Slashdot Mirror
More Incompatible DVDs and CDs Coming Your Way
wwwssabbsdotcom writes " More DRM is coming to DVD and CD shelves in the future. Looks like more incompatible discs for players around the world. Rip-proof and self-destructing seems to be the latest DRM craze."
It's not like there are *that* many good movies. I can live without a copy of Hollywood Blockbuster 69; I've already got copies of Spaceballs, Escape from New York, The Matrix, Mission Impossible, and Army of Darkness.
I'll worry when they put DRM on the next Michael Moorcock novel.
Yeah? And what if you can have even cheaper software-based music that work on all PC's? :-)
"We can confirm that Debian does *not* ship the version with the trojan horse. Our version predates it." [CA-2002-28]
If you want something new and different, you can't also ask for it to be compatible. Break out of your preconceptions and help today's technology re-invent itself as tomorrow's.
>> AOL Time Warner, released the new Steely Dan album "Everything Must Go" on CD and DVD Audio, the latter being an encrypted, "rip-proof" format.
Now, I hope someone can help me out on this. Is the purpose of DVD Audio for 5.1+ surround sound? Or do they mostly have extra content? Can OOG or WMA [or any thing else] handle these extra channels?
When modding "Informative", please make sure it both has a source and IS actually informative.
Why would they be cheap? Why would it protect the rights of the creator of art?
Adding (ultimately futile) attempts at copy protection ADDS to costs. Who pays for that? The consumers and artists.
Oh well. All the good shit still gets released on vinyl, anyway.
hang brain.
You know, I considered myself a pretty moral person -- sure, I've got a few mp3s, but I try my best to purchase albums of artists I've enjoyed. I have never downloaded a full-length movie.
If this is where the future is going, that just might change. I usually play DVDs on my PC, and if I bring one home from Blockbuster and it won't play because the MPAA assumes I'm a pirate, I will feel 100% justified in seeking out a rip of that movie in XViD or SVCD (or DVDR) and watching it.
They're digging their own grave, but then again, maybe that's what they want to do. More invasive media -> More piracy -> More lobbying power to create strict DMCA-like laws.
Either way, you're going to be seeing a lot of people downloading movies who normally didn't. And it's just going to give all the people who do download movies all the more reason.
Thanks for assuming I'm a pirate, MPAA. You might just've made me one.
+ Donald Gunth
+ Email: dgunth@quicktek.net
"Caffeine is the greatest lubricant ever created." -ESR
Except that every DRM solution does not protect the creator of the art any more than 'normal' media. If you can hear/see it you can copy it.
What you're saying is that you'd rather have vendors take advantage of the copyright handout, AND sell incompatible products designed to cheat customers and the public domain.
Thanks, but no thanks.
Problem is, there isn't any mechanism to ensure that "cheap" would become any part of the equation. Within a pretty broad range, items like DVD's aren't really price sensitive. It's not like you're going to go to the store to buy Harry Potter and instead change your mind to buy The Dark Crystal because it's a buck cheaper. This initiative, and the others like it, are merely about protecting top-line sales.
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
Comparing Windows and Linux is not a good analogy. They're two totally different things. If Linux apps were SUPPOSED to run on Windows or the other way around out of the box (Please dont talk about Wine...), sure..
Self Destructing DVDs will simply not be bought unless the pricing ratio is well worth it. If rental places can offer then for $1 a rental that lasts 2 days, sure, thats something most people can afford. But if the price is static, then people wont bother. Everyone is used to buying DVDs for $15-20 that they can keep forever. Change that, and people wont bother buying. People just wont "give in" unless you give back, and with the DVD industry, the only way they can possibly give more is by lowering the price. Added features? Already got em.
Non-Destructing DVD and Audio has been mainstream too long for anything to sway it. If they dont work in certain players, people will avoid buying them, or will just find a pirated version that they are certain 100% will work on their system. People take the path of least resistance. This is one the companies will have to learn about.
I thought âoerip-proofâ was pretty much done when some genius figured out it could be superceded with a marker? And whatâ(TM)s to prevent me from just ripping a self-destructing media (that concept I still find amusing) once, and keeping the digital content for an extended period? IMHO, these companies should be spending more of their money on trying to produce better music than this feeble attempt to protect what they're turning out.
