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Recording Industry Hoist By Their Own Petard

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!"

40 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. Re:tech issues by PabloJones · · Score: 3, Funny

    Maybe they put the CD information on one layer, readable by the CD laser, and then the DVD stuff on another.

  2. There is a God. by sentientbeing · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nuff said.

    --

    ------
    beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his mind he dreams himself your master
  3. 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

  4. I love their webpage by pHatidic · · Score: 5, Funny
    To sum up their website

    24Kb two color JPEG: Loading Soon

  5. 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

  6. Re:tech issues by mrgreen4242 · · Score: 4, Informative
    From the article:"The labels also have spurred sales by packaging "bonus" DVDs with CDs. In February, several began test marketing the new hybrid discs -- CD on one side and DVD on the other."

    So there you have it, each side of the disc is either the DVD or the CD. Seems a stupid way to do it to me... making a dual layer CD/DVD would be much more convientient, as suggested above, but I'm not sure how plausible it is.

  7. 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 over_exposed · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Bear in mind that most artists have little or no say in what their label produces on their behalf. If Warner wants to release a DualDisc release of a Linkin Park album, there's not a whole lot that Linkin Park can do about it.

      --
      "The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his." - Patton
    2. 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

    3. Re:It's being used! by moonbender · · Score: 4, Insightful

      How do your "friends" making poor business decisions and signing a contract that made them unable to work turn into the record company being a "bastard".

      It clearly is not a nice thing to do by the record company, therefore they are bastards. It might be legal and something the company "had to do" given its sole goal of profiting, it's still not nice. And that goes no matter if the people who lose are "idiots" or not.

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    4. Re:It's being used! by Miriku+chan · · Score: 3, Interesting

      i run in the san diego music scene, i'll vouch for things like that occuring all the time. it's standard for a contract to say "signed for 5 albums", and then have the label simply not put any money or care into the album's distribution and release. you end up basically losing 5 years of your life

      --
      shaolin punk, activist post-industrial
    5. Re:It's being used! by moonbender · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Companies don't do "nice" things-- companies return revenue for shareholders.

      Yes, that's what I said. Thanks for rephrasing it. It still doesn't make it any nicer, or the company any more morally justified. The fact that they don't care about moral justificationis insignificant. If I don't give a shit about who I hurt because I'm only interested in making a profit, I'm pretty much an asshole. The same goes for companies.

      And as for the question whether that's a good thing or not, I don't know. I agree that it ought to make them predictable, and it does, but only to a certain degree. And it doesn't translate to a very good world view. But I'm rambling.

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    6. Re:It's being used! by clifyt · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, it depends on how much of an idiot the artists were.

      The last time I was signed, I made sure my lawyer looked at everything and he struck out several clauses -- and put an escape clause in for me and my guys.

      Point was, I got paid when the label decided that they wanted us to go another direction and I kept control of the content. They had a year to accept or reject it and that was that. It paid well enough that I went back to school for a few more years sans student loans (I still have $30k in student loans that my current occupation -- researcher at a university -- isn't very helpful in paying).

      The point it, if someone signs a restrictive contract that can hold them hostage for several years (likely 7 at most if they signed in California or the label's headquarters are there), they should be held to the contract. If you promise to do something, you should keep your word. The promise is the contract -- not what others say about the contract. They signed it, they suffer.

      Past popular point of view, no one forces a band to sign whats in front of them. And more than likely, quite a few clauses are in there solely for give an take purposes. When my lawyer struck that clause and several others, the label didn't seem to care and faxed back revised copies within the day. No questions asked. And then I meet others that actually might have made it (unlike me, who sabotaged everything as it came to me and my friends), and they didn't even consult a lawyer other than the manager provided to them by the label.

      Acting in bad faith would be not laying out all possibilities at the onset. These are laid out for anyone willing to read the contract. I have no pity for people that sign their name to anything without knowing the consequences.

  8. Re:tech issues by shepd · · Score: 3, Interesting

    >So there you have it, each side of the disc is either the DVD or the CD.

    Now that is interesting. I had always been under the impression that the thickness of the polycarbonate on a CD prevented a CD/DVD sandwich.

    I guess you learn something new everyday!

    --
    If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
  9. New Dave Matthews Band album is combination CD/DVD by mgahs · · Score: 4, Informative

    I don't think this is industry-wide. The Dave Matthews Band just came out with a live album from their tour-ending shows in 2002. You can buy the best songs from all three shows on a two-disc set, plus it comes with a DVD with 6 or 7 songs from those shows, plus highlights of the Gorge venue.

    It's not as if it's a 2-disc jewel case and a DVD case, I mean it's all one case - open it up and the DVD is on one side, and the two CDs are overlapping on the other side. It's ONE unit.

