on immediately to our copy protection Provider, which is also endeavored to adapt the technology accordingly and repair the problems. If you intend to crack copy protection measures and the CDs otherwise burn themselves, we must point out you that this is punishable shortly with the conversion of the European copyright novella to German right. Kind of such injuries of copyright will then also criminally be pursued. The responsible persons of the consumer protection Ministry will say nothing different one to you - were the straight politicians, who requested us to finally use copy protection measures also. If you intend to protest against future CD publications with copy protection further then we can calm you down: Copy protection or no is long answered, and it is a question of months, until world-wide all CDs is more or less published copy-protected. And that is also well like that, so that the music does not remain on the distance. But we will do everything, what is possible for us - whether it pleases you or not. Yours sincerely
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
...where Kang and Kodos and their fellow aliens take over the earth...all because Lisa wished for World Peace, and eventually all the weapons went away? Maybe we should take the same approach with copy protection...stop copying media for a few months, all the media companies toss their precious copy protection schemes in a furnace, and that's when we really hit them :)
"Life ain't interesting till you blow something up" --Anonymous
I believe you will find the original was published throughe Heisse, they publish c't amongst other things. They are open source heavy weights but they definitely are not a National Enquirer. Neither for that matter is The Register, they like a bit of fun but their reporting tends to be accurate.
mp3.com (biggest >1.5 million tunes, now owned by Universal Vivendi, but so far they haven't messed it up too much)
IUMA
Besonic
mp3.de
Soundclick
Garageband
France mp3
Vitaminic (free + pay)
Washington Post (yup)
Online Rock
Peoplesound
mp3.com Australia(not the same mp3.com)
Emusic (pay)
Artistlaunch
Good Google will searches turn up more small sites, thousands of independent artists' sites with free mp3's, smaller labels have free samples, many, many links pages. The biggest problem here is that it takes time to separate the wheat from the chaff. There is some incredibly good stuff out there and a lot of crap. I hope that you have a high bandwidth connection. Who needs the big labels? I don't.
Sigs are bad for your health.
Boycotts can be useful to their sponsors when they raise public awareness of an issue -- e.g., racial discrimination in the American South, or use of inexpensive labor overseas -- but as an economic practice, they're of rather mixed utility at best. And, given the technical and abstract nature of the problem at hand, I doubt that a boycott of music CDs will excite any fear in the EMI boardroom.
There are only two directly effective ways of fighting digital rights removal that I can think of: the first is for affected parties to bring suit against corporate practices, where applicable, and against DRR laws; the second is to directly lobby Congress, and to show Congresspeople both that there are sound policy reasons to vote against DRR laws like the DMCA, and that there are benefits to be reaped -- i.e., contributions, publicity, and voter support -- from supporting digital rights.
So, here's my question: would you spend, say, $100 a year to a "slashPAC" that would lobby Congress, prepare voter guides, and make contributions to appropriate candidates? Would you attend political functions on behalf of such a PAC, write your Congressional representatives, or work the phones for political candidates?
It's been said that the religious right would do anything to put a President in the White House; failing that, they'd put a Senator in Congress; failing that, they'd put a representative in the state house; failing that, they'd put a dogcatcher in the streets. If geeks mustered that same sort of political strength, putting their issues on the table from City Hall to Congressional hearings, then no two-bit coalition of entertainment companies could stand in our way.
$0.02.
"Freedom is kind of a hobby with me, and I have disposable income that I'll spend to find out how to get people more."
Yeah, This assumes that nobody ever backed up any data, noone saved their work to CD, no digital photographers kept their pictures, no videographers saved threir work to CD, and that the single use for CDrs is to pirate music.
... its much more durable than videotape, with a much better picture, much better sound, and much more convinient. All of which is perfectly legal, as I share none of this with anyoen else, via the internet or any other means).
Yes, they are exceptionally dishonest figures.
The small company I work for, employing around 50 people, goes through over 900 blank CDRs each year. Not to copy music, not even to copy data CDs.
Most (730 or so) are used to make daily backups of our database, on a medium that will last 20 years or more. The others are used to burn boot CDs, Linux installation CDs (Gentoo, Debian, etc.), store critical config files for later recovery in the event of a catastrophe, and so on.
At home, I use CDs to backup data on (mostly again Linux distros, pictures I've taken of travels with my digital camera, home videos I've converted to DivX format, and so on. Some TV shows I've recorded to hard disk, like all of B5 and Max Headroom, also get burned to CD or DVD
The number of CDRs and DVD-R(W)s I have purchased in the last year personally probably number around 200. Of those, exactly 0 have been used to make copies of music, legal or otherwise.
Now, I am just one data point, and I don't know if my usage is more reflective of the common person's usage (convinient, reliable, and durable data storage) or not, but I'll bet its pretty damn common for those who buy 100+ CDRs each year, and a hell of a lot more representative than the dishonest figures those thugs as the European equivelent of the RIAA are throwing around.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
(paraphrase:) If current trends continue the music business will surely cease to exist.
Yeah, trends like putting copy protection on CD's, which lowers value on an already endangered distribution scheme.
And although the piece that he is commenting on has not been verified to be a bonified example of MS strategy, I fully would expect the Register to offer a loud, front page retraction if it turned out to be crap (which it might be, but it also might not be).
Wow, you're optimistic, aren't you? They've never put retractions on the front page before - and the retractions they have posted read like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar -- full of bile and spite.
Simon
Coming soon - pyrogyra
I read the Score: 4+ posts and didn't see this point of view. I'll give it a try.
Anyone else remember when copy protection of software became REALLY BIG in the 80s? And back then, they were using some pretty darn good technology for the time. After years and years of copy protection, guess what the software industry decided? Those high tech solutions just don't work. It went away, put was replaced with the low-hanging fruits of copy protection "is the product CD in the cdrom drive"?
This isn't to say that there aren't copy protections here and there today. I think this Palladium thing wants to encourage them to get back into the copy protection business. A story in itself.
But you stopped seeing intentional bad sectors, dongles, and other technological goodies placed in software because they simply weren't effective in relation to the cost. And they caused problems.
Of course, things are a bit different today. The CD industry has a nice chain of stories that won't allow you to return CDs like you could return defective software years ago. But then again, today, there is internet distribution. All it takes is a few people with compromised DACs and your "latest and greatest copy protection scheme" is just as good as the low-hanging-fruit of software protection.