It's not viable quite yet, but why keep it if you can back it up on a second hard drive and stick it in a safe somewhere, and/or encrypt it and stick it on a data haven machine? My DVD and CD collections take up a sizable amount of space in my bedroom, and before long I could put all that on a 2.5" drive in a laptop and carry it everywhere with me... why put up with idiots who want to restrict me to sticking some physical object in my computer just to access digital data?
This is one more reason why I am a geek.
I have 5 macs at my house and one pc.
I have two turntables, a mixer and loud speakers. : ]
I'm glad I can listen to ProtonRadio, check the playlists of the mixes I like, find and buy the buy vinyl, record it to my mac and put it on my internal server.
I'm glad because more of the money MUST go to the artist AND I can buy and remix the songs I actually like!
I don't have to worry about incompatable dvds and cds.
Screw RIAA. Spend a little more money to create your own purchase, playback/recording system. You'll be glad you did and you can still support the artists.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
Considering the cost of CDs is mostly artificial, there is no reason why the RIAA can't lower the price on defective ones to make them more appealing.
i still love how in many places the audio casettes (for those who still carry them) are cheaper than the cd despite costing more to produce
My new radiohead disc has 1300 intentional C1 errors on it, rendering it extremely prone to scratches and (ironically) making a backup copy pretty much a necessity.
Took over 8 hours to rip using EAC though... owch.
Basically I could have stolen it from Kazaa and saved a lot of trouble, but because I am actually a paying customer I was charged $12, 8 hours of labour and was rewarded with an intentionally damaged CD. What a bunch of fuckers.
As return punishment, I have made the CD available for all my friends to download, and I am encouraging them to use my error-free, DRM-disabled MP3s instead of that horrid disc.
Jeremy
The way I see it DRM solutions are going to be self-policing. The ones that are incompatible with most of the hardware are going to have users returning the items or refusing to buy more items with the same DRM solution. The ones that do work just give crackers something new to work on. This is a rare point in history where companies are trying to make their product less user friendly. I predict that companies who adopt strict DRM solutions are going to have a harder time competing with the smaller organizations that do not. Once someone supplies artists with a method of getting reimbursed for their efforts that cuts out the overhead that is evident in the motion picture and recording industries the point will be moot. The only thing that can change this outcome is a combination of a monopoly and the "Super DMCA" or similar legislation that is being pushed in some states.
The amount of consumers with the same attitude as you is statisticaly insignificant in the reality of the media world.
F -8&q=million+americans+download+music&btnG=Google+ Search
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UT
The estimates range from 13 million to 113 million people downloading music. Some portion of those people must like listening to music on their computers.
The thing to realize is that DRM is something that people like the **AA have wanted for years... and we the geeks are the people who gave it to them... Odds are the eggheads behind the implementation of this latest version are people not that different from us...
#!/usr/bin/english
Actually, the creative aspects of that 'industry' are doing just fine, but are hampered by a multi-gazillion-dollar corporation-controlled financing and distribution network. People with money don't want to lose that money, they think people are sheep, they keep funding Nightmare on Elm St. XXVII and the like.
If we as their audience stop attending movies and buying recordings they release, then something will happen. Until that point, when the huge numbers of people stop thinking that Top 40 Radio is all there is, when they stop heading in to see Dumb and Dumberer and the latest Rocky franchise, then they will continue reaping huge profits and controlling what we see and hear.
If it really bothers you, do a couple of things:
- Go see local bands, and support them directly.
- Watch movies at your local art-movie house, made by someone other than Sony, Fox, etc.
- Write to your elected representatives with your concerns about copyright and ownership. Be clear, intelligent, and specific.
Karl Schroeder has some interesting ideas on something called the Rights Economy in Permanence. Amazon carries it.
If we cannot step our little feet out of the basket, then we will just have to enjoy things as the trip gets warmer and warmer.
You mean American industries like the recording industry, where Sony is a major player? Yeah, thought so.
