Slashdot Mirror
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.""
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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...
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.
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....
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
Actually, no, they're not protecting their property at all.
The problem is that they're selling defective goods, and trying to tell people that it's not their problem that their product, that claims to conform to a standard, doesn't, and as such will not work with devices that are designed to use such an item.
Protecting their property would be using the copyright laws to haul someone over the coals for releasing a CD with copyright material on, when they own that copyright.
What they appear to be doing is making it damn hard for the average guy in the street to work out how to get these things to work. And if it's not immediately obvious, they'll give up and try to take it back as defective (which it is). When they get told "No, that's the way things are now!", I wonder how long it'll be before nobody buys the stuff they sell, as it doesn't work.
They, they'll have all this copyright material not being circulated on the net, and also, not in the shops. They'll keep everything to themselves, literally. No revenue coming in, no company.
When they fall, someone with a little more sense will take their place.
Someone in these companies is suffering from a serious case of market myopia.
Malk
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.
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
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.
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)
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 -- 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 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.No, the music has not died, you just don't know where to look. You certainly won't find much worthwhile listening to radio stations. Their playlists are determined not by listener voting or requests as they might lead you to believe, but by the record labels and radio empires. They feed you whatever artist (and I use that term loosely) they want to sell. Don't look for treasures in the septic tank.
There are lots of independent musicians making good music. They're in local bars, local venues, playing college stages, distributing music online for $4 a CD. Or maybe you just wanted to hear some tired old Metallica again; maybe those geriatric millionaire whiners are what you equate with good music. Their voices long ago slipped into irrelevance for me (not coincidentally when they donned suits to protest their fans sharing the music). But maybe the sight of some 40-something, balding fat guys does something for you, I don't care.
I've heard a lot of music from Pavarotti to Poto Duodongo, Grieg to Green Day and just about everything in between and on the outskirts. Now I don't mean to sound harsh -- well, yes I do -- but it's this constant whining about how bad today's music is that really pisses me off. There are as many vibrant, vital new artists out there now as there was twenty years ago playing in all the same places they played back then. Just look. Look in your local Weekend section of your morning paper. Look online. Tune in your local college radio station. But by God's grace, don't bother with commercial radio.
The Reg article links to the (supposedly) original German email, and the english version is a "loose translation." Given the Register's usual spin, I imagine "loose" might be a very important word in that sentence. Someone who reads German could comment with more authority than I . . .
Al Qaeda has ninjas!
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...What I find interesting is that they make the baseless assumption that ALL blank CD-R's are being bought and used to create or copy music CD's that they didn't purchase.
I personally use most of my CD-R's for games/programs that I didn't purchase.
That and digital pictures, home movies, photo CD's, file backups.
maybe 1 in 40 CD-R's I use contains any music at all.
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.
I read German pretty well (6 years of classes and two long trips to Germany) and this letter is written in a very informal way, so if this IS a legit response this guy is probably acting as an individual and not responding with official company line. But the Reg's translation actually does a pretty good job of getting the point across. The informal style is considered to be rude if you are not talking to a friend, and this author uses it liberaly. He also uses a fairly dismissive tone when discussing the origional letters concerns. My guess is this is a pissed of answerdroid who just gave his company some really bad press (article is on slashdot, the register, and fark, not pretty if you want to cultivate the digeratti) and will be out of a job tomorrow.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
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
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)
I think that this point of view is propogated by the distillation of the labels' back catalog of music.
I'm 30, so my pop music consumption began in earnest in the early-to-mid mid-80's, when I got my first radio. I'm sure there was a lot of crap in the 50's, 60's, and 70's, but I never hear hear it anymore. What I hear on the radio is the popular stuff from those eras.
Today, what little I hear on the radio (and used to see on MTV), they pump out a lot of crap. Sure, there's good stuff, but it will bubble to the top over the next ten years and wind up in rotation on whatever "best hits of the 80's, 90's..." Clear Channel affiliate is out there at the time.