So, watch as the music industry plays the copy protection arms race. But I think the Internet, for reasons of providing alternative legitimate and illegitimate distributions, and sharing of information, aside from following the copy-protection lifecycle, will punish the RIAAs members above and beyond that.
No seriously, I would encourage selective purchasing of those CDs that do not have protection. I like to take music with me when I travel, and I have a notebook PC, why should I buy another CD player? I'm not even talking about MP3s, why can't we play the original on a PC-attached CD player?
If everyone just stopped buying music CD's and other media, even for a month, that would show the music industry who has the real power. If they see their sales drop to '0' for a time, then maybe they'll get the clue that copy protection is not the way to fix the problem. I submit to the community, that we hold a complete and total boycott of the music industry, STOP BUYING CD's!!
If I understand correctly, fair use allows you to format shift from one media type to another for your personal use. If you want to shift formats from CD to mp3 and you can't due to copy protection, isn't downloading that mp3 off p2p legal in that instance. You own a "license" to the music that you are downloading by virtue of purchasing the CD. Is there a distinction between personally created format-shifts and someone else's format-shift?
To me, restricting the ability to format shift infringes on fair-use. I don't remember the specific warnings but I know MAME games have a warning that you can only use ROM images for games that you actually own the ROM to. This is a similar situation (to the CD protection) where most people with these machines couldn't extract the ROM data themselves (I am sure that it's relatively difficult). Would the relative widespread availability of these ROMs be more because of the fair-use "loop-hole" or because the ROM copyright holders are long gone and/or not-interested enough to go after these people?
Could the RIAA accidentally end up legitimizing P2P filesharing such as Kazaa by doing this? Especially if they take this "it ain't broken" standpoint / not labelling as copy-protected.
I'm with you. But I like it better the way it was explained to me. In American style news, you have the "he said, she said" style reporting. Person A said blah, blah, but person B points out "antiblah, antiblah+."
In English (European?) style journalism, journalists themselves are allowed to have opinions and to express them themselves, rather than through the puppet characters that Americans use. So, yes, they are slanted. American news is slanted, too, but the slant is done with the puppets. That's all.
After fuming about this as we all probably did, I thought about it and came to this conclusion: EMI's math is inaccurate, and more insidiously, they are hiding some very important facts.
.." well, you're getting PAID for them dude.
Here's what was said:
"There are 250 Million blank CDRs and tapes bought and used this year for copying music in comparison to 213 Million prerecorded audio media. This means the owners are only being paid for 46 per cent of the musical content. "
This assumes that either; A) all CDRs are used to pirate music or; B) EMI has some magic tracer on blank CDRs that returns which of them was used for illegal purposes. Since neither is true, the EMI statement is rubbish. CDRs are used just as much for backups, non-MP3 warez and coasters as much as they are used for infinging music and film files.
But they mention tapes as well. Ah HA! Now here comes the reall bullshit.
Know what the AHRA is? Well the Audio Home Recording act was enacted to make sure people paid for music they taped. IOW, when you bought a blank TDK cassette, the RIAA and labels assumed you were going to use it to copy music, so they wanted a cut. The therefore dreamed up the "blank royalty" which meant that $3 of the $5.99 you paid for that TDK cassette went to publishers, labels and artists (cough). In return you were given THE RIGHT to make copies.
According to the RIAA:
"This legislation exempts consumers from lawsuits for copyright violations when they record music for private, noncommercial use; eases access to advanced digital audio recording technologies; provides for the payment of modest royalties to songwriters and recording artists and companies; and mandates the inclusion of serial copying management technology in all consumer digital audio recorders to limit multi-generation audio copying (i.e., making copies of copies). "
They get paid for device sales as well. There are similar laws in every First World country, in particular, the UK and Germany.
So Herr EMI, in claiming that ".. 250 Million blank CDRs and tapes [are] bought and used this year for copying music
What's core? That EMI.de is complaining that people are buying media (for which EMI.de is generously paid) to make copies of music that they are entitled to copy BY LAW. The EMI.de guy is complaining that people are buying media that generates MILLIONS per year for EMI!
When EMI, Warner Music, BMG, UMG and Sony Music offer to give back the blank royalty, then we can begin to discuss what percentage of CDRs are actually put to infringing use.
"The pie shall be cut in half and each man shall receive.....death. I'll eat the pie."
Sorry. Common sense got in the way.
What I find especially galling is the bit about EMI collecting problem cases and providing feedback to the copy protection provider.
Well, nice, but they forget that the CD I bought is write-once and the copy protection on it will never improve. I doubt that improved copy protection schemes will find its way onto later pressings of the same CD, unless the CD is entirely reissued. There is absolutely no way to fix the copy protection on existing CDs.
What I am left with, then, if I happen to be the owner of a 'problem' player is the choice of being stuck with a severely crippled CD (as documented by the original sender of the email to EMI, whose DVD player only saw tracks 1 through 8), or return the CD for a refund. No way I can legally access all of the CD unless I buy additional hardware or unless EMI chooses to issue an 'improved' CD and I am content to wait for that.
So, while EMI's statement sounds good superficially, it actually documents their absolute lack of regard for their customers, because they'll never be able to fix intentionally broken goods.
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/foren/go.shtml?read =1&msg_id=2482963&forum_id=34995
look at the bottom of that page:
> EMI Music
> Consumer Relations
> Im MediaPark 8a
>
> D-50670 Köln
And by the way, people in Cologne are often very
rude (IMHO).
I have found the People in Berlin to be very
friendly and helpful.
An AC from Bonn (not far away from Cologne).
Yep, that's a boycott. The WSJ article paroted the music company's claim of "piracy" though it should be clear that most people are not being exposed to good new music. None of them was able to clearly link music downloading to lost sales, or demonstrate that the music downloaded was even available at the local record store. The article then quoted the same publisher's plans to market stale old crap for Christmass, Elvis, Rolling Stones, and other 40 year old junk in boxed sets to try to make up for it. There they go, putting their eggs in one basket as their marketing model with mass pressing/printing in Asia, import by boat and distribution by truck demands. Pthththft! How many times can you sell the same crap?