Slashdot quality declines as the number of hot grits posts decreases. - Provolt's Law, Apr-09-2005
Some of those authors might go on to be discovered, but most of them will spend their lives working as strippers or grocery store clerks or, even worse, journalists. They will die alone, unloved and unknown in a run-down apartment with 47 cats, to the end clinging to the pathetic hope that they can write the Great American Novel if only someone will pay attention to them.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Some people do, some people don't. My wife is a music geek, and sometimes buys a CD just because of the cover art. She's got a cabinet full of records (we don't have a record player) because she likes the art on the albums. There's bunch of those mid 80s - early 90s long CD boxes that she's kept around. For her it's having the visual aspect of the recording that is important. I'm the opposite way: I ripped all my CDs to mp3s, backed 'em up on some CDs and my entertainment server, and sold the originals. Couldn't care about the art or the liner notes or the lyrics sheets. I have my music, I'm happy.
Having followed the progression of DRM from non-existent to testing to production, and assuming the next step of ubiquity, I say thank you for your draconian measures. What you assert is protecting your business model has alientated this consumer from the equation and the results are quite enjoyable.
I used to see movies all the time in theatres, three to four a week. I enjoyed the bad stories as well as the amazing effects; the cinema was a hobby I did not mind spending a couple hundred dollars a month on. Simultaneously, the captains of your industry made two fatal errors: a bad, original story is more seductive than a formulaic reprise of a plot done over and over already. Secondly, the noise over DRM, the jostlings of Tivo, and lobbying governmental bodies has resulted in me willing to sacrifice my entertainment values for a cause.
I used to buy CDs all the time, up to ten a month. Napster catalyzed me to buy more CDs as I'd often get a few tracks, often with compression hiccups and that would entice me to learn more about new artists and explore their catalogs. I spent a few thousand a year on new music and I would often rip the CD to my laptop and, when traveling, would play these new artists and catalyze others to explore their catalog. The captains of your industry have made the same fatal error as those in the movie business: all the artists sound the same and your draconian mindset and treating customers as the enemy have catalyzed a cause against you.
There is much conjecture regarding the moral code governing your businesses, respectively. You think stealing is wrong and have a responsibility to protect your investments and the consumers see sharing as a step forward in the artistic movement and find your profit margins to be obscene and your attitude ungrateful.
You do have the right to seek substantial return on your investment, the artist have a right to spend less money making their products (I've known a few bands and filmmakers that got signed and they partied up on the advance like it was free money), and the consumer has a right to purchase the media unencumbered. Everyone is so busy seeing what's wrong, few are approriating solutions.
What does it mean when Apple, a computer hardware company with no experience, can eclipse your, two entire industries with probably two hundred years combined experience in the field, "best" efforts into online distribution?
But I digress. Thank you for saving me money and waking me up. I was a good consumer until there was a reason to fight my handlers and now, frankly, I am enjoying the fight.
In the vaccuum of your corporate-backed media in my life, I have taken to finding new avenues of entertainment. With the several thousand dollars a year I am saving, I have been able to buy more books to read, go to more local bars and see live performances of some suprisingly good artists who would never appear on your radar, I've seen cool films in basements, and even used a little of my extra money to invest in a small budget film.
I enjoy the community of intellectuals this scuff has given rise to. We may not be a cadre of lawyers, but we are learnign the law and how it affects us daily as we are fascinated by the game you are playing. For us it is an exercise and for you it is life or death. There's a lot less pressure on us and many more of us, and we control the money you so desire, so I think we're pretty much assured victory in the long run, but thanks for coming out to the skirimish.
I've seen more plays and art exhibits, I've spent more time with my friends and family in social settings instead of anti-social movie theatres, I exercise to muscians whose only identification is Jonathan Wong Set 1 (Jon has no contract, he's a bedroom DJ putting mixes out there for the love).
And it's great! I feel so free and uncumbered. You tried to tell me what to think and that challenge freed my mind in many ways.
So I say thank you, MPAA and RIAA, please continue your legal rabb
I worked at Circuit City when DIVX was launched. I remember going through my orientation and one of the managers was really enthused about the DIVX launch and I remember telling him "That's going to fail." He didn't understand why I explained to him "People would rather pay $20 and watch a movie whenever they want to than pay $4.00 for the disk, and $1.99 for each time after. People aren't going to like that studios can stop them from watching the disks that they have bought because of a theatrical re-release."