Do you think that in 20 years, people will get stoned and go soul searchin to N'Sync and Britney Spears albums, like people still do to Pink Floyd's The Wall? I highly doubt it. Will we see "Laser Backstreet Boys" at the local planetarium 30 years from now?
There's pop music, truly groundbreaking music, and then there's utter crap. Sometimes they overlap, and everyone's threshold is obviously different for each category.
I simply love the Beatles. I freely admit that their first albums were no better in content than current boy bands. I'd argue that they grew and contributed to musical history in their later albums. Bands just don't have that kind of shelf life anymore, so they never get time to grow anymore. Joplin, Marley, and Hendrix, also from that era, made some truly soul-shaking music. I don't get that from any current music.
Though I've consumed my fair share of pop music in the 80's and 90's, I can't think of any groups/performers I've followed that have had similar impact on people (as opposed to musical trends). Some of my favoites are Suzzane Vega, Enya, Kirst MacColl, Cheryl Crow, I don't know if any of them will stand the test of time. My wife introduced me to 80's rock these past five years or so (Cinderella, Bon Jovi, Great White), and while those feel more timeless and relavent today than those I loved in that era (Cindy Lauper, Huey Lewis, The Cars, Dire Straits), I don't know if those will last 20 more years either.
Another factor, IMO, is the seeming death of the theme album. I ask this question with all honesty: is there anything from the 90's and later that is equivalent to Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road, The Wall, and Bat Out of Hell? I'm open to expand my contemporary music tastes here -- let the titles fly.
Having spewed all of that, I'll state that 2nd-hand music sources have been my primary source for a long time. It seems that every college town has a great used music store nearby (any Von's or JL Records fans from Purdue?). Several years ago, I discovered secondspin.com, which I have used almost exlusively since the first RIAA lawsuits began in the late 90's. I haven't bought I new album in quite a while, and these crippled CDs will only reinforce that behavior for me.
Who knows... maybe there's a scientific reason for the generational gap in musical tastes. Perhaps the hormone-charged angst most go through in our teens and early twenties cause us all to bond to whatever music we listen to at the time -- like a duckling that imprints on the first living thing it encounters. I like to think I'm really being objective when I say that the quality of music has been diminishing over time. Maybe it's the homogenization of Clear Channel and the like? If I could get music from the 20's thru 50's produced with today's recording technology (instead of scratchy mono tapes we have in the archives), I'd have a lot of it in my collection.
Method of processing duck feet
I think that pretty much gets the point across. Them's fightin' words. :-)
GreyPoopon
--
Why is it I can write insightful comments but can't come up with a clever signature?
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.
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
I am german, I read the original Heise post and it is offensive and completely unacceptable. Even if this was the original party line inside EMI, it should never have been sent to a customer this way. Not in german, not in english, not in any other language.
Kristian
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.
I have to agree that a baseless assumption was made. It was the first thing that struck me as odd, assuming that all 250M CDR's (and let us not forget they said tapes as well) were used to record music. Well I have over 1000 of those CDR's and I can safely say I haven't recorded the first MP3 or copied a CD yet. DATA is what they are for and data is what I record. So make that 250M minus 1000 please!
Oh and come off it. Please tell me what tapes they are referring to. Deos anybody use tape anymore except for their VCR, their digicam, or for their server's backup?
As for ripping MP3's. Yup, I do it! And I don't have to swap out a CD all the time and the shuffle feature of XMMS is great! Oh, and you record company guru's, I still have the original CDs I ripped the mp3's from, and I don't have some P2P app installed either. So bit me! The second I can't listen to music paid for the way I want is the second you lose my business forever! Plenty of Indie bands out there not copy protecting their home grown CDs.
The truth is usually just an excuse for lack of imagination.
As i understand it, all copy protection that can be read on a standard cd player is weak to begin with. cdroms can read multiple indexes, cd players can only read the first one. but cdroms read the indexes starting from the last and working its way to the first. so most copy protections corrupt the second index so the cdrom will fail. a simple firmware upgrade to the cdrom can fix that and make it read the first index first and move down the list. Interesting article here
*** I suffer from a colorful array of psychological problems
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.*
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.