Gateway to Ship PCs with Pre-Installed DRM Music Files

Captain Chad writes "News.com has an article about Gateway's decision to bundle Pressplay's music service with its PCs. Of interest is the fact that 2000 popular songs will come pre-installed, helping reduce download time for those of us with modems." I wonder how much Pressplay is paying for this privilege. All sorts of interesting legal wrinkles here: you're buying a computer which contains data that you cannot legally access.

Comments

you can use the songs in spite of editor comment

[deft]

" including a 90-day free subscription to the service that contains 2,000 songs preloaded and available for streaming and downloading."

editor should have read the article.

also, my cable box comes with the ability to recieve all of the channels too, whats the legal implication there?

my car comes with the ability to do 150mph, but the chips lets me go to 120... whats the legal wrinkle there?

between two fats guys in a buffet line...

[Em Emalb]

"Entertainment companies, burned by piracy and file-sharing services like Napster, have been seeking more control over digital copies of movies, music and TV shows, while tech companies are putting out even more products that encourage customers to "rip" and "burn" entertainment software."

On the one hand, we got tech companies saying burn your music. Enjoy it, play it, sleep with it, whatever. On the other hand, we got the RIAA saying: HEY! Wait! You can't do that. You need to pay me for that.

In the middle is the customer going you know what? Screw you both. Make music. If I like it, I'll buy it. (--In most cases) Hey, PC makers, you make pcs. Don't worry about what I do with it, it ain't your concern.

All good .. until DRM is broken ...

[SuperDuG]

then you get 2000 songs with your gateway. Lets see ... average 15 songs a cd .... 2000 / 15 = 133 ... times $17.00 for the average CD ... $2267.00 free !!! ... and it's not your fault you did BUY the computer and that just came with your computer. Same thing goes for when you buy a box from an auction, to find it's full of gold, to the victor go the spoils.

So this is how it works:

[DeadSea]

1. You buy a computer.
2. It has an OS and software installed.
3. It also has a folder called "music".
4. You browse into that folder and you see see songs like "Britney's Latest.drm".
5. You say, "Boy I'd like to hear that!", so you open it.
6. They player comes up and says "You don't own this yet, I can't play it, would you like to buy it?"
7. Being cheap you open another player and try to play the file but you can't because the file is encrypted.
8. Frustrated, you go back and buy it.
9. The music player sends your payment info and downloads a decryption key.
10. The music now plays, but only on that machine with that player.
11. You caputer the digital out of your sound card, rip the song to mp3, send it to your portable, and put it on the internet.

Re:well I am sure...

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't companies realize that no matter what they do, somebody will crack it?

Why do you think the DMCA exists?
"sure, we know some smart bastard will crack it, but when he does we'll nail his ass to the wall."

Re:well I am sure...

[N3WBI3]

Agreed the music industry need to realize you get more with honey than you do with vinigar. Instead of lobying for anti consumer laws they need to give me a reason to buy a cd (not give me a reason not to dl music).

I dont buy CD's and when they shut donw napster I stoped DLing them, guess what I dont buy any more CD's now than I did then because I am not getting anything I cant listen to on the radio. What they need to do is include things with the CD's that are not easily digitally sent (like a poster, or cupons for concert tickets, a key chain, ...) just something people might actually kinda want if they are a fan. Something like that (or if any of you have better examples) might make a CD worth dropping 20 on.

three years ago geeks noticed how much we are only tolerated by the music industtry, even when they went after napster the average person who does buy alot of CD's thought it was no big deal but they were at least made aware something was going on. When the copy protection that would not work on some computers and CD players came out more people noticed and I suspect you will see more and more of this as cheap cd music mixers come out (the sony thing I think) and people want to create custom CD's but can not copy due to CD format.

Note to the music industry, hogs get fat pigs get slaughtered..

Cow commerical?

[Schnapple]

Remember how Gateway ran that commercial that "respected your rights to download music" (or somesuch). I took that commercial to be a slap to the face of the RIAA - now they're the RIAA's lapdog? Or have I completely misread this?

Re:why?

[Sloppy]

This isn't a Gateway gimmick for increasing their products' sales by making them more attractive. Of course, they are going to spin it ant put it in the best light and make it sound like a feature, but that's not what it is.

Gateway's insight is this: "Hard disks are getting big, and we are shipping computers with a bunch of unused disk space. Why not fill that space with advertisements (or anything else that a third party will pay us to put there)?"

Re:don't like it? don't buy it

[Bob-o-Matic!]

In my first 4 years of buying CDs I accumulated about 500 total. In the last 4 years I have bought maybe 5 total, as gifts for others. So considering that 500 CDs @ $18.00 each = $9000.00. If there are more like me, I would say we are definitely not adding to the bottom line of the record industry.

Now, as for DVDs, I know the MPAA is evil... but I feel like there is $8.99 - $17.99+taxes worth of entertainment on a DVD. I look at a DVD and see the 2 hour product of at least 100 actors and production crew, whereas for about the same price I *might* get an hour of product from really 4-10 people, tops, on a CD.

Plus all new music is crap, anyways. Everyone should have taken a long break after Social Distortion's "Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell".
(only half-joking)