Dell Colludes With RIAA, Disables Stereo Mix

RCTrucker7 writes with a link to a Maximum PC story, which begins: "Details of Dell's surreptitious collusion with RIAA (Record Industry Association of America) have emerged. Apparently, the computer manufacturer disabled the Stereo Mix/Mono Mix/Wave Out sound recording function on certain notebooks to assuage RIAA. The hardware functionality is being disabled without any prior notice and one blogger has even alleged that he was asked by Dell's customer support staff to [shell] out $99 if he desired the stereo mix option. Gateway and Pac Bell are the other two manufacturers to have bowed to RIAA at the expense of their customers' satisfaction and disabled stereo mix without warning." (There are some workarounds posted in the comments of the linked article.)

Comments

Next Story:

[Deltaspectre]

The MPAA has decided that asking large computer manufacturers to disable any Video Out options, so pirates are thwarted.

Re:Next Story:

[LordRPI]

In other news, the RIAA is pushing OB/GYNs to disable the hearing component of newborn babies brain's at birth. A special chip will be implanted and used to re-enable hearing at a cost of $99. As an easter egg, this chip will automatically deduct $0.99 from the parent's bank account anytime the baby has a tune stuck in their head.

Re:Next Story:

[Ucklak]

It's called Preview, the button left of the [Submit]

Re:Next Story:

[phagstrom]

In Soviet Russia, federal underpants gnomes, pound-YOU-in-the....wait...naaaa

In other news

[Anonymous Coward]

Dell colludes with MPAA, RIAA, and DRM activists -- removes CPU and hard drive to prevent copyright violations

packard bell?

[damn_registrars]

From the summary:

Gateway and Pac Bell are the other two manufacturers to have bowed to RIAA at the expense of their customers' satisfaction and disabled stereo mix without warning."

Is that the Packard Bell that so many of us loved to hate? Really, did they even reach the technological prowess of having stereo recording in their systems?

I really thought their systems pretty well disappeared back in the mid to late 90s, and were buried in a junkyard with rusted-out Yugos somewhere.

Re:packard bell?

[germansausage]

Just like David Hasselhoff!

Re:packard bell?

[ShadowFalls]

Packard Bell is the thing that holds up my desk. Best use I ever got out of one. Though its still shaky at times, I give it a boot every once in awhile. No power cord attached naturally :)

Re:Any...facts in this case?

[Anonymous Coward]

Get off the internets!!!

Re:Why is RIAA asking this?

[Kopiok]

I've just been using my laptop's built in microphone.

Re:Any...facts in this case?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Details of Dell's surreptitious collusion with RIAA (Record Industry Association of America) have emerged.

I'm glad they cleared that up. I've never heard of an organization called the RIAA, have you?

Re:Any...facts in this case?

[Gewalt]

New headline then: Slashdot colludes with Trolls, posts flamebait article

Re:What editors?

[Thanshin]

I'm eight and have ADD, you insensitive.. LOOK! A BUNNY!

Wouldn't work

[Moraelin]

Nah, that would make Slashdot outright unusable. I mean, half the headlines would be identical then. Can you imagine trying to find anything? ;)

Re:Any...facts in this case?

[pla]

What's really funny is that I bet those machines run Vista. And Vista has the Stereo Mix functionality built into the OS!

Because, y'know, why should we actually let dedicated hardware do its thing when we can put the load on the CPU instead?

Re:What editors?

[jollyreaper]

I'm eight and have ADD, you insensitive.. LOOK! A BUNNY!

That's supposed to be "PONIEZ" get it right.