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Recording Industry Hoist By Their Own Petard

Posted by timothy on from the too-many-laws dept.

An anonymous reader writes "As reported by MSNBC, the recording industry has been unable to offer combination DVD / CD discs to consumers because of the IP ownership questions as well as licensing issues between CD and DVD content. All I can say is it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch!"

8 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. hybrids by Davak · · Score: 4, Interesting

    DVD Plus and DualDisc are based on the same concept--hybrid discs with a DVD on one side and a CD on the other--and Warner sold its patent on the technology to Dierks, though the label retained the license to manufacture products under the Warner name.

    It is simple enough. DVD on one side; CD on the other. Everybody is happy... ...except not. Now this interesting technology is tied up in patent and copyright fights.

    And we'll probably never see it.

    Davak

  2. possible harm? by zrobotics · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Could someone please explain how this is bad for RIAA/MPAA? this just means that i now have to buy two disks-the cd and the dvd. or, they could package it as a two disk set like most special edition dvds that you see. really, i dont think it means much, especially to the /. crowd

  3. It's being used! by Davak · · Score: 5, Interesting


    Warner has released DualDisc albums by R.E.M., P.O.D., Barenaked Ladies, Donald Fagen, and Linkin Park. The CD side of the disc contains standard two-channel, 16-bit/44.1kHz audio, while the DVD side features a high-resolution, 5.1-channel mix of the album. BMG, on the other hand, has music videos on the DVD side of its Usher release. Sony has released DualDiscs by AC/DC, Audioslave, David Bowie, and Good Charlotte. RCA has issued an EP-length DualDisc by the Calling.

    Sounds like tons of people are using it to me!

    My belief is that record companies are looking for new high-bandwidth ways to sell media. Sure anybody can listen to the song from mp3 or the radio... but it's much nicer to have the video and additional content right in front of you.

    Davak

    1. Re:It's being used! by Davak · · Score: 5, Interesting

      No doubt. Several friends of mine were in an excellent band 5 or 6 years ago. The won several contests and had a huge local following.

      Several companies were fighting to sign them. They signed... but the company decided that they were not young enough. So the company just held on to their contract and their music to insure that nobody else could profit from them either.

      By the time they got out of their contract, they were out of their prime.

      They still perform now, and they enjoy making money by doing bars and small concerts; however, they missed that one golden chance that many bands have to make a mint quickly.

      The record companies are bastards.

      Davak

  4. Re:tech issues by rokzy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    of course it's not stupid.

    1 scratch, you have to buy the whole thing again.

    and no matter what side it lands, there's data to be scratched.

    muhahahahahhahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaa

    1. change probabilities in your favour
    2. wait for a large sample of events
    3. profit!!!

  5. not exactly new by LeninZhiv · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Philips Electronics, the licensor of the CD logo, has refused to allow the hybrid discs to be sold with the CD logo unless the labels guarantee to assume responsibility for "read errors" on the CD side, a spokeswoman for Philips said.

    My personal RIAA boycott has been ongoing for some time now, but the last few CDs that I did buy did not have the CD logo on them, nor do the discs in my wife's (who has not yet seen fit to join the boycott) collection. It seems to me that the big labels have been eschewing the official CD logo for some time now--so the lack of 'official licensing' for DualDisc shouldn't actually be a factor for its acceptance, at least from the CD side.

  6. How is this even patentable? by The+Monster · · Score: 4, Interesting
    CD on one side and DVD on the other.
    This would seem to be such an obvious thing to do that it's difficult to understand how a patent could be granted on the combination. Such patents as already exist on DVDs (including the two-sided variety) and CDs would cover everything about the 'invention'.

    Oh. I forgot we're talking about the USPTO here. They'll grant a patent on a patently absurd application.

    --

    [100% ISO 646 Compliant]
    SVM, ERGO MONSTRO.

  7. Re:Petard? by Fishstick · · Score: 5, Interesting

    tell it to the bard:

    http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=petard

    Word History: The French used pétard, "a loud discharge of intestinal gas," for a kind of infernal engine for blasting through the gates of a city. "To be hoist by one's own petard," a now proverbial phrase apparently originating with Shakespeare's Hamlet (around 1604) not long after the word entered English (around 1598), means "to blow oneself up with one's own bomb, be undone by one's own devices." The French noun pet, "fart," developed regularly from the Latin noun pditum, from the Indo-European root *pezd-, "fart."/i

    --

    There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
    Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.