He assured me that because Circuit City had spent over 80 million dollars on research that they could make it happen.
When I was on the sales floor, my manager (a different one) informed me that all employees were to ask customers if they knew anything about DIVX and to offer them a demonstration. I responded "Please don't make me do that, I will if I have to, but I will not lie to the people if they ask me any questions. Including questions about my personal opinion of DIVX." I told him all of the same things that I told the first manager about DIVX. He didn't force me to offer the demonstrations. I think the fact that I was only working part time (still taking college classes) but was the second highest money maker in the store didn't hurt.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Like the "safe deposit box" part.
Yeah, CDs will fall apart or die faster in non-optimal environments. But a safe deposit box is not one of those.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Nothing is wrong with self destructing dvd's. Just saves you a trip of going back to the rental place. It's also stock that a rental store doesn't need to track. :P
Netflix can really use this.
-
ping -f 255.255.255.255 # if only
A consortium of extremely wealthy media moguls.....or You?
The average slashdotter knows a lot more about technology than all the moguls in the RIAA combined.
an army of professional researchers and analyists to ponder this subject for the last 10 years
People like jobs, if you pay an employee enough they'll tell you exactly what you want to hear.
There is a reason that these people are in charge of vast media empires and you are not.
That is irrelevant. We're looking at the technology perspective, not how to run a business.
Excuse me but I would prefer not to live in a world without entertainment.
A world without entertainment is not possible.
For example, I find watching a trail of ants to be much much more entertaining than shit like "Real TV" or "CNN Headline News". Ants are really amazing (I'm serious).
Here are other things that can be entertaining:
1) Talking to a spouse. If the marriage is right, then talking to a spouse is like talking to a best friend. Talking to children is a good thing to do, also. Kids might even be more amazing than ants!
2) Climb to the top of a small mountain (1000 ft. should do it). Now, look.
3) Go to a museum. Train museums are very nice, because they usually have a big train set in the basement. Good family fun.
4) Good authors write good books. Perhaps there is a book out there whose plot hasn't been done 50 times over and ruined by a made-for-TV studio.
5) Taking a small boat or canoe out on to a lake is fun, good excersize, and can be a confidence builder for people who are otherwise shut-in.
6) Lots of people go bowling or square dancing, etc.
7) It's been a long time since I've seen a really good set of stars, due to light pollution. The last time I was really out in the boonies, a friend pointed out some really neat stuff (some satellites are visible with the naked eye, for example).
Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
But screw it, I'm going to download the majority of the music I listen to. Yes it's stealing. They want to stop making music because no one buys it fine by me, they can stop pretending they're artists then.
I'll just buy cd's from the bands I go listen to at a local bar/club if I like it and want to listen to it again. Perhaps I'll then share the songs with some friends and they'll like what they hear and want to go see a show next time they play.
Sounds like a fair deal to me. You give us the music you created with your artistic talent, we'll come and pay to see your performances.
"Don't want the government to control you? Leave society and become a hermit..."
Yeah, because there's no other way, right??
Sheesh...a little defeatist aren't we...I laugh at you from my huge party on my private island...
"but you lose lots of practical benefits,"
uh-huh,go on...
"like convenience stores..."
-because i can't live without some smelly zitfarm selling me expired ding-dongs at 300% markup...riiiight
"electricity..."
-cause it only comes out of that wierd hole in the wall in big cities right??
See:solar panels, wind(mills?), wave, hydro(micro)electric turbines, woodstoves(cooking/heating alternative),etc,etc
"the internet..."
-so unless i'm a slave to the state, no company/friends will want to sell/share internet access via satellite or any type of wireless (shortwave, 802.11x, that new ultra-low freq. wireless coming out)...assuming i'm too far away from cable/phone lines or wireless hot-spots(ALL the time)
"public sanitation systems..."
-Oh, you mean your drinking water that's filled with floride/clorine/whoknowswhat from rusted pipes but still manages to get you sick/dead from ecoli/gardia??
Or do you mean your 'waste-treatment' plants that cost you an arm and a leg and let you drink your own piss(and any medications you/anyone has had) after they've 'cleaned' it for you
And all the time you're paying water tax,mill rates,and told when and where you can use water..