Actual music sales point towards poor advertising rather than economy. Music sales increased remarkably and in conjunction with Napster, despite economic conditions. When Napster died music sales flopped before the economy started to look bad. A bad economy, combined with "CDs" that don't work, and other poor marketing methods really will cost the greedy jerks some money soon.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
+5, Funny!
What we really need is a great website thats like a slashdot for music lovers. Where we find out news about the latest non-label groups. Slashdot spread through word of mouth. Just imagine the POWER this website could do! We'd screw the RIAA over so bad they wouldn't know how to conteract it. (except to sign on every band member mentioned in MusicSlash or whatever you want (I suppose it should be named after one of the music symbols :-)
sri
Frankly, I don't know one person who has returned a crippled CD to a store because 'it didn't work'.
Answer: Those of us who 'don't matter' should buy crippled CDs in the store, return them because it didn't work. Have them assume it is damaged. Exchange for another one. Later, rinse, repeat. We should actually patronize these companies and buy their crippled CDs, if only to fill the return pile.
Eh? Your analogy is ridiculous. A better one would be Joe writing the code, then Jane copying to disks and distributing it all over the world. And if Joe wants his code to be seen (as most musicians want their music to be heard) that would be a great thing indeed.
At this point in time, every file sharing network can get you almost any music out there, popular or not. By adding coppy protection they are just creating a chalenge for hackers. There is nothing that motivates hackers more than a chalenge, someone WILL figure out a way around any copy protection short of not distributing it. Personally I think that by implimenting the copy protection they are infact encouraging piracy. This is only one of the many ways that the recording industry is shooting themselves in the foot.
Throughout the time of napster, kaza, gnutella, and many more; the recording industry has been spending milions of dollars on fighting it. They finally got a good idea: to make one that charges per month, but they ended up shooting themself in the foot again. Their file sharing network was designed so you could only download so many files per month, you could only play them on your computer and you could only play them so many times per month.
In conclusion the recording industry will fall, it is just a madder of time at this point.
I'm the ideal music consumer. I love music, I earn good money (well, sort of), and I recognize the value of intellectual property (I produce it), so I don't steal it.
Problem is, I've run out of stuff to buy. There isn't a single listenable commercial radio station on the air. They all play the same mediocre stuff, over and over, plus a lot of really crass, insulting commercials.
The online, officially-sanctioned music scene isn't much better. There are crappy, commercial-encumbered interfaces that make available a small number of highly-compressed, proprietary-format, selected-for-the-idiot-masses crap, and there are collections of MP3s of varying quality and completeness in a bazillion poorly-fornmatted, not-enough-information-to-make-good-selections, lucky-if-you-even-encounter them places.
In short, I don't have the patience of God, so my access to new music is limited. Music availability has been pop-cultured into mediocrity.
If record companies want me as a customer, and I used to be a very good customer, they need to fix this. I want a means of previewing available music without ads, spyware or hoops to jump through, and I'm not going to give my social security number, mother's maden name or a tissue sample to get it. Make it proprietary and less-than-audiophile quality to protect your sales, but make it easy to get at, and give me more than mass-market crap.
I'd also suggest fixing the homogenization of radio, but I believe all ad-supported media is beyond saving.
Amy
You buy Slonimsky's Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns--it's a thick, scary book--and use some of those.
How do I know which patterns in that book are or aren't safe to use under copyright law?
You think up something different.
I have tried generating melodies AT RANDOM with a qbasic program, based on a simple music-theoretic model, but half the time, I could place the result as a popular song. I would write songs based on what music theory I know, but I'm too scared of being sued.
Only Michael Nyman and Shellac get away with making music out of four notes
Handel did as well. The lawsuit that my article covered was about the four notes of "Hallelujah Chorus"'s hook being copied in "Yes! We have no bananas!".
and that calculation is supremely retarded anyway, since it ignores rhythm
The calculation does not ignore rhythm. It classifies note lengths into three categories, nominally half, quarter, and eighth.
and harmony
Judges may ignore harmony; changing an existing song's bass line doesn't create a new song. The calculation isn't intended to represent what a musicologist will think; rather, it's intended to represent what a federal judge might think. A judge doesn't look for an exact match but rather "substantial similarity" as evidence of copying.
but "50,000" sounds better than "infinity" to techie types who're obsessed with denigrating the skill and intellect of all non-dorks
I'm not trying to denigrate anybody or anything. I just wonder how songwriters can survive in the prevailing legal climate.
Will I retire or break 10K?
FUCK!
The music companies can generally avoid having to deal with us directly, but the stores have to. I really hate to do this, but I don't see a lot of other alternatives for actively getting the point across that I will not buy botched (err, protected) CDs.
1. Go to record store (sorry, but I'm old and to me, its a record store).
2. Pick up a few CDs known to be protected (we've really got to get these things labelled).
3. Initiate a purchase transaction.
4. During said transaction, inquire if the CDs are protected.
5. If they say No, call 'em on it and abort transaction.
6. If they say Yes, tell 'em I wont buy protected CDs and abort transaction.
7. If they say I dunno, tell 'em I don't want to take the chance and abort transaction.
8. Try to retain the ability to look at myself in the mirror after being such a dick to my local music store owner... (well, those guys are pretty much screwed anyway in the long run)
-x
I've been getting my music fix from the source, right down at the local live music bars. The musicians bring their small run CDs and you buy if you like what you hear. No copy protection or other BS. Someone asks me what I've been listening to, I'll point them at Mactra or Chef Menteur, or some good old stand by like Dash Rip Rock (ok, they are kind-o signed, but that was the way things were 15 years ago.) I'm sure everyone here has some kind of good music like that at their fingertips, but it's NOT in a store.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Chef Meteur
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
> It sounds really harsh, but it's not intended
> to be that way.
As a German who has read the letter of the EMI-CSR I can assure you that it was meant exactly as harsh as you as an American(?) have perceived it.
Actually, I still can not believe that they really wrote this.
I personally experienced the cultural misunderstandings you mention while working together with people from the USA, Japan and Germany. Using the same vocabulary doesn't mean speaking the same language.