    Now, the Dave Matthews Band has been around long enough that they have pretty damn good control over their own content, and they release their albums on Bama Rags (their own label, i think), but it's also distributed through Columbia, so it's not completely independent.

  10. *chuckles wickedly* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Indeed, indeed. This is, as we say at the trekkie conventions, "being hosed by your own picard"

    Sweet, sweet ineed.

  11. 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!!!

  12. 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.

  13. Re:tech issues by einhverfr · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is different from a normal CD how?

    If you scratch the polycarbonate side, you might interfere with the reading of the data.

    If you scratch the label site you might interfere with the storage of the data.

    --

    LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
  14. Silly idea by Alsee · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ya know, they could put anywhere from 400 high bitrate MP3's on a single layer DVD to 1600 good bitrate MP3's on a dual layer DVD.

    Nahhhhh, what a silly idea. Who the hell would ever want to replace an entire shelf worth of CD's and cassettes and what-not with one disk you could toss in a (large) jacket pocket?

    -

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  15. Re:uhm, what purpose does the RIAA serve again? by Yaztromo · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Well, as soon as dualdisc burners are available, I have a feeling that I will be manufacturing my own DVD/CD combinations, with no help from the DRM^H^H^HRecording Industry.

    We already have CD burners, and we already have DVD burners.

    Why would we need a dualdisc burner? All we should need is the media -- developed properly, succh media should work in existing CD/DVD burners as a "flippy" -- burn one side, flip it over, and then burn the other.

    I can see why Philips might be wary about calling them CDs however. In order to achieve such a double-sided disc, the CD layer would have to be somewhere in the middle of the substrate, instead of on one side of it (under the label). As you can't really make the disc any thicker (else it might not fit into standard slot drives), you have to put it closer to the surface of the substrate, whicch violates the CD standard.

    Yaz.

  16. Re:New Dave Matthews Band album is combination CD/ by Crizp · · Score: 3, Informative

    Also Phish has very good control over what happens, I guess. And, in their contract it explicitally says audience taping is to be allowed unless they say otherwise.

    I like bands that allow the audience to tape their shows, visit Etree for a huge list of live shows by a large number of bands - most of them in glorious lossless SHN or FLAC formats.

    When I found Etree and discovered SHN at the same time I almost came in my pants - among other things they have over 2500 Grateful Dead shows!

  17. "hard-hit music industry" by whoever57 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    hard-hit music industry had been counting on to aid its recovery
    I'm sorry, I did not realize that increased revenues means an industry is "hard-hit" and in need of a "recovery".
    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  18. 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.

  19. Does the price look familiar? by mingrassia · · Score: 5, Insightful
    From the article:
    "They have sold for about $18.99 in retail stores."

    Does this price sound familiar? It is roughly the price CDs were before they were caught price fixing.

    It seems to me that the recording industry only has one business model ...
    1. Take one good item
    2. Bundle a lot of crap with it you don't want (now this includes video content)
    3. Sell it at a high price that it totally unreasonable.
    DVD of movies are still cheeper than this.
    --
    OS X, Linux, Tivo, Amiga, my fascination with cult-like technologies would intrigue any psychiatrist.
  20. Re:tech issues by Nachtfalke · · Score: 4, Informative

    If this is the stuff I think it is, then you get a "flipper", where you have DVD content on the one side, and CD content on the other.

    I actually remember a professor at my university talking about this, saying a friend of was doing something great with DVDs. That was in 96 or 97, I think.

  21. And thus spaketh the geeks by davmoo · · Score: 3, Funny

    As ye shall sow, so shall ye reap.

    --
    I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
  22. Re:tech issues by DoraLives · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Imagine trying to read that small type while driving.

    Imagine having to deal with the asshole who's doing the reading, while crossing the double yellow line coming your way.

    --
    Is it fascism yet?
  23. Petard? by azav · · Score: 3, Informative
    I do not think that means what you think it means.

    Petard

    --
    - Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
    1. Re:Petard? by bhorling · · Score: 5, Informative

      The phrase "hoist with his own petard" comes from Shakespeare. Petard, as you noted, means an explosive of some sort. While hoist means to lift up. Shakespeare was referring to a sapper, which duing a siege would place an explosive under a castle wall in order to bring it down. If you've been hoisted by your own petard then you've managed to blow yourself up with your own bomb.

    2. 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.

  24. Re:tech issues by M.+Silver · · Score: 3, Funny

    Maybe this is very uninformed but it seems to me most players, except some slot-loading ones, could accomodate a 1mm thicker disc without problems at all.

    I'll add anecdotal evidence to this. Confusing as heck to pull a disc off a spindle, put it in, and have some other disc start playing, open the drive, confirm it's the disc you thought it was, spend a few moments wondering who's playing a joke on you and how, and then realize that it's two discs with static cling.

