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CD Copy Protection Case Goes to Court
grungie writes "From The Register: Belgian consumer watchdog Test-Achats (Test Aankoop), known for its crusade against Nokia's "unsafe batteries", starts the new year with a fresh assault on the music industry. It is taking the music giants EMI, Sony, BMG Music and Universal Music to court for installing anti-piracy systems on their audio CDs. This is excellent news! I was less than happy when I had to use cdparanoia to add The Foo Fighters' latest to my iTunes collection. I used to live in Belgium: Test Achat is serious about the protection of consumer rights. Let's hope other countries follow suit." You can read the stories in French as well as Dutch.
Test-achats's original press release in French, Dutch, and Google's translation to English.
Avantslash: low-bandwidth mobile slashdot.
Test-Ankoop claimed that there was a risk that Nokia's batteries could explode at random. Later, it came out that they actually tested non-brand batteries... So they had to do their test again, and they found out that nothing was wrong with Nokia's original batteries.
...and all of your problems will disappear. Voila!
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
By the way, the verdict against DVD-Jon is NOT going to be appealed!
This is a copyright issue, so it is on topic. Here's a link.
I remember there being a public outcry in Norway when certain cd's would not play on computers etc. I was expecting to see this appear in a Norwegian court, but a Belgian one will do!
Other french consumers association already did the same in France ... and win !
(see here, for example).
#include "coucou.h"
I have a feeling that it eventually will appear in a Norwegian court. There is more than enough support for it to happen, and a good PR campaign by EFN and consumer rights groups will bring even more support. I think the "delay" (i.e. why it hasn't been in court already) has been due to the whole DVD-Jon thing. But now that that's over, we can move on to other things.
People say I'm crazy, I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes...
Being belgian, I can attest that Test-aankoop has a valuable function here. Ther can really scare companies, and have more than once forced companies into admitting faults. The fault itself is not necessarely fixed, but the public humiliation in a small country (with only a handfull national TV channels) is enough to scare them.
And being totally independent, they can take some serious badass attitude !
They also have a pretty good website (in dutch & french) that accomagnies their monthly magazine. Each edition has at least a few product comparisions that many many belgians respect. When we bought our childrens car-seats, we followed their advice, even tho their top-pick was 15% more expensive.
They also have a pretty big library of 'target prices' for many products.
When will I end this grieving ? When will my future begin ?
don't open that last link. particularly naste goatse-multiple-windows-"hey, i'm looking at gay porno!" wav files, etc....
http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/security/story/0, 2000048600,20282218,00.htm
Even before the Norway case was filed, however, entertainment industry lobbyists had been pressing lawmakers in that country and elsewhere to enact tougher copyright laws, modeled on controversial U.S. legislation that makes it easier for authorities to win prison terms for people who crack encryption schemes or distribute cracking tools.
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Theres no copy protection on the Foo's latest.
And don't buy music from most online music download services either ( that means iTunes , too ), as the RIAA gets ( as per Slashot reporting ) at least 70% of the purchase price as its cut.
:)
They and their member labels probably have some other income streams we can cut off as well. If you know of one, please chime in.
I can't afford a sig!
If the case is won, they should try to move to DVD after CD. It might be trickier to prove harm, but there's also a similar copy-protection.
Whether or not they ARE in fact losing money due to P2P is irrelevant. All they have to do is 'convince' a congress-monkey that they're right. If fewer and fewer of their songs are present on P2P networks, the less of a case they have.
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
and some background.
Paul "Say no to feeping creaturism"
Here's a good place to start:
Cool music from a guy you've never heard of.
CD's are RIAA free and not copy protected!
It links to a page with a bunch of nasty porn. To the poster: Thanks jerkoff, some of us do browse the internet at work. It's not funny.
My ghEtt0 webpage.
u can run it on computer for sure..
Unfortunately, that's not quite true. One of the popular copy protection mechanisms is actually to misformat the CD slightly; a consumer CD player has enough tolerance to still play it, but a high-quality audio CD player, or a player designed for high-speed data is designed to much finer tolerances and can't. If you look carefully at those CD cases, you will see they are missing the usual CD logo, because technically speaking they aren't CDs as they don't conform to the official standard. They are just objects the same dimension as CDs that happen to play in some CD players and not in others - and by coincidence, those others are the ones used in PCs. In other words, it's a hack, or an anti-hack if you prefer.
ts completely pointless.. Only annoys the ppl who bought it
Now that is true.
EAC works well also, given a proper configuration.
Not all of us use Linux as our primary desktop. I do have one as a dev box, but other than that, it's Windows on the desktop and Linux for servers.
Karnal
CDex has never caused me any issues. Nor has AudioCatalyst. Nor have many others. Maybe you should try more than two rippers before you plug an ad for your pick of the hour.
Here is a quick and dirty translation of the link given by parent, since it's in French.
...). Having bought a CD that can't be read everywhere means by this decision that you are entitled to a refund.
CD copy protection condamned.
TGI, Nanterre, 2003/09/02
(TGI is Tribunal de Grande Instance, the french court for those cases)
Facts
Due to "plaintes" (basically people complaining and/or filling suit) on the impossibility to play some CD on certain car cd players, the UFC-Que Choisir association (UFC is an association created to defend custumers) filled suit against EMI Music France, producer of said CD.
Decision
The Tribunal of Nanterre accepted UFC's complain. Juges looked at the juridic's "vice cache". "The 'vice cache' is the delivery of a merchandise that looks correct in respect with displayed properties, but contains an anomaly that restrains its usage".
It has been demonstrated by the court that the litigeous CD was not working properly on every player. "This anomaly restricts the normal utilisation and thus consitute a 'vice cache' in the sense of Article 1641".
Commentary
Court's decision shows the contradiction between rights of custumers and copyright holders.
Copyright holders have the legal right to put copy protection mechanism. Article 6 of EU-Directive of 2001/05/22, which should be translated in French law by 2002/12/22 sets the juridical framework of copy protection mechanisms. But, this right must not contradict rights of custumers. In this case, it was the custumer's right to listen to his CD on any player (car player, computer CDROM,
In a similar but hypothetical situation, the presence of copy protection mechanisms can interfer with the custumer's right to make private backups. Such a right is written in French law, by Article L 122-5 of French's copyright code. The conciliation of this copy protection mechanisms and of the right of the custumer to backup is actually a hot debate.
It should be noted that the Court of Nanterre has already condamned EMI Music France, in June 2003. EMI was tried and condamned at that time for mascadaring sold product. This is illegal as of Article L 213-1.
End of translation.
So, in France, EMI has been tried twice already, and was condamned by the courts twice. Looks like this copy protected CD are having a very hard time here in Europe.
You can use cdparanoia for a good rip under Windows using CDex. Highly recommended ripper. I also suggest using the R3mix VBR quality preset, which did very well in blind-tests against uncompressed audio.
That's right - you're hard earned dollars support music companies in the taxes placed on all computer media. How is not buying the product a fix?