Slashdot Mirror
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.
Already as early as 2002, EFN (Norway's version of EFF) has launched campaigns against the purchase of certain types of CDs as well as offering assistance in pressing charges against record producers whose CDs damage CD and/or DVD players or computers.
By the way, the verdict against DVD-Jon is NOT going to be appealed!
People say I'm crazy, I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes...
don't buy it.
HOW'S MY POSTING? CALL 1-800-POSTING
The trouble is, if we rightfully boycott a poor and intentionally crippled product, the record companies will blame their declining sales on P2P networks. The government will then step in to provide them a corporate crutch and start putting people using the future of media distribution in jail.
It's an ugly situation. The best thing we can do is help indy music sales and make sure they report their numbers. We need to make it clear that the sales of the Big Five are declining while others are increasing. Maybe the government will notice the signifigance of that.
Then again, maybe not.
Join Tor today!
Look, it's been said before, I'll say it again now, and I'll continue to say it until things change.
Stop purchasing industry CDs!
Your purchase of music released on a label affiliated with the RIAA indirectly supports these efforts which most of you agree is capricious, unfair, predatory and illegal. And yet all I see are a bunch of people who complain about copy protection, the myriad subpoenas being sent by the RIAA standing in line down at the local Best Buy (which is another evil altogether) because they have to have the new friggin' Puddle Of Mudd (or is that Dumm?) CD.
If you really want to send the industry a message, don't buy CDs on labels that are part of the RIAA. Look at places like CD Baby, which are not affiliated with the RIAA, offer 2-minute high-quality preview of many of the songs on each CD, sell non copy-protected CDs, and offer all the rights that you should expect in your CDs. Yes, you can rip the CD and download it to your MP3 player, and no one is going to come and hunt you down like the dog you are merely for exercising your fair use rights.
It really is going to take a big effort on all our parts to get this message out. But while people mindlessly go down to the local box retailer to buy another copy protected CD from some industry teat-sucking band, you're really not helping things.
I noticed it was a Foo Fighters' CD that the story poster bought. How about, 'It's times like these you need to think again...'?
Karma: Excellent Birds (mostly as a result of listening to Laurie Anderson)
Didn't some of those "copy-protected" CDs supposedly try to install drivers on Win32-based platforms that prevent you from ripping certain CDs?
Granted, the user shouldn't be running under an admin account (or get infected with all sorts of random crapware), but still. If that's the case I'd like to see them get smacked down for installing software without the user's consent...
Since the iPod was this Christmas's "must have" item, and continues to get massive publicity along with selling as fast as they can make the things, I have to wonder:
How much longer will it be before a 'copy-protection' scheme that effectively stops you making any sales to iPod (or similiar) owners harms sales more than the increased level of copying that supposedly happens with non-protected CDs?
When you factor in that its going to be the people most into music who are prepared to shell out for devices like this, these "copy protections" have to be be at best of dubious value.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
The physical music medium is something owned by someone else
No, I own the physical medium.
I bought it, I did not license it.
If I take it from a store without paying, they claim it is theft, not a license violation.
Only way to let the record companies know "enough is enough" is to stop buying any of their CDs. This means copy-protected ones and, if it persists, just stop buying any CD at all.
I mean, it's not the end of the world if you do not have the latest Foo Fighters so speak with the almighty dollar because in the end that is all that will work with these guys. Curbing your spending will lead to a sales dip as they release these copy-protected CDs and, as everyone becomes accustomed, sales will eventually return close or above to their previous levels. The record companies outlined this happening already. They outline all these possible scenarios when releasing new technology that affects the consumer. They're not stupid.
So bite the bullet and stop buying. I did.
I'm personally back on the wagon regarding going to movie theaters. I'm sick of the garbage put out but started going to the Matrix and Lord of the Ring movies. Now that they're finished the theaters will not get a dime of my money for some mediocre crap. I went 2 years without going to a theater last time around and will go longer this time. Opportunistic movie executives will probably blame the dip on P2P.
You should always use cdparanoia. Otherwise you are left with undetected errors. All other rippers cause errors except in ideal circumstances.