See:The multitude of collection/filters/purification/disposal systems that are cheaper and more efficient that ANYTHING made for 'the masses'
"health insurance..."
-again, no company would provide this unless you're a slave of some govt??..see also;loss of convenience store ding-dongs...also;sanitation systems
The truth is out there...but to make my point through misquoting you;
"However, when there are few or no lost benefits, people won't hesitate to use alternatives. Same thing applies to **GOVERNMENTS**...the more they clamp down, the more consumers squeeze through their fingers and start using consumer-friendly alternatives like **INDEPENDANT LIVING** and **REVOLUTIONS**.
Oh, I feel your pain.
As owner of several hundred CDs (for which I had a custom solid oak and granite cabinet custom-made to hold them and sport the playback equipment back in the day...), and a growing collection of DVDs, not to mention all the kids' videos (does anyone else hate Disney cases (yeah, yeah, don't feed the copyright monster, but wives and kids do their own thing)), I feel the storage blues as well.
I've archived almost all the CD audio to hard disk (losslessly), and plan to do the same with the DVDs. The video tapes are a bit of a toss up, though, as a movie mecomes dated, I'd probably be willing to pay the rights-holder a modest amount to provide a copy to me on more "modern" media, if I surrender the original (fat chance that will happen, when they can sell the DVD for more than the VHS cassette -- except I'm not likely to buy the former if I already have the latter, unless the price is commensurate with a "convenience factor" rather than a "license fee").
You know, I don't really have a problem with the concept of DRM, but rather with the most-likely uses and implementations. If DRM provided for (a) traditional fair uses and (b) was required to be field-upgradable to permit newly recognized fair-uses, I could live with it.
As it stands, I use DeCSS for the legitimate traditional fair use of serving a working copy of movies from a hard disk to a remote display device. I'd be happy to keep the video stream encrypted on my LAN and only decrypted by the end device, as long as I get to have any display device I own be capable of displaying the video I've licensed from and storage medium I own on any server I own over any network I own. In other words, protect yourself from unfair uses of your content, yes, but stay the fuck out of MY hardware except to the extent necessary -- at the end of the stream, however many such ends I may have.
You could've hired me.
I picked up the Police CD from a chain store, it initially went for $28, I snagged it from the bargain bin for $6. It was the second or third go-round for it. Same story with the other 2 CDs.
If you can break/work around the protection, there are a lot of good buys out there. If the labels are looking to increase their per-unit gross, it ain't workin', and the stores ain't happy about it.
What are you talking about? Read his post again:
I'm the opposite way: I ripped all my CDs to mp3s, backed 'em up on some CDs and my entertainment server, and sold the originals. Couldn't care about the art or the liner notes or the lyrics sheets. I have my music, I'm happy.
He paid for the CD's he ripped, kept the music and sold it again on the second-hand market. At what part does he become a thief? It's not like those buying in the second-hand market would buy new CD's at Best Buy anyway. After all, the reason they buy there is because they can't afford the $15 a CD that retail asks of them.
"Light is faster than sound." - "Is that why people tend to look bright until you hear them speak?"
One way to combat this strategy is to use one industry to fight another: Purchase the disc using a major credit card (NOT a debit card!!) and if it doesn't play properly you return it to the store because it is defective.
If the store only gives a store refund, you just keep doing this again and again, until they get sick and tired of handling dozens, perhaps even hundreds of defective discs. They may have to send the discs back to the factory, after all.
If the store refuses to give you back your money you call up your credit card (from your cell phone right there in the store) and open a dispute on the charge. You will be issued an immediate credit for the disputed charge. The credit card company will then require the store to return the money to the credit company (or the credit company will not pay the store in the first place). What many people may not know is that the merchant ends up getting stuck with the bill; the consumer is very well protected.
Lather, rinse, repeat. If thousands do this, eventually the industry will get the message that they ought to serve the consumers, not themselves. The stores will eventually wise-up and not carry those types of discs anymore.
Have I tried this? Admittedly, no. But why would it not work?
--Udo.
write a program that takes the digital audio data just prior to it going to the DAC. This will require someone reverse engineering a part of the audio driver in the OS du jour.