    --

    Slashdot's token middle-aged housewife
  25. Re:uhm, what purpose does the RIAA serve again? by mcpkaaos · · Score: 4, Insightful

    uhm, what purpose does the RIAA serve again?

    To make the very thing you plan on doing illegal for anyone but them.

    --
    It goes from God, to Jerry, to me.
  26. Re:tech issues by ocelotbob · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually, these discs would be more durable. The polycarbonate side can be scratched pretty badly before you ruin the disk. It's the more fragile label side which is usually what causes discs to go bad. As there is no label side, you stand a greater chance of the disc still being playable.

    --

    Marxism is the opiate of dumbasses

  27. Is it just me?... by KermitJunior · · Score: 5, Funny

    Am I the only one that read this "Recording Industry Hoist By their Own Retard?"

    --
    There is a Universal Life Value Check it
  28. Idiots!!! by Gregoyle · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Check this out:

    They see these "DualDiscs" as a next generation product that marries the booming market for DVDs with declining CDs.[emphasis added]


    and then:

    They have sold for about $18.99 in retail stores.


    These things are not unrelated!! Why are DVDs doing so much better than CDs? Gee, could it be because I can get a feature length movie for much LESS than a 74 minute CD? Forget the whole problem of timebomb-popularity industry manufactured arists for just a moment, and think about price. Why is it that I can get Ghost Dog or Pulp Fiction at many movie stores for 10 bucks, but if I want to get the soundtrack it'll set me back 17 or 18? They're older albums, there is NO REASON for them to cost so much.

    The problem with the music industry is that they don't remember the laws of supply and demand. If they lowered the prices of their music, more people would buy it. I have long ago ceased feeling sorry for them. They are digging their own graves by refusing to listen to the market. Here are some quick and dirty solutions...

    People aren't buying CDs? Try lowering the price!! People still aren't buying your manufactured artists? Try signing artists with actual talent and promoting THEM over the plastic hype! People are downloading too many songs for free? (Hey let's sue elementary school kids! Great plan!) Try offering the songs EASILY and INEXPENSIVELY. If you had paid attention to this when we were all screaming at you 4 or 5 years ago this wouldn't be a problem now. Instead you opted for the head-in-the-sand technique and needed to be strongarmed by a computer hardware and software manufacturer.
    --

    "He's more machine now than man, twisted and evil."

  29. I really like this headline by petard · · Score: 5, Funny

    and am, sadly, absolutely not the AC who submitted it :-)

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    .sig: file not found
  30. Honestly, a solution to their problem! by Orion+Blastar · · Score: 3, Funny

    Issue two discs. One a standard CD, and the other a DVD. It costs them like what, 50 cents to burn a CD? Maybe $2 to burn a DVD? It will cost them more in R&D and legal fees to get a dual-format disk.

    Using the Wisdom of Solomon, this problem is solved! Split it in two, and have two disks!

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  31. Why you hate the recording industry. by teamhasnoi · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Well, if you're a musician you hate them because they will only give you a contract on their terms, they promise to distribute and market your record and don't, they will cheat you out of every cent you make and send you a bill for it, they will put you in a holding pattern for as long as they can if they want to keep you away from other labels yet not release your record.

    They assume ownership of music that is not theirs, yet blast you with lawyers if you desire to sample music of theirs. They encourage the flavor of the month, but will not invest in the long term career of an artist. They pay radio stations to play what they want you to buy, leaving less or no room for music not controlled by them.

    (Hours later)

    If you're a customer, you hate them because they treat you like a thief, they only admit the right of Fair Use when backed into a corner, they lobby incessantly for backwards technologies that make the act of listening, using, and enjoying music difficult if not impossible. They push format after format yet say the new format hurts sales. They preach that you can't own a CD - only license it from them, yet won't replace a scratched CD because you own it.

    (yet more hours later)

    If you're a /.er, you hate them for their fake statistics, their inflation of CD burner speeds to number of burners to make piracy sound like a larger problem than it is. You hate them because they fail to address the issues at hand, and attack 'straw men' of their choosing. You hate them because your favorite band broke up after being dicked around by some A&R guy. You hate them because they make backing up your CD collection annoying, difficult, illegal and tainted with 'cracker' spin. You hate them because they lie, they cheat, they steal, they are a monopoly and they use their power to keep others from competing on a equal footing. They have the ear of congress, and use it to make you a criminal - whether you are 'stealing' or not.

    (hey is the sun coming up)

    There you have it Bill. Consider yourself enlightened. There are more stories out there, and not that hard to find. Enlighten yourself, and see what happens when people sell other people art.

  32. Been there, done that. by System.out.println() · · Score: 3, Informative

    There's actually already a solution to this.... the iTunes Music store. you can burn all the AAC's onto a DVD and voila!

    Or, of course, you can just transfer them to your iPod.