But this is not the case with the CSR's letter.
k2r
If you're not familiar with mp3.com, it can be daunting in the sheer volume of material (no pun intended). And they accept material of all (musical) quality from absolute crap to incredibly good. They have many genre-based top-40 style charts and new-release charts. Walking through those is a natural first step. Something they have that can be a big help is "stations" - really a euphemism for fan-generated lists of tunes by various artists. The tunes can be played separately or sequentially. So, when you find an artist that you like and get to their page, click on the "stations now playing" tab. On that page could be one to several "stations" where you might find additional good material that someone else has taken the time to comb out and list. I've seen lists from 2 to 200 tunes long - this can expand your options very quickly.
Sigs are bad for your health.
Luckily the new Opeth album comes out on Monday, so I'll still be able to listen to that at least. Maybe for their next album I'll just download some high quality ogg vorbis files and send them a $20 check.
Actually I see all this as a good thing in the end. So I can't listen to CDs in my computer, and the music companies crack down more and more... does this really matter? Sometimes I think people are a bit too caught up in music/media in general. Maybe we should all go check out some of the local bands that are playing nearby - I'm sure they'd be happy to give us a $4 CDR of their stuff.
In fact I'd say if you're an artist trying to get a fanbase, NOW is your chance. As more and more people get locked out of mainstream music, a "nobody" artist can start to distribute their stuff to a much more receptive audience. I mean what else are we going to listen to on our CD players that will probably be obsolete every 1.5 years to keep up with "theft"?
Thnk about it; Playstations, notebooks, desktops, CDROM drives, Mini Disc PC-Link kits, DVD players (maybe). There is all sorts of Sony built stuff that won't play these CDs. It wasn't long ago that Sony Music released a copy protected CD, Celine Dion I think.
Now am I pissed about EMI's attitude? Yes, but hey I'm not an EMI customer (I think). Will I be pissed when I buy a Sony Music CD that I can't use in my Sony console, notebook, CDROM or copy to my Mini Disc? You better belive it.
So in short, no Sony isn't going to say anything to these guys about this because they do it themselves. Microsoft is also in negotiations with all the companies over the "DRM OS (tm)" so they aren't going to do it either.
We are screwed.
And guess what? They're not copy protected.
So go out to the bars that have open mic night or are showing some sort of a local band. And buy their CDs. It's better than the boy-band-of-the-day or whatever crap is playing on your local Clear Channel station.
-- Erich
Slashdot reader since 1997
I've been trying to convince my family and friends for months to boycott CDs until the RIAA gets real. Now that they'll start running into useability issues when they try and play CDs in their new stereo, it looks like they'll finally get that disincentive to buy $20 CDs churned out by the media/ad agencies (who are one and the same, at this point). Hopefully, they'll start buying independent artists' works. It's a shame that much of this type of product is still poorly produced, but compared to 10 years ago, the indies have really made some progress. It's exciting to see where indies' production quality will be 10 years from now.
Of those 250MM blanks purchased for the sole purpose of raping the RIAA and its members, I'm responsible for about 250 units. None of them are CD-R for audio, since I don't subsidize the RIAA. Not a single one of them was used to burn a copy of a purchased, or burned-from-a-purchased, or even third, fourth, or 10th generation pirated audio CD. About half were used to archive old data from servers / workstations, perform backups; and the rest were used for my own musical projects: original Ded Serius songs, and practice CDs so I could promote other artists work (covers) during live gigs in bands.
So, now that the "industry" is about to force it's consumers to stop buying, I'd like to continue to offer my own material here:
Ded Serius Music, some friends' music here: Layden Robinson, Turkestan Road, and Twig free of charge. Because real musicians (Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Chopin, etc.) did it (and still do) for... the music. People who do music for the $$$ are... the Industry. Who are you going to support?
Go see a local band play live and buy their CD. We'd love to see some people show up for the show.
www.dedserius.com
VB != VisualBasic
Really,
I *will* play any media I purchase on any device I own anytime I like and in any fashion I like; or I won't buy it.
It really is just that simple because I don't have the time for anything else.
What I love to hear is the how and why this will make you more money. You raise the cost of distribution, piss off your loyal customers, limit title avaliability, yet plan to make more money?
Really! how?
Blogging because I can...
as soon as black-hole non-CDs come over here, I'm out of the market as well. piss on 'em. I've got 500 against the wall and several hundred vinyl LPs that work fine, don't need to pay for freakin' bugs on disk. I can write my own to disk and try to play 'em, thank you very much.
again, RIAA: piss on ya. game over.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Go nuts:
m a lot.comn orama.comt p://www.songfight.nett ml
http://www.somesongs.com
http://www.actdead.co
http://www.frankiebigface.com
http://www.front
http://www.brick-pig.com
http://www.joh
http://www.raisedbywolvesmusic.com
ht
http://catrec.com/catrec.h
no one gets that emotional over a misspelling unless they have mental problems. get some therapy, and get a life.
The original complaint letter was linked from the article. I'm not sure if you didn't read the article or can't read german ;)
James
If you need to know what the text above the mail header says: ask a friend or babelfish...
"nature abhors a vacuum" Is that the only excuse you have for your existence?
> Was this less so in the past generations?
Apparently not much has changed since 1974:
I am the entertainer, the idol of my age
I make all kinds of money when I go on the stage
You see me in the papers, I've been in the magazines
But if I go cold, I won't get sold
I'll get put in the back in the discount rack
Like another can of beans [...]
(Billy Joel, The Entertainer, from Streetlife Serenade)
There's a reason it's called the music industry. Most of them are in for the bucks, not for the love of the art. And we, the customers are shouting Here we are now, entertain us.
"There are already a million monkeys on a million typewriters, and Usenet is NOTHING like Shakespeare." - Blair Houghton
Years of being a corporate bitch have left me with quite the bitter taste in my mouth. I work with countless project managers, sales drones, and others who can't handle it when us engineers (and I'm a security engineer, they hate us even worse) don't sugar coat everything.
I sincerely hope my small hosting company/ISP is successful in the long run, as I can't take much more of this. If I could get away with emails like "no you dimwitted twat, that idea is NOT good, will result in massive customer outages, and I don't give a flying fuck if you have to look incompetent to retract your idiotic recommendations cause I'm not taking the heat for it when it all hits the fan" I would be sending them out many times a day. Not to be condescending (well, ok yeah I would be at least until I got the novelty of THE TRUTH out of my system), but to get things solved and move on. Things would be fixed 500% faster (literally) if the ass kissing and irrelevant crap was removed.
