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Will Your CD Player Tell on You?
An anonymous reader writes "Ever feel like not being a marketing statistic? Well just by playing certain store-bought compact discs in your home or office computer, your new music disc may be transmitting your listening habits in real time to the respective record company...." Charming. Read on for more...
Anonymous Continues: "A company by the name of Bandlink is providing technology to record companies that allows a cd played in a personal computer to contact their server and relate statistics such as what track you're listening to and when you're listening to them. This information is then compiled into customizable reports that allow the record company to develop "User Profiles". There are benefits listed for the consumer such as cd-specific chatrooms, concert information, etc but the question remains: What's your price for privacy? The only indication that the cd you're purchasing is Bandlink "enabled/disabled" is a small logo on the packaging. There is no mention of a opt in/opt out agreement when the cd is inserted on the website and none was displayed in a personal demonstration.
Favorite quote from their website: "Virtually any information you want to know about your fan or the quality of your release can be obtained.""
What sort of idiot has their firewall configured to let their CD player send packets out?
In Soviet Russia, YOU spy on MUSIC INDUSTRY!
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
"What sort of idiot has their firewall configured to let their CD player send packets out?"
People who don't read Slashdot.
So does this info go to the DOD to see if you're a terrorist? God help me if they know that I like Avril Lavigne!
I can't wait to get this technology with a "copy-protected" cd that won't play in computers. Unless they would do it to try to get information from the people who break the copy protection by using a sharpie...
I think my principles are reachin' an all time low
Wow. How did this line of thinking go?
RIAA Exec #1: "Let's start spying on people. It's not like they have a real reason to steal music anyways."
RIAA Exec #2:"Yeah! And we can have pop-ups that tell them Big Brother is watching!"
RIAA Exec #1:"No... That would be stupid... right?"
RIAA Exec #2:"Perhaps... But surely this will make people want to buy music as opposed to downloading it. Right? Right?"
RIAA Exec #1:"..."
RIAA Exec #2:"RIGHT?!"
RIAA Exec #1:"Oops..."
Me: "Thanks guys. Now I have a morally sound reason to download Britney's newest album! MERRY CHRISTMAS!"
CD Player listens to you!
(At least people in Soviet Russia can grin on this)
The vast majority of people I deal with (in the real world) are idiots. And no, I'm not in tech support/customer service.
That's what I do. I usually click "YES" in the EULA popup and install the program, but deep down inside I don't agree with it.
to download Britney's newest album.
"All animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - George Orwell
Supports Ethernet and Token Ring simultaneously?
The most important thing to bear in mind concerning idiots is this. Consider how dumb the median idiot is. Half of them are dumber than that.
Wh47 d1d j00 541, 31337 15n't t3h r0xor5 ne m0r3???
Oh god....I just had a horrifying thought - This is going to be used to figure out what artists are popular ... so they can more quickly saturate the market with copy cats and clones. So much for the record companies trying out new groups with new sounds. I'm depressed now....
***Blackholes are where the gods divided by zero.***
I can imagine a few bored hacker types writing something to flood Bandlink with bogus data. "Wow, a million people a day are playing 'Baby Got Back' every hour on the hour!"
I can imagine really, really bored hackers writing a virus to have infected computers spoof data. A new world-wide phenonmena: Polka Love songs!
Your ignorance level is high, young one. Several issues here prove that you have no idea how tivo works, and you probably also have a small penis.
1) Tivo does not include "a certain kind of push content", beside the guide data. "Suggestions" (or as you call it, "the lesbinator") are just algorithms that let the tivo pick content to record if it has idle space and time. Your fat whore friend cannot call a phone number to get that disabled. Instead, she goes into the tivo unit's preferences to disable that. But yeah, that probably takes 6 weeks to do too.
2) Calling to remove yourself from opt out aggregate information is something done behind the scenes; no confirmation is shown on the tivo unit yourself. Don't worry, your closet dyke's secret is safe from the time she called 6 weeks ago.
3) Yes, tivo upset a lot of people by collecting aggregate anonymous habits about its users. Those people are morons. What you probably don't realize is 90% of the web sites out there do the same thing, it's just you CAN'T opt out of them. "Okay, Anonymous User #1 went to this page, then this page then this page". Compare to: "Okay, Anonymous User #2 watched this show, then this show, then this show".
4) Your misuse of "push content" shows that this conversation shouldn't have began in the first place.
5) You are probably a virgin.
"Geez, how many times can one guy listen to CowboyNeal Sings Manilow?"
<Troy McClure Voice>Shhhh! Let's just let that one be our little secret, shall we?</Troy McClure Voice>
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
the CD player knows too much...
--OOOOh! i'm being FUCKED by the recording industry -- atleast i'm still loosened up thanks to the motion picture biz.
\\vectorhead\\
Claim copyright on your playlist and then prosecute 'em for piracy of your IP.
Well,
"Half of them are dumber than that."
actally, some of that half could be equally dumb.
But i agree on using the median and not the average.
(because of the uneaqual distribution.)
Why are other peoples sig's always more witty ???
Nope, the mode is 90. The median is 135.
This is my World Wide Web of Whatever