Crippled CD Deemed Defective In France

Noryungi writes "The daily newspaper Liberation reports that at least one person got her money back, by suing EMI, no less. She was able to do that with the help of the largest consumer organization in France, which has its own list of articles on this subject. So, French people who cannot read their copy-protected CDs can get their money back, but copy protection is not made illegal by the court decision... It's certainly a step in the right direction, though..." For the French-impaired, an anonymous reader adds "The Register has a good article on EMI being forced to refund the cost of a copy-protected CD, because it was found to have a 'hidden defect' -- it wouldn't work on a car's CD player ... Is the tide changing?"

Comments

Rimshot

[Anonymous Coward]

EMI surrenders to France?!

Hmm

[blitzoid]

Wow, I really don't blame EMI. I mean, who could have known beforehand that they wouldn't work in some extremely common devices? Come on, guys. Testing can only go so far before they have to release it into the real world. And I'm sure that for the tuesday afternoon that they DID test compatability, they were very thorough.

Re:Hmm

[Matrix272]

And I'm sure that for the tuesday afternoon that they DID test compatability, they were very thorough.

You give them too much credit to say Tuesday Afternoon... I would have said between 12:15pm and 1:45pm on Tuesday afternoon... with lunch in there too. And, since pirates are taking away so much money for research and development of the anti-piracy schemes, they didn't even have a CD Player to test on... so I suspect they looked at a drawing of a CD Player on a chalkboard, and if when they closed their eyes and concentrated really hard, they heard the music playing, they declared it safe to sell.

Re:Hmm

[blitzoid]

Oh please, that 'piracy is bad' excuse is just pissing me off to no end.

Look, if it weren't for filthy pirates like me constantly ripping music and software, the copyprotection industry would STAGNATE. Millions of jobs would be lost, and the economy would start to collapse. The fact is, pirates and mp3 traders are keeping the industry alive. It's anti-economy types like YOU GUYS that are causing the downfall of everything we hold dear!

I'm surprised...

[trompete]

that they got their money back, considering that most of those CDs have warning labels on them like a PC with an 'X' through it.
I guess that if a woman can get millions of dollars for spilling hot coffee on herself, someone else can get a refund for a CD that they couldn't play in their computer.
I hope this encourages record labels to stop making that type of CD!!

Re:I'm surprised...

[Mikeytsi]

Have you ever heard of a cupholder? You know, that thing you can stick drinks in to?

france surrenders

[Anonymous Coward]

don't worry, next week the riaa will send to france a man wielding a sharp stick and german accent to sort this mess out.

Viva la France!

[macshune]

Hey, we got the bomb now! We'll never surrender! Screw you EMI!

Re:Viva la France!

[Hatta]

As long as you don't start catapulting livestock.

Insensitive Headline

[Anonymous Coward]

Should read:

Differently-Abled CD Deemed Special In France

Re:What's the "offensive" part?

[stratjakt]

Whats offensive?

Have you ever heard any french pop music?

It'll make you run screaming to the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears.

DORKA

[tds67]

Senator Ron Wyden recently introduced the Digital Consumer Right-to-Know Act (DCRKA), a bill that would require entertainment companies to label products with copy-protections that limit consumer use.

Contrast this with the Digital Online Right-to-Know Act (DORKA), which would let us geeks know when the RIAA is spying on our P2P activity in an attempt to limit consumer use.