Oh, the RIAA can kiss my ass too. My $15 that I pay for a piece of plastic is my license to listen to it any way I choose. This is why we have magic inventions called mp3 players! If they want to block me from using their product, that's cool - I'll stop paying for that product. I can get much better looking coffee mug coasters for $15, and I'll just go find someone who did manage to rip it into mp3 on the 'net anyway!
I'll NEVER buy a copy protected audio. Got that, jerkies?
-------
"Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief."
They also are starting to sell "protected" CDs in Brazil.
There have always been a lot of crappy one-hit wonder artists. We selectively remember the good artists from the past and forget the mediocre ones. There is still good music being made.
I would instead contend that people are spending more of their dollars on DVD movies and less on CDs. Why?
Your average DVD costs 15-20 dollars. So does the average premium CD. A movie is generally at least an hour and a half long, plus bonus materials. A CD is usually not much more than an hour long. And a movie is a much more engaging experience with video and surround sound. If consumers have limited dollars to spend on entertainment they will pick the better value.
The problem is that the music industry is operating from the premise that they are entitled to ever-increasing revenues on a mature technology that is being overtaken by something more exciting. The music industry needs to either spice up the product or get used to making less money.
they can have my 1/8th inch mini male to 1/8th in mini male adapter then they pry it from my cold dead hands!
-smead
50 messages rated +5?
... a lot?
Isn't that kind of
The idea is you will have no rights, period. No right to create your own music without the approval of the major labels, and other people's independant music won't play because it doesn't have the necessary keys. The final goal is to kill the general purpose computer, and general purpose audio equipment. And any equipment that can be used to create or play independant music will be ILLEGAL punishable by lots of jail time.
Ooh that's fucking good lizard boy! Brilliant! You must be beyond retard to just sub-retard!
THE REGISTER RULEZ!
The Artist-once-again-known-as-Prince had a well-enough publicized success in this area.
Perhaps he's not "major" enough to have made it onto your particular musical radar (no accounting for taste, etc), but that's to be expected; the POINT is that there wasn't a big media todo about it - the media people are the ones the whole Interenet distribution process cuts out.
Once you get distributed on the net, you begin cultivating particular fans, instead of just spamming the radio for massive, generic fame. There are plenty of case studies, it's simply not in mainstream media's interest to trumpet them. Thus, you don't tend to hear about them in blanket fashion.
In the real mainstream the Register would be laughed out of existence. However here in Linuxland they are loved by all. Why? Because they'll "print" any piece of claptrap berating Microsoft, big music, big movies, etc, and the Slashdot community gets a really chubby over it.
This article is halfway down the home page at /., and there are HUNDREDS of posts like "Yeah, well I have a band and will sell CDRs..." or "I legitimately listen to my CDs in my computer" or a million other variations of the theme.
Listen, people. Posting on slashdot is like shouting real loud in a closet. It might make you feel good, but it does virtually nothing for your cause.
If you really, REALLY have any intention of being heard by those evil people at RIAA/MPAA, write them a honest-to-god printed-on-paper letter.
Phone calls disappear the moment you hang up your phone. EMail is usually considered too easy to send to be taken seriously. But letters get noticed.
If you mean what you say, warm up your ink jet, spend $0.37, and write a letter. Otherwise, you're just talking out your ass.
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Yeah, I'm pretty disappointed, here in Illinois. We ended up with too many Democrats in state government. As far as the Congress and Senate races, I'm very pleased with the results.
I won't buy major label crap, but I do love noise. Rapoon, Nurse With Wound, Tackhead, Controlled Bleeding.... RIAA would never have the balls to release shit like that. And that's the problem, there's a small amount of interest in a large number of fringe musical styles. The RIAA would like to see this disappear and only produce a few styles of music to cater to mass appeal, while also stiffling distribution channels for the fringe artists. And why is this? Because it's the fringe artists who create the next popular musical forms. And they can't control that. So, the solution? Monopolize the distribution channel and buy politicians so any other distribution becomes illegal.
Fuck the RIAA. I won't buy their music. I buy CD's from bands at concerts and across the net. I also legally download directly from the bands who allow it. I won't break the law, and I will get the weird music I like. Ugh, it's so fucked up. --M
from 90's bands, clapton, queen, classic jazz, parlament funkadelic and a couple more for christmas. Now i've changed my mind. F()ck these bastards. I will purchase music the day they stop being total asses. Geez, I am fed up with their attitude.
Mfg'ed bands suck as much as always
They don't even bother pretending it is orginial anymore. I was playing Rock Manager, and I could have sworn one of the songs from the game was being played by the top 40 radio station.
Sure they claim that the use of MP3/Ogg and file sharing is costing them money. well they are probably right, just not to the excess they claim.
whats really hurting them is the cost of CDs, the quality of the music, and the numerous attempts at stopping you using what you pay for.
In my case I buy lots of CD (my collection is heading for 400), and yes every CD I buy is ripped to ogg or mp3 format, but not to be shared, but to make life easier for me to listen to them, on my laptop, as I work, which does not have a CD drive, not that I want to have to carry large numbers of CDs anyway.
I do not share these rips, not though any dislike of piracy, but more selfeshness, a real case of I paid through the nose for the CD, why should others benefit for free.
Mandatory copy protection on music CDs is total madness, and all its going to do is piss off lots of CD buyers, driving them to the file shares.
A far better solution would be to provide legal Mp3/ogg downloads, that are water marked, so they can be traced back to the purchaser.
Sure someone can share these mp3/ogg files, but they can be traced. Given a stiff penality, the sharing would be reduced to a trickle.
There has been discussion of using DRM from the beast to allow for secure digital distribution of music legally. Sure this may work, but again its limiting what you can do with your own property, and will/has pissed off lots of people.
As a non-windoze user, all the beasts DRM is off limits to me, which when/if music distribution happens in this format, will drive me to the file sharers.
I would like to be able to buy single tracks in MP3 or ideally ogg format, straight of the internet. But provided that they are not restricted in any way.
Buying single tracks in this way would save us consumers lots of money, which is why its not likley to ever happen! Just think about it how many cds have you bought that you like every track? very few right?
