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EMI Considers Abandoning DRM on CDs
Posted by
Zonk
on Tue Jan 09, 2007 10:37 AM
from the wisdom-comes-with-experience dept.
from the wisdom-comes-with-experience dept.
jOmill writes "EMI Netherlands has announced that it is considering no longer using DRM on CDs, because it isn't worth the cost.
According to Reuters the company is still reviewing the decision. From the article: 'Critics have argued that the system has not worked as consumers could be driven to illegal sites to download music to the popular iPod instead. A spokeswoman for EMI said it had not manufactured any new disks with DRM, which restricts consumers from making copies of songs and films they have purchased legally, for the last few months.'"
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Your Rights Online: EMI — Ditching DRM is Going To Cost You 220 comments
33rpm writes "EMI has told online music stores that selling its catalog without DRM is going to cost them a lot of money. 'EMI is the only major record label to seriously consider abandoning the disaster that is DRM, but earlier reports that focused on the company's reformist attitude apparently missed the mark: EMI is willing to lose the DRM, but they demand a considerable advance payment to make it happen. EMI has backed out of talks for now because no one will pay what they're asking.'"
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Good... (Score:5, Insightful)
Intrinsic to a Red Book Audio CD is the ability to extract the audio in its pristine digital form. While content owners may not appreciate that in today's digital marketplace, that's what an audio CD is. If labels want to add DRM or anything else not in the Red Book Audio specification to these discs, they are obligated to make it clear that they're not really audio CDs, and indeed, consumers have found the belated warning that they "may not play in all CD players" only too true, resulting in practical decisions like this one from EMI Netherlands. This is what you get when you screw with established international standards.
Especially humorous is that, any amount of DRM aside, all of this music will always be widely available on file sharing networks, mostly as lossy MP3s. Who is affected most, then, by not being able to extract audio from discs within one's own physical possession, given that the music is invariably already available any number of file sharing networks many times over? The individual consumer who simply wants to enjoy his purchase on another device, such as a computer or portable music player. While DRM is intended to prevent or reduce casual copyright infringement, it never will stop content from being copied, and DRM on "audio CDs" is just one of those wrongheaded ideas, given that it toys with a standard that has already been established for two and a half decades.
Until someone figures out how to alter properties of nature in such a way that physical property of audio or video being able to be in an analog state via sound waves or the electromagnetic spectrum can be eliminated, there will always be mechanisms for those who wish to violate copyright to violate it. In the meantime, DRM will mostly affect and inconvenience legitimate, paying consumers of content.
Re:Good... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd like to point out -- though most people here probably know -- that casual copyright infringement very likely improves the bottom line of the music publisher. E.g. my friend casually gives me a mix CD of tunes he thinks I'd like, I'm X% more likely to buy one of those artists' discs later. That X% increase has a monetary value in the aggregate. I'd love a link to a scientific study of that value.
Parent
Re:Good... (Score:5, Funny)
I have two copies of the album and to this day I have only heard it via an mp3 downloaded illegally. In this case they just prevented me from legal fair use and its the last sony album I'll every buy.
Parent
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I hope they start putting on the Compact Disc logo so I can find real CD's again. Hopefully they won't be over compressed to sound loud. How about some SN ratio and Dynamic range?
Some good music should help too.
Re: (Score:3)
If you're looking for a good "budget" CD player, might I recommend the AH! Njoe Tjoeb [hifi-notes.com], as it's made CDs sound.. so.. much.. better.
You *can't* make an exact low-level audio CD copy (Score:2)
(Disclaimer: I am not an audio or CD technology expert. Take the following with a pinch of salt.)
My understanding is that audio CDs can't be copied exactly because the lowest-level information stored on the CD cannot be returned directly by existing recorders.
Bear in mind that the files which *can* be copied exactly to and from CD-ROMs sit on top of several layers of encoding. Even though you can make
Re:Good... (Score:5, Insightful)
While DRM is intended to prevent or reduce casual copyright infringement...
I disagree with this. In my opinion DRM is intended to prevent lawful use of copyrighted material and motivate people to buy multiple copies of the same work by intentionally breaking interoperability with other devices. That is to say, content producers would like their customers to buy one copy for their home CD player another copy for the tape player in the car and another copy for their portable player. The industry is used to income from people periodically re-buying their favorite media in the new format or to replace the copy they have broken. They are terrified of the idea that a person could buy one copy and use it forever, handing it down to their children.
Media companies claim that they are trying to stop illegal copyright infringement, but they also claim accidentally posting a song on a file sharing network costs them hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue, and if not for file sharing networks 90% of the gross national income would be spent on music. Why anyone would believe such obvious liars is beyond my understanding.
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Since the core issue with audio is to provide as good an audio source as possible, DRM'd or not. With the high quality of audio recording equipment available, even an initial analog recording of a DRM'd work will be very very good, arguably so good that only th
Re: (Score:2)
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Great Day (Score:5, Insightful)
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Good, also (Score:2)
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I've never seen one that I couldn't easily rip songs from....
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Would the DRM have inconvenienced pirates? Not the slightest; iTunes happily ripped it without complaining. Did it inconvenience real users? Definitely.