There are dummy sound drivers available that do this now. The problem is MS driver signing. Windows 2000 checked for digital signatures on drivers. WinXP spews dire-sounding warnings if you try to install unsigned drivers. Who wants to bet that windows media player n+1 will refuse to play DRMed content through unsigned video and sound drivers? The infrastructure is there now, all it takes is a few lines of code in WMP.
Sure, it'll still work on open platforms like Linux, but what's the point if nobody even releases DRM-enabled media players for it.
0 1 - just my two bits
Why do you think it's an artist's dream to get a major label deal?
In some cases it is, but in most cases the artist's dream is simply to make a living creating and performing their art. There are many cases where artists have gained a name on independent labels and then had the clout to get major label contracts that worked for them, instead of making them work for the label. In a few cases, those artists were even able to leave the major labels with their work when the labels refused to release and support their work as they intended it to be heard.
Because the label will pay for promotion, advertising, product positioning, radio time, etc.
The label only pays advances for these things. Every bit of it gets charged to the artist, regardless of whether or not the artist approved the methods used (ie paying for radio time, which is illegal if done directly, some artists have had enough clout to force the label to pay for this directly, but it's very rare, and the labels do get billed for every song played every time it's played anyway). Labels will not promote or position artists that they don't want to promote. Regardless of Pearl Jam's musical direction, for instance, they were still getting airplay until they spoke out against Ticketmaster and Clear Channel. Once they did that, Clear Channel shut down their radio play, and the label didn't do anything about it.
These are all things which help you SELL MORE UNITS. If you sell millions, YOU WILL GET PAID. Just ask any artist who has sold millions of records... they'll tell you two things: 1, that they're happy they signed with a major label; 2, that they couldn't have accomplished it by themselves.
For #1: see any number of current and past artists who have had fights with the labels over the amount of money they've made off their multi-platinum albums. Look at the whole thing with Prince (though I'm sure most people could care less about him these days, he was doing very well before he started his fight with Sony), or even the more recent battles with some of the current top-selling acts.
As for #2, the main reason they can't accomplish it by themselves is because of the industry. Radio airplay only goes to the songs that the labels will pay for. Clear Channel (and the one or two other radio promoters in the US) will not put up with stations playing music for which they can't bill a label. Most retail chains won't carry independent music, and few will even carry small labels (and WalMart, the biggest music retailer in the country, has many more rules regarding what they will and will not carry). Viacom owns the majority of all video airplay on television in the US (Viacom owns MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, etc; ever wonder why Nick. started the 'Kids choice awards' and other music promotionals?).
Digital music and video are means by which video and audio recording, production, and distribution can be made easily affordable and accessable to every single person that wants to pursue a career. The labels want to do whatever they can to hold on to their position as the only route through which to gain access to these things, before it becomes easy for my next door neighbor to figure out how to make it without them.
-PainKilleR-[CE]
What are you talking about???? If you sell millions, you might get paid when you re-up your contract, if they haven't found someone else with a bad contract they can promote. Why do you think that the longevity of these acts has gone down the toilet?? For the musician, the benefit is bigger concerts with more draw. That's where they make their money.
XTC sold millions upon millions of records for Virgin, and at the end of their contract were told they owed the record company money. Ask Andy Partrige and Colin Moulding 1 and 2, and they'll probably tell you off...
It is not just major labels that are using copy protection, but some indie labels are resorting to this user hostile tactic.
I bought a cd by the synthpop group de/vision last summer, and when I got it home, I found out it was copy protected. I then quickly returned it to the store. I also took the liberty of writing the band and the label to see why they were resorting to this tactic.
I politely told them, that the cd i purchased would not work in my pioneer cdj-100's, which is a pro dj cd player. I also asked why they would want to alienate the same people that essentially advertise their music. Well, after a few emails, they ended it with this:
[sic]thank you
enjoy your coutry , enjoy your law
and support the dying of bands
good bye
You can read the entire conversation at copyproofcds.org , which is a site i made to rant about copy protection.
It's a violation of copyright law, and one that I agree with. You can't make copies of a product and sell it without permission of the copyright holder.
I just would prefer the copyright holder to be the person that CREATED it, instead of some corporation, but these kind of statements are the justification that the RIAA uses to try to force these stupid laws through.