Message to the RIAA, remember DVD regions? its hard to find a player thats not been cured of the region madness these days, which is just what will happen with your CD copy protection, sooner or later it will be cracked, there is no way you can stop it.
Far better save your self truck loads of pain, and money, and embrace digital distribution before you are sent broke by it. Digital watermarking is the way to go....
The first copy protected CD that I buy, will be the last CD I buy, and I will not be alone in that.
I would say overall MS has learned exactly the opposite.
Antitrust-wise they seem to be in zero trouble, without making any material change in their business practices. So one PR strategy against Linux failed. There will be dozens of others. I still don't find it obvious that Microsoft's products will be eclipsed by open source in the long term.
I think the moral of that story is, do whatever you want to your customers; if you're a big enough monopolist, you will almost certainly get away with it.
Want to Know How to Cheat the GPL? Read On!
Not if you hurry. They want to take a tax on those and give it to the RIAA too.
Sort of like requiring you to write a check to GM for 10% of the price when you buy a used car.
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS
Interesting how filtering through a translator back to German, then again to English, it all starts to make a lot more sense:
Very honoured Mr. xxx, we take an addressing of the points in your email, which are obviously incorrect. We also would not like to bore you with a long-winded explanation of, why the music industry is forced to do in order to use copy protection mass, although we would prefer it, still something. Only this much: There are 250 million empty CDRs and take up bought and this year for copying music compared with 213 million before taken up audio means used. This means that the owners are paying only for 46 per cent of musical contents. For a comparison: 1998 nearly 90% of all audio means were paying for.
Even without you state a degree in the national economy of everyone that such tendencies the music industry stops devoted, to exist. Only one measure can be used approximately widespread clones of the before taken up audio means, by burning CDRs: Copy protection! This is also the reason, why record companies must protect their CDs increasingly.
An alternative solution for stopping this abuse is not unfortunately within the sight. But we are afraid that these facts do not interest you in all. Because this mass the end of the free music to mean, something, which must cause much wrong for you. "if you really a problem with the playing of the CD in the question have, would like we that you call the exact model of your player. Then we can compare this model with the list, which we have from the players of this our CDs, which without any trouble run on one leaves. We see if the problem is really the copy protection, or if there are completely different reasons.
The case report you that even several players reject work can, in our experience, only of the Realm of fairytales develop you. The copy protection, which we use, is meant condition of the art, this that there is nothing, which is up to now better present. If it gives somewhat better, we do not hesitate to use it. Problems with playing on general CD players are minimal, but everyone now and then happens it that copy protected CDs does not work on a player. We forward these boxes immediately to our copy protection servicer, which tries strongly to adapt the technology accordingly and solve the problems.
"if you on cracking copy protection masses and burning the CD by other means plan, must underline we to you that this is invalid in the near future, when the new European law of the mental property is introduced to Germany. Such breaks of the mental property then also permit-proves exercised by the condition. The officials of the consumer right Ministry do not explain different nothing to you - after everything was it the politicians, who pushed us to finally present copy protection mass.
"if you plan over, future audio means protesting to continue release with copy protection, forget it; Copy protection is reality, and within an affair of the months all audio means world-wide more or less is copy protected itself. And this is a good thing for the music industry. over this to leave happened we do everything within our energy - whether you do not like it or.
If all these copy protection mechanisms just use messed up multisession TOCs on the end of the disc to screw up multisession drives.. should it not be a simple matter for a drive to do something braindead simple, like only read session 1? I seem to recall software of old that let me pick which session I wanted to read.
...not "Flaimbait", because it expresses a perfectly rational opinion. One many don't share. But many others do. Still, it has nothing to do with the topic at hand, thus it's "Offtopic".
I actually have mod points, but I posted to this story previously so I can't use them here. Heh... irony.
I have a CD player with digital output,, i see no reason that i can't play them in it, and use a computer with digtial input to make MP3s, copyprotecting their CD's, if you can call them that after they've been copy protected... will only enfuriate customers more, resulting in most likely fewer sales... personally, i can't tell the differnce when i play the CD in my discman then just record through my line in... as long as you use short, and quality cables,, I think there are few cases where you could...
Reece,
The RIAA is trying to legislate its continued existance because they fear change (like most people). The upside is that when an industry fails to adapt there is opportunities for new companies to profit.
If I had some capital and didn't need to work for a living I would round up as many local bands as I could and distribute their music over the internet, plus provide forums, t-shirts, "original" cds and such.
With some decent advertizing and such you probably could make some decent bands fairly popular and possibly help convince some well established artists to jump ship.
The band Wilco had to put their own stuff online for a while because the "industry" thought their album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot should be changed. Anyone interested in seeing the hell these guys went through to produce the album should watch the movie I am Trying to Break Your Heart. The record company said they wouldn't promote the album if they didn't change the music, so Wilco bought the rights to the album from them and distributed it online, for free. When word got out just how good the album was, the record industry came crawling back and offered to buy it back from them... for several times they price they sold it originally.
Heard from him lately? He's still crankin' out tunes. Sells them over the net, too. Gets no radio time. Only gets publicity when he publishes a major treatise on what I guess was supposed 2 b compression ciphers. Currently starring in that major motion picture "Where are they now?"
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
I would kill the people in charge except they seem to be in a safe house somewhere. Damn.
WTF are you talking about!? All the register has is a front page!! You are confused.
Hey! what are you waiting for? at last you all have a reason to sue their asses off, sue the artists, sue the record company and sue the RIAA and anyone else related to this ripoff (except for the engineer who came up with the copy protection, sin he might be reading this as we speak) hehehe
;D
The only evidence needed is a cd that wont work on one of your players 8)
Hey, a few billion dollars wonto hurt now a days!
does anybody believe that it's serious?
Please, read the letters that the record company supposedly sent. There is no way that letters could be real.
This is FUD. Anti-Record Companies and anti crappy copy protection systems FUD, but FUD anyways.
`
I was in Virgin and noticed that the latest Foo Fighters release is copy-protected. It will only play on Windows (using software) and "normal" CD players. This is in the UK, btw.
FWIW, I won't buy a copy-protected disc. Nor will I continue to support artists who aren't aware of what their labels are up to. I will not support -ignorance- or apathy any longer.
... for those of you in the music industry that didn't hear it the first time. It is not the function of the government to be bribed into creating laws to enforce a revenue stream for your redundant buisness model. If you sell a commodity which is essentially worthless then your commercial failure is assured. To the 'artists'. Everyone else gets paid for their work by performance be it digital or otherwise. You are not intrinsically any different to us, why should your 'rights' be any different? Anyone can rent space on a server farm to distribute their work, but only the truely talented will be employed to perform their function regularly. In short, get a real job, join the real world, get on stage and EARN your money.
- This and all my posts are public domain. I am a Physicist. I am not your Physicist. This is not Physically advice
Already mentioned earlier, but again:
The Soft Bulletin (the Flaming Lips) - Cold War Theme
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (again the Flaming Lips) - Epic Anime Battle Theme
Midnite Vultures (Beck) - Songs about Sex and/or Food
Gorillaz (Gorillaz) - fake cartoon band sensation, on Behind the Music on VH1
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
the minute you are biased, you lose journalistic integrity.
I bought a blank CD-R.
doh!
Take a look at this URL
l oc ks.ap/index.html
The new SUPERCDs - "uncopyable"
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/11/08/audio.
Where do you think the 1x-24x generations of CDROM drives wound up at the end of the production runs unsalable because the faster ones where available?
The labels had better pray the answer is "landfills".
Tech Public Policy stuff
this whole story is crap.
Not that Record Companies are not trying to copy-protect their media, but the answers that they supposedly gave to their customer's complaint, come on, this is faked.
This is the worst example of FUD I know. (anti-copy protection FUD, anti-RIAA FUD, anti-DMCA FUD, anti-Palladium FUD, anti-Record Companies FUD, but FUD anyways).
Please, be a little critical when reading an article, even if it's from a "trusted" source as the Register. Read between the lines and try to figure what's really going on.
PENAROL: Seras eterno como el tiempo y floreceras en cada primavera.
... into straight english:
"Give us your money. Now fuck off and die."
Well, at least this way we know exactly where they stand!!
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
As I recall from previous discussions, when you return a CD, the cost typically comes out of the ARTIST's pocket, not the distributor's profit.
What might help is to return the CD, then write to the ARTIST about why you've returned it. You want to hit 'em as much in the ego as in the wallet, so they think twice about renewing their contract when the time comes.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
WTF are you talking about!? All the register has is a front page!! You are confused.
Yes, and it also has a letters page and a flames page. The closest to printing a retraction that the Register has ever come, has involved posting to the letters page.
That's not exactly *front page news*.
Simon
Coming soon - pyrogyra
What a ridiculous notion. CD-R's aren't used to pirate music, they're used to burn downloaded DVD rips.
http://cltracker.net -- powerful craigslist multi-city search
But what if you're running your dvd player out to your Dolby Digital receiver like I do? The audio stream can't distinguish between playing out to a receiver versus playing out a sound card. I need my dvd player to run out to my receiver - the reason I bought both was the ability to hear the 5.1 channels. My audio receiver was pretty expensive to buy and I have no intention of replacing it if movie studios decide they wanted to encrypt their audio streams. The situation there is pretty analagous to the broadcast copy flag in HDTV that content producers are panting to get - yeah they really want it, but the people that they are pissing off are the ones who spent 5 to 10 thousand dollars on the hardware when it was brand new. The companies really don't seem to give a shit about pissing off their customers, but this group of people have significant lobbying power with the people that actually decide laws if they choose to exercise it. Macrovision prevented copying movies but allowed playback of movies, the implementation of the broadcast flag and any sort of Macrosound would break even the playback function of current hardware, so people will be much more upset about it.
hoy!
As I said elsewhere, I rather suspect that there are a hell of a lot more CD-ROM drive-based audio players than the RIAA-labels conceive possible in their worst nightmares, I think that instead of the writing off the CD drives towards the end of production run when everyone moved on to a faster drives, the drive manufacturers simply sell the audio manufacturers the closeouts.
Anybody know for sure?
How fast is your CD-ROM drive now? My 486 box had a 2x CD-ROM, I think this older box has a 36x. One can get faster now. I assume that the excess 1x-24x are sitting on consumer shelves and in car CD-ROM decks, and that *most* CD audio drives sold in the last few years will NOT work with the next generation of copy-protect.
We've never had the situation before where ALL the new product at record stores is incompatible with CD-ROM drives.
I think the record labels who are the "early adopters" across their product ranges of this are about to get a terminal surprise.
Even if it's just a very large minority, they've cut their own throats.
Why would we want to stop them from doing this?
Tech Public Policy stuff
And when sales plummet due to a rise in consumer problems with their "copy protection" and/or general discontent...will you still think it is a good thing for the music "industry?"
You know, thinking about it, you're partly right..it will be good for music as it will eventually cause a shake up within the so-called industry part that leeches off of it.
Just my $0.02. -db
whether you like it or not
Well at least BMI and myself have mutual public feelings for each other now. -SiliconFoolPerhaps it's time that something like /. used it's respectiable sized based of readers to drive the first stake into RIAA's heart? I wonder how successful something like a /.'s OGG of the day would in generating interest in unsighned bands who allow free downloads of thier songs? I realize that it would be a big hassle for the /. crew to decide on which OGG is good enough (and if appropriate licenses are in effect) and setting the appropriate mirrors up. but it could be well worth it if it sparks a new paradigm.
Dammy
Don't you think it's funny that they're "copy-protecting" audio CDs so that CD-ROM drives can't read them, and in the process screwing over people trying to read them with audio CD players thinking that people will upgrade their CD players to play "copy protected" CDs? Actually I think "usage restricted" is a better term. It's funny because when you think about it, when was the last time you bought a CD player? What about a CD-ROM/DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive? Computer hardware will soon be able to handle their little trick, and before they know it their usage restrictions will only be affecting people who DON'T try and play them on CD players!
A good qoute that was going around way back when I started cracking programs on my apple IIe, what takes a 30 year old 2 months to "protect" a 14 will crack in an hour.
what they don't realize is that the world has moved on and they are fighting a rear guard action. The battle already has been won.
do they think they are going to beat us with technology? we live and breath this shit. I will devote extra time to "stealing" "their" stuff to enforce my fair use rights on principle.
on the other hand, they may want to blame the slump on CD sales on the absolute crap that has been published lately. but I guess that would not keep with the latest theory in America, where it is always someone else's fault why you're a fuck up.