Re: (Score:2)
Mom's into Rob Zombie, is she?
Re:Great Day (Score:5, Informative)
The wife wanted to listed to them on the MP3 player in her car and her Mac at work. None could play them. Even the "proper" Sony CD player had problems with 2 out of 3.
I ended up researching the matter and buying a DVD rewriter model with a known firmware bug (or feature depends how you look at it) which can rip through most current DRM with flying colours. So the "could not rip" lasted for 3 days in total. After that it was ripped and encoded in the suitable formats for usage on the devices used for listening in the house.
Frankly, Virgin and Macromedia can take their DRM and shovel it where sun does not shine and rotate it at 48x CD speed until they the torque pushes their heads out of their arse. What really pissed me off was the fact that I have purchased it legally, 2 out of 3 had a "CD digital audio" on them and they were unuseable on all devices in the house.
From the point of view of the average consumer this is perceived as "shitty and unuseable product" so I am not surprised EMI is considering abandoning the practice. It is costing them lost sales and handling returns from pissed of customers who after that go to "illegal" networks or AllOfMP3.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I've never seen one that I couldn't easily rip songs from....
I think some people are missing the point of your question, which is that CD-based DRM is trivially easy to defeat. So the only people it hurts are those who just want to play the CD and can't, because it doesn't conform to spec.
I personally only own a couple DRM-laden CD's (I didn't know before I bought them, but I probably would have bought them anyway). Neither gave me any problem whats
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I came across a CD with the CDS200 DRM mechanism on it a few days ago. I had no idea it was even copy-protected until I tried to play it in the computer and none of the tracks showed up in
Foo Fighters: One by One (Score:4, Interesting)
I've never seen one that I couldn't easily rip songs from....
I had a Foo Fighters CD that I got as a gift which was labeled as an "enhanced" CD. The first time I put it in my PC at home, I forgot to hold down the shift key, and I wasn't able to rip it on that computer (although the software on the CD wanted to "give" me a set of protected files for all of the songs, which I would only be able to listen to with their proprietary player). I ripped the CD under Linux on my laptop, then again on my work PC in Windows. Also with this CD, it was supposed to have some kind of bonus content that would connect to 'somebody' over the Internet to authenticate the CD in order to unlock the bonus content. That never worked on any PC I tried it on, the authentication always failed.
So there were two disappointments on that disc: 1) If you don't hold down the shift key, you won't be able to rip it (under Windows) and 2) the broken bonus content. I like the music on the CD, though... it's too bad that they have to muck it all up with DRM under the guise of extra features that don't work.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Everyone here knows the cat and mouse game that has existed between consumers who want to exercise their fair use rights, and publishers who want to prevent "casual copying." For years, none of this affected me. I purchased CDs on occasion, a couple a year usually. I've even purchased a few "copy protected" CDs with the bullshit data track. These methods were laughable. Despite this
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
The primary reason that people stop buying new CDs is because there are no good CDs being produced. I'd have lots of trouble naming 1 great CD that came out in the last 6 months (even though I've bought a couple).
Yay! (Score:3, Funny)
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So apparently they all have. But this is one of the few to be talking about making it "official".
Which is it? (Score:2, Insightful)
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Riiiiiiight, downloads... (Score:2)
Who needs to illegally download? DRM'd "CDs" have a much more serious flaw, from EMI's perspective - They don't actually stop anyone from ripping them (and as a perk, they don't play in some audio CD players, particularly car CD players), meaning users need to rip and reburn them just to use as intended.
Good to see them giving up, though, regardless of the reason
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I haven't found any CDs that wouldn't happily rip with cdparanoia on Linux. Ergo DRM CDs are pointeless as it only takes on smartarse with a free OS to flood the P2P channels with decent quality rips.
A colleague had a couple of CDs, one being by the Beatles, which appeared to have a second data session containing compressed versions and some Windows/Mac driver type stuff on it. It wouldn't rip in his Mac, he claimed - I don't know if this was some rootkit type setup. No problem extracting the CDDA which I g
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BTW--I noticed in your TFA quote that it references "illegal sites". I'd just like to point out, that, AFAIK, the P2P technology itself is still not illegal in any jurisdiction that I'm aware of, it's only the use of them for distributing copyrighted material that is illegal.
I know it has been cold outside recently... (Score:5, Interesting)
Finally, they're starting to get a clue. I do not advocate pirating music in any way. However, I think it's equally, if not more insidious, that commercial interests are making it very difficult for consumers to *want* to do the right thing. This is a step in the right direction. *AA....are you listening?
Re:I know it has been cold outside recently... (Score:5, Insightful)
1. DRM costs money.
2. Current DRM didn't stop the music from showing up on file shareing networks.
3. Current DRM is a waste of money.
4. Stop paying for DRM that doesn't work.
5. More Profit.
Now if they ever get effective DRM it will be back.
Parent
Which will come first? (Score:2)
Effective DRM
An end to Spam
or the release of Duke Nukem Forever?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Effective DRM
or the release of Duke Nukem Forever?