I've been called a "Fucking Dick" by better people than you.
I've started backing up my owning digital photos onto two different brands of CDRs. I plan to repeat this process with my whole collection every 5 years.
Just call me paranoid, but at least with two simultaneous CD writers going at the same time it only takes me about 3 minutes to fill both discs.
It just pisses me off that I have to pay the 21 cents tax per disc in Canada. Almost makes me want to download all the pirated stuff I can find to "get back" my tax.
Read the article I have linked to very, very carefully. Record company "advances" are considered loans against future royalties. You have to "repay" a laundry list of expenditures made on your behalf before you make a dime of royalty off of your music.
In other businesses, those kind of expenses are considered part of doing business. In the recording industry, they are considered the employee's problem. Imagine the uproar that would happen if all the copier paper, copy toner, pens, pencils, internet bandwidth and other "cost centers" of a business' budget were charged to their employees and, as a condition of getting paid, the employee would have to pay their boss back for all of it. You would have general strikes, you would have rioting in the streets, it would not be pretty.
Because of the high-glamour nature of the recording industry, however, and the strength of the recording industry lobby in governments around the world, they have had the unique, special right to charge off almost all their expenses to the recording artists.
And the big record companies are not the only ones who use this kind of chicanery. After SST Records lost their major distributor, Jem/Greenworld, all of a sudden bands who had been in the black on royalties found themselves on the hook to SST for promotional expenses. Bands like Saccharine Trust, Paper Bag, Zoogz Rift and others basically were screwed out of being paid for their record sales by a switch to a more "industry standard" set of billing practices. I was there to see this all happen...my husband was in Zoogz Rift's band and I was very good friends with Paper Bag.
This way of doing business has been standard operating procedure with major record companies since the 1930s. It is only now, with the record companies going after their customer base for "piracy" and adding hideously restrictive measures to safeguard their ill gotten gains that the word is getting out.
Sure, some people get ahead with their record company. That's why you hear Metallica and Elton John and Madonna and all these other mega-millionaire recording stars whining about people "ripping us off". But the vast majority of recording artists, including some, like Prince and TLC and Don Henley, whom you would think would be in this Millionaires' Club, have been basically given a deal that is exactly as you describe. Yes indeed, artists get absolutely no money and the label keeps everything. That "advance" money is not really theirs...it is a loan from the biggest, nastiest loan sharks the world has ever known.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
Hm. Offer rental credits for returning the expired DVDs for recycling. The convenience factor would still be there--no one would HAVE to bring the DVDs back, or bring them back within a certain timeframe. And Blockbuster could quickly rack up more rentals which would pay off any recycling fees involved. Plus they would get the reputation of being green/good for the environment rather than being bad, because "look, we're recycling! We encourage people to recycle!".
-Sara
i for one dont know why they are making the CD's and DVD's that are harder to rip to a hard drive because the way i see it, there are plenty of audio and video recorders and if the the media actually plays there will be a way to capture it and put it on a hard drive
Remember kids, with great power comes great opportunity to abuse that power
I don't know who wants to buy a song and only get to listen to it a few times before it expires. Apple's got the right idea...99 cents buys me the song and I can listen to it as much as I want, and even burn it to CD's over and over again. It is a simple and fair system that allows everyone to profit (Apple, label, and artist).
Three words: small claims court.
Like others said, you purchased a physical item. The store you bought it in presumably did not indicate that it was anything other than a CD/DVD. They have an implied warrant of merchantibility. What this means is that they are claiming this is a CD, fit for use and sale. However, it isn't. It is crippled, and probably doesn't pay heed to the red book standard. Therefore, they have defrauded you. Now, it's probably not really their fault, as the distributor defrauded them. That's fine. But it doesn't change the fact that they sold the good. So, you sue them for cost of CD plus court filing fee. You give back broken goods. They pay you money. Then, they can sue their distributor.
If they didn't tell you that this was not a CD/DVD in the normal sense, they are full of shit. It probably won't get to this. Sooner or later, most managers will cave. You probably won't get your money back, but you'll get store credit. If this isn't acceptable to you, sue. Even better, if you used a credit card, block the charge.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon