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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.
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
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.
I entirely agree with the cause that is being supported, but to be honest, who really thinks that this legal battle will be won by the underdog? The Big 5 record companies have practically unlimited funds, and the recent RIAA suing campaign shows that they aren't afraid to use it the most brutal way they can. What chances does a small albeit well-known group have against them?
Canadian Cynic, canadian politics is less boring than you
..here in India which is notorious for not having a decent return policy. I think, for music CDs almost all countries won't accept a return.
It would be nice to return the RIAA fsckers an opened music CD, in these cases
The best planning can be done after the project completes.
Other french consumers association already did the same in France ... and win !
(see here, for example).
#include "coucou.h"
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!
The UK seems to ban making backup copies of music you've bought, and doesn't permit you to copy your own CDs so you can listen to them on your car cassette player. Allegedly. What's the rest of Europe / the world like? Here's an area where the US has some sensible rules.
Yes - I know you can ignore the law...
Paul "Say no to feeping creaturism"
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 ?
If you buy something from the CD rack of your music shop, and it won't play in your CD playing equipment, you are entitled to a refund.
In fact, buying such a CD, then returning it for just that reason, provides "valuable" feedback to the labels on how acceptable / workable copy-protection isn't. (Maybe we should all go buy the stuff, then return it to send a message?)
Paul "Say no to feeping creaturism"
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)
don't open that last link. particularly naste goatse-multiple-windows-"hey, i'm looking at gay porno!" wav files, etc....
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...
Everyone should have equal rights which are based almost exclusively on the right to private property and the right to protect it.
The physical music medium is something owned by someone else. You have been loaned that medium in order to listen to that music. How is this so difficult?
Laws are not needed to "protect" consumers or businesses. Natural law says that if I own a lawnmower and loan it to you under a contract, you have to return it to me.
If you don't like my contract, don't use my lawnmower. The same is true about music.
u can run it on computer for sure.. Its pretty futile for them to even try, because the moment one person cracks it, it hits P2P, and all the ppl who weren't going to buy it anyway, are going to d/l it then... its completely pointless.. Only annoys the ppl who bought it
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.
My definition of damage is any impairment to proper use.
I should not have to spend ANY energy fixing my stuff due to actions of others.
As an extreme example.
A terrorist can blow up a building and kill a few people, but we can just rebuild and make a few new people. I don't think anyone would argue that such easily repaired damage is insignificant.
Theres no copy protection on the Foo's latest.
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
The response from people at ifpi , our local RIAA is that users shouldn't expect that their CDs work in their car stereo (main problem for the average belgian joe) is because car manufacturers use CD-ROMplayers in their cars and no music CDplayers (please don't flame me, it's their words, not mine).
I've searched their site but haven't seen that response listed anywhere, but that's not really strange because their entire piracysection (with subsection for facts, CD-R and internet) are "to be defined" since that section went onto their site months ago.
But on (flemish) TV this is the mantra of the IFPI spokepeople, and with t -my guess is- they're trying to divert the rage of average belgian joe who just bought a CD that doesn't play in his car from the CDproducers to the carmanifacturers (they should have given you a real CDplayer with your car).
Arh, normally I would just say fuck'm , don't buy their crap; but now I'm pissed at their disinformation and want to see them judged for the smegheads the are.
and some background.
Paul "Say no to feeping creaturism"
The first question is: can we expect a landmark decision here?
Yes, I think we can. Like with the Kazaa case in The Netherlands, people will most probably be looking forward to the outcome of this case. Furthermore, legal decisions in a civil case can be enforced all around Europe (when decided for those countries) by means of the Brussels and Lugano conventions.
Next question: how soon will there be a decision?
In a long, long time, probably. When I take my teachers seriously (best of the best of dutch IP lawyers), lawsuits can take years in Belgium, depending on the cravings of the judge. When it's a good day for hunting, you're lost.
However, I do not want to copy this statement directly. Perhaps there's someone from Belgium to throw some light on this case?
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!
so you disagree with the system, and create an alternative, and expect the rest of the world to agree with that?
i happen to like some of the "industry teat-sucking bands"! in your scheme i'm not allowed to support them out of idealism?
i agree that the system sucks. but i like music, not only indie music.
..thats sure to increase CD sales and profits. How many people rip cd's and put then on their I-POD like devices or into mp3 format. I take my CD's and rip them to an MP3 CD so I can make my in-dash player like a 10 cd changer. I don't even own a "Disc Man" or a typical CD player.
Silly gooses, how long until they realize they need to change their business model for the times.
ZiN
-ZiN-
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.
Since the "copy protection" is generally done by interfering with the error detection features of the CD standard, this product is inherently less suitable for in-car or personal player use (while jogging, say). It's also more vulnerable to scratches... Almost like in the old days with vinyl records?
But your local RIAA folk are still wrong. Consumers should be able to play their music CDs in ANY CD player. That's what the standard is for, after all.
Paul "Say no to feeping creaturism"
That way you can actually pay for your goods, yet still not give a red cent of your money to the label.
The band/artist does not get any either, but that's no different than buying new anyway.This is, of course, assuming that your goal is to not reward the RIAA, yet still buy music honestly.
Free Mac Mini Yeah, it's
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.
You should always use cdparanoia. Otherwise you are left with undetected errors. All other rippers cause errors except in ideal circumstances.
All I can tell you about copy protection is that in my home, for Christmas 2002, a DVD/CD player was received that only played mp3 music if it was recorded at a specific bit rate, with a lot of restrictions. The gift giver was thanked, and asked to return it.
We have put off purchasing a DVD/CD player (and now recorder) for the living room, two portable mp3 players, a DVD-Ram/+R/-R recorder for the computer, an mp3 stereo deck for the car, a kitchen CD/mp3 player radio for mom, and a portable mp3 stereo for outdoor trips all because it is unknown if any of these items will restrict us from playing the music that we own.
I'll be taking a cd with mp3s on it to the local electronics outlet in the next few months to see if there are problems playing mp3s on several car stereo decks in the price range we can afford. We'll gladly give up a bit of sound quality (especially in a car) for the convenience of being able to play over a hundred songs on a single cd rather than shuffling cds while driving, especially being able to eliminate songs we don't like.
DVD recorder for the computer? Was planning on getting a deck that included DVD-Ram thanks to the random access feature, especially suitable for computer files and archiving, but which can also be used for audio and video creation for playback in the living room. That plan appears to be on hold because we're waiting to see if DVD-Ram format survives, and waiting to get more info on the ability to playback music and videos we own, without ridiculous restrictions.
Portable mp3 stereo playback? We'll wait to see what becomes popular. Probably another year. In the meantime, cassettes that we can record at home without restrictions will have to do (which is something we've been doing since cassettes overtook 8-track player/recorders).
Living room DVD player? Forget it. If we need to play back a video, it will be piped from one of the computers on our home lan through a s-video output to the television, as we are already doing. Thanks to broadband, and a relative's dvd player (and his patience), we can watch any dvd we want without paying for a player. Our house is between his house and his job, and he doesn't have to buy any videos, we keep him well supplied.
Without full disclosure on restrictions, we won't waste any money on consumer electronics unless we find out beforehand through someone else's experiences, whether the hardware works with the music and videos we own. We've been burned by incompatible software, and software that doesn't work as advertised, costing hundreds of dollars each, and we aren't going to start the same thing with consumer electronics. I have another relative who has been burned by the Sony mini-discs.
Any consumer electronics we buy in the future MUST be compatible with the music and videos we own, and must be able to play (and record for backup) them in every way currently available and every way that makes sense. Or we won't purchase them. That's the bottom line.
That's not copy protection. The mac just committed suicide after being forced to play Celine Dion :-)
"'I pass the test,' she said. 'I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.'"
- JRR Tolkien.
In Canada I have the legal right to copy a friend's music disc, etc, this has been decided by our copyright board (as long as I make my own copy). In my humble opinion, copy controlled discs are violating my rights granted by my government. In a seperate issue, if I can legally copy someone else's music cd, can I not legally copy software? :)
Why use cdparanoia when you can just go online and download it from your favorite P2P service? :)
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
A lot of this stuff can be summarized as "The man in the middle attacks." Media as intermediation. The corporation as the "person" behind depersonalization.
It's pretty clear that the artist has ownership rights to some high degree, and that the purchaser of the art has ownership rights. Similarly for the farmer and the those sitting down to eat. But in our system of middlemen the artist and farmer on average barely scrape by, often holding a second job to do that, while those about to "consume" get an abundance of adulterated junk of low artistic and nutritional quality while our money makes the middlemen very comfortable indeed. Meanwhile the farms and music makers are forced to consolidate into megafarms and megastars....
What would happen if our food middlemen decided to add substances to, say, the potatoes of one distributor that would poison only those who ate the meat of another distributor? You don't, after all, have to eat those potatoes. You don't have to buy those copy-protected CDS, either, or combine them with musical equipment they won't work in. (My DVD player plays CDs. Just why should I want to buy a separate CD player to play the crippled ones?) But clearly something's wrong here. Food from different suppliers should be as fully compatible as possible. Musical items from different suppliers, likewise.
Anything else is restriction of the fundamental ownership rights of the artist/farmer and the appreciator/eater. The laws need to be restructured so that the middle men are allowed only those rights which in no way infringe on the fundamental rights owners, who produce and consume whatever the middlemen distribute. Distribution should be recognized not as ownership, but as the relation of a cargo carrier to the cargo carried.
And we must realize that anything which robs from the final customer also robs from the original producer. The century-long history of the obliteration of small farmers due to the stranglehold on markets by middlemen amply demonstrates the economic principles involved when middlemen are allowed too much sway. One way to address this is to alter the balance of laws so that fictitious corporate "persons" never have rights equal to individual living persons - whether the persons who play music, the persons who run family farms, or the persons who enjoy a good tune with a good meal.
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
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.