The current problem with Duke Nukem Forever is the DRM they implemented on the master disc. The actual game has been finished for quite some time now. The reason you can't find it in stores is because the cd manufacturers haven't figured out how copy the master without Duke showing up and putting his boot up their ass. It truly is the world's first kickass DRM.
DRM...the only way to win is not to play.
Duh (Score:3, Insightful)
We could have told you that, but since when did you guys ever listen to your customers?
From the article: 'Critics have argued that the system has not worked as consumers could be driven to illegal sites to download music to the popular iPod instead. A spokeswoman for EMI said it had not manufactured any new disks with DRM, which restricts consumers from making copies of songs and films they have purchased legally, for the last few months.'"
Did you ever think we, as consumers, when buying a CD, want to make backups, import the CD to our Ipod or other MP3 player?
It's amazing how management runs these companies. How can you deliver a product your customer wants when you don't even listen to what they WANT?
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Managment listens to these stupid sales pitches for products like this, and buys into the promises.
Salesmen (especially software salesmen) are more dangerous to a company than any competitor.
Let's think of the consequences here... (Score:2, Funny)
In other news... (Score:3, Funny)
In other, other news, numerous airlines worldwide have banned the usage of all media disks during flight.
Perhaps Forced By Globalization? (Score:3, Interesting)
EMI Artist list (Score:4, Informative)
*NOTE: The site is flash so I can't copy and paste, these are hand copied, sorry for misspellings*
Auf Der Maur
Badly Drawn Boy
Beth Orton
Captain
Corinne Bailey Ray
David Gilmore
Faith Evans
Faultline
FischerSpooner
Hot Chip
Iron Maiden
John Cale
Kate Bush
Keren Ann
Kraftwerk
Pink Floyd
Radio 4
Robbie Williams
Saosin
Shawn Emanuel
Sigur Ros
Starsailor
Telepopmusik
The Aliens
The Concrete
Vincent Van and the Villans
Dove
Ed Hardcourt
The Little Ones
The Magic Numbers
The Vines
Black Dice
Delia Gonzalz & Gavin Russom
The Juan Maclean
Deep Dish
Ferry Corsten
Paul Van Dyk
Soul Avengerz
Soul Seekers
The Shapeshifters
Remy
Re: (Score:2)
Frank Sinatra (all of his classic 50's output was for Capitol, an American label owned by EMI)
The Beach Boys
and the group that many think was the best of all time:
The Beatles
Logical (Score:4, Insightful)
I think they pretty much given up a few years ago (Score:3, Interesting)
Ithink that the last major UK EMI release with DRM was Coldplay's X&Y back in 2005, any other releases I noticed on EMI was on the budget/reissue EMI Gold label, which was usually sold at about £2.99 in the bargain bin's at Sainsburys (a posher version of Walmart for our American chums
Why they kept it on the cheap stuff and not the latest releases I don't know, I suspect they were trying to see how many returns as "faulty" they would get on the budget range, maybe it was too high a percentage and they decided the cost of the returns on a big selling CD was too high.
They used to have a pro-drm site at http://www.emimusic.info/uk/ [emimusic.info] printed on the DRM'd CD's but they seem to have pulled it.
Funny to see how cocky the record companies were back in 2002 compared to now - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/11/21/all_cds_w
Jonathan
Maybe they realised... (Score:3, Interesting)
This may just be my experience, but I haven't come across a single CD (including some which are explicitly marked as having some sort of "Copy Protection" on them) which didn't rip first time in my PC. There's nothing special about my drive (I've used an old Matsushita DVD drive and a Plextor DVD Re-writer). Maybe it's because I am running Linux, but as far as I can tell, CD-Ex on Windows would work equally well as anything I am using under Linux.
because modern CD players are DATA players (Score:5, Informative)
but data DVD has sectors and format information in the data on top of the red book specification.
and the Orange Book specification give details of multisession formats.
most of the "copy protection" systems used worked by wrapping the session information to impossible combinations that were impossible to read. or degrading the galois based CRC information that was used to recover bad data. neither of these methods were fatal to a Red Book player that only played audio disks as it ignored all other formats happily.
but these days most CD players can play MP3's also, and hence are data players not audio players - this means they are exactly the systems that the copy protection was designed to disrupt.
so the CD manufacturers found themselves in a situation where the new hifi's being built were being disrupted by they copy protection and hence unable to play any of the CDs. its a question of the physiscal data path built into the decoder IC on most MP3/Audio CD players.
in short, I'm not suprised they stopped including it - I'm just suprised they waited so long.
Record companies trying to spindoctor the truth... (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes and no (Score:2)
If they show that th cost of DRM is more then the cost of actual loss, then it could spread because of market forces.
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What are you talking about? EMI is a large corporation, based out of the Netherlands. Whether other multinational companies follow suit is totally up to them.
Based on previous behavior I doubt Sony will ever publicly renounce DRM in any form, but I think most of the major players will just stop trying to put it on CDs, because it creates more problems for them than it solves.
Naturally, the music companies ar
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But then how will the poor Macrovision execs buy more Ferraris?