This is "journalistic integrity"? So what does a lack of integrity look like? Seriously... a publication where every single article is seriously slanted does not have integrity. And please don't start the obvious argument that results in me saying "two wrongs don't make a right"
Read reviews of shopping cart software
... the laptop has a dvd/cdrw drive in it....
If I can't play it, I won't buy it.
You're right: you are NOT alone in this.
NetNewsWire into Yojimbo!
Austria too.
My company was in the process of buying a few million $$s worth of diesel engine test equipment from an Austrian firm.
Their "tech support" insists that we need one particular brand (obscure, Austrian) of Wintel server in order for their Oracle based software to run. And no, it didn't work on Linux.
I suggested that we use a cheap Compaq or HP server do do the (not too demanding) job.
Back cames a mail from the Austrian expert to the effect of "Ho! Now our customers are going to begin designing OUR systems!!??"
So now I know it was a cultural difference that made him say that. Back then I thought he was a prize a##hole.
(We bought a cheap HP server!)
I read German fairly well, and I agree with all of the comments about the rudeness of the response, as well as the accuracy of the translation. However, there is no translation available of the original email sent to him - but in the German site, there is this quote: * es gibt keinen Kopierschutz, der nicht zu knacken ist :-) (There is no copy-protection method that is uncrackable)
Not to defend this Consumer Service person's actions, but I would bet that it was this sentence that ticked him or her off...
The rest of the letter to EMI is very polite - but it could be that this rep just overreacted to this one part - let's focus on whether this is the true attitude of EMI.
Badge 17
Just take a look at Metallica, Metallica started all this bru-haha for the RIAA. What needs to happen is RIAA needs to look at a bad investment (i.e. Lawyers fees, etc etc) and cut its losses. Write that down. Fighting against a basically invisible "enemy" (i.e. cutting own throat) is not the answer to it's problems. What the RIAA, artists and everyone else realize. Money is in the SALES OF RECORDS and SINGLES. NOT in the promotion. The internet is the best medium of promotion. It invented itself right under the RIAA's feet. Internet came along and hit the RIAA right beside its head. BAM. Now the game has changed and now there are different rules. You don't stop freely made concerts in the middle of a performance. I am a christian based singer myself and I have signed with a christian label. My labels feelings (which will be made anon here) are that the internet is a promotion. Its not even money that they are losing. Metallica, in Napsters peak, had its greatest year, 1999. Myself, my music is shared all over the christian community. But my records are selling. The RIAA is it's own enemy and it needs to realize this. No one can do it but them. What can be said for them? They are trying to capitalize on something that should'nt even be worried about. Folks, it is about time RIAA and people associated with it, wake up, smell the roses, the gravy train has left the station. Artists need to spend more time making better music, playing concerts and doing more for there fans besides snorting what mostly middle and lower class people work very hard and save for, up there noses. /me steps down from his soapbox
A lack of integrity is simple: it is a news organization acting as if they are giving us the 'real' news, the 'objective' news, when such a thing doesn't really exist. The fact is, every news organization is biased, but most don't admit their biases. The New York Times, arguably one of the best in the U.S., has an undeniable pro-Israeli slant, for example. But people think somehow that they are getting objective reporting from them about the Palestinean/Israeli conflict. In fact, just the choice of headlines, of regions of the world to cover, etc. displays a news organization's bias. And it's very rare in the states to find much differentiation in choice of major stories among the big news organizations. This goes to show you what really motivates most news organizations here: money. I can't speak as much for the rest of the world, but as much as I've heard suggests that all major news organizations across the globe are playing a similar game, in different ways.
So, let me ask you this; what is a journalistic source that has a lot of integrity, that doesn't suffer from some lapses of 'objectivity' or editorial slant? I think you'll be hard pressed to find one that we couldn't pick apart fairly quickly. At least the Reg has its biases up front, and attempts to be as honest as it can with the facts it does use.
I would suggest you read not only the Reg but all news sources with a critical eye...or else you are being suckered like all the rest.
First off, check out CDBaby, an online record store that sells CDs by independent artists (which covers those burning CDRs in their bedroom, and those signed to tiny non-RIAA labels). You might want to check out their About Us page to read about their philosophy, and their artists terms page to see just how much of an improvement they are over mainstream distribution routes. In addition, the majority of artists on CDBaby have streaming RealAudio samples to listen to, plus a lot of them have free MP3s on their websites.
As for specific artists... well, I obviously don't know what sort of stuff you're into, but here's a selection of what I've been listening to recently:
If none of that tickles your fancy, CDBaby have a great search feature whereby you can enter the name of a well-known artist and get a list of recommendations, so whether you're a fan of Radiohead or (heaven forbid) Britney Spears, it shouldn't be too long until you've stumbled onto something you like.
You can not sell unprotected music. Deal with it.
No, most correctly, you can't make a living and recoup all your production costs when you make CDs by solely selling those CDs (protected or not. Let me tell you something, lets say you find the perfect protection mechanism, all CDs become playable but Uncopyable, well guess what, there comes a Mozart, writes all down and in no time othe people play the stuff and distribute it in P2P places. And even myself, a mediocre musician, can do the same if the need be. So stop dreaming, copy protection is dead, you are only pissing off potential fans and costumers).
CDs are an advertisement medium for what music performers have to sell: performances, live presentations, merchandise and comissioned music (in the case of composers).
That is the reality, now you deal with it or you keep dreaming that selling CDs will pay your expenses.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Anybody that does not understand the difference between stealing something and copyright infringement deserves only to be read with the -1 drivel.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Variously you refer to it as BMI, and most erroneously EMI.
EMI is a completely different member of the big 5 [Sony, Universal, Time Warner, EMI and BMG]. Zomba records is getting up there too. Don't tar them all with the same brush. They're very competitive companies, and don't all share the same vision of how-things-should-be.
[% slash_sig_val.text %]
Most programmers and musicians I know want to get paid. You know the bling bling. Cash money. That's all and anyone who tells you differently is a damned liar.