Record Companies Sued Over Charley Pride CD

DevNova writes: "This posting describes a woman in California suing Fahrenheit Entertainment, Inc. and its label Music City Records over CDs she has purchased which use a proprietary music encoding scheme that prevents them from being listened to without the user identifying themselves. These CDs won't play on standard CD players, are not encoded in the popular MP3 format, and will not play on a computer until the user enters personal information. A large part of the suit is that Fahrenheit discloses none of this information on the packaging."

of course she's suing

[cheesebot]

she just doesn't want anyone to know that she bought a charley pride cd.

I have found a way round this..

[-douggy]

But the margin is protected by the DMCA and so is to small to write the solution.

No wonder no hacker has heard of this yet.

[ruebarb]

They're probably using this as a test for the RIAA...and they knew no hacker would try to break it cause no hacker would ever want to.

I can hear the sales committee to RIAA 6 months later.."See, our propritary technology hasn't been cracked - it's safe to implement for all CD sales...

Two weeks later...teenage munchkins find out they can't listen to Limp Bisquit and break the encoding...end of story.

Funny as hell...why Charley Pride? Covering Jim Reeves, no less?

Re:Who the crap is Charley Pride?

[Anonymous Coward]

Unlike some artist in other music types (such as crap I mean rap) Charley Pride can perform & sing.

He can't rap worth a damn though.

Re:Who the crap is Charley Pride?

[steevo.com]

Charley Pride can perform & sing.

He can perform both kinds of music... Country AND Western!

Re:I have found a way round this..

[Anonymous Coward]

haha good joke! that is really funny! and you probably think you're smart because you've heard of Fermat! yippieee! i hope you got picked on when you were younger.

Law suit = DCMA violation???

[Alien54]

All attempts to bypass copy protection are supposedly illegal under the provisions of the DCMA.

So the next question is :

Is filing a lawsuit to stop the data collection and to stop this practice in fact a violation under the DCMA, and an illegal lawsuit?

you know somebody is going to try to argue that point, and may even find a nitwit judge to agree.

- - -
Radio Free Nation [radiofreenation.com]
an alternate news site using Slash Code
"If You have a Story, We have a Soap Box"

In related news...

[Dimensio]

Fahrenheit Entertainment, Sunncomm and the RIAA have announced a lawsuit filed against Ira Rothken of The Rothken Law Firm and his unnamed client for attempted circumvention of a copy protection device. Attorneys for the plantiff claim that by attempting to use litigation to remove a copy protection method the defendant is effectively circumventing that method and thus in violation of the DMCA. They also argue that if their clients were forced to identify products protected by this device it would weaken the effectiveness of the device and could ultimately lead to circumvention; therefore the defendant should be liable for contributory circumvention of a copy protection device.

The RIAA was not available for comment, but the FBI has raided the offices of The Rothken Law Firm on a sealed warrant in search of evidence.

AYR

[ImaLamer]

RIAA: All your rights after you bought this cd are belong to us.

Fahrenheit: Someone set us up the worst idea ever.

Consumer: Main screen turn on [then enter my SS#, then my DOB, then my mothers maiden name, then my biometric information]

RIAA Again: Gentelman... all your standards are belong to no one

-=Nothing useful to post, just want to let you know=-

Actually I 99.9% agree with the case against napster and I can't believe I'm downloading unsaid music videos now, but this is out of control.

Trying to kill the mp3 format because of P2P is like trying to kill .jpg because of pr0n pics are being traded.

Lets all switch to our own formats that only our own computers can read... fu** everyone! Like Bush said yesterday, scared people build walls, confident people tear them down [not his line, of course]

Re:That will be short-lived

[ackthpt]

DIVX? I was under the impression that DIVX video discs where designed to play once or twice then fade and be unreadable. I don't recall that technology requiring any more input that a remote control.

Charley Pride, a long time country singer, is an ironic twist for this type of suit. I suppose, once she's entered her name, address, csz, country, birthdate, drivers license, ssn and given a blood sample, she'd be rewarded with a country/blues song, such as, "Got them Invaded Privacy Blues", "Someone exploited their server and is maxin' out credit cards in my name" or "Mrs. Brown of 2348 West Cloverleaf Drive, Wooster Massachusetts, 10112, USA, who drives a green '98 Ford Explorer and has iron poor blood, you've got a lovely daughter"

The Most Challenging Thing...

[FFFish]

...in this lawsuit was, I'm sure, working up the gumption to admit that she actually bought a Charley Pride album. Shudder.

Re:I have found a way round this..

[Angel's Fall]

Fermat's Last Circumvention Device.

-j

Re:How dare she!

[quantum bit]

No, Plutocracy.

Government by a cartoon dog?

This just stinks

[wardomon]

The only person in the world that bought the CD is suing. That's gonna drive the cost of his next recording up.

Re:How dare she!

[Anonymous Coward]

Government by a cartoon dog?

Well, why not? Government by a cartoon mouse [disney.com] seems to be working well enough for the patent office. =P

This could make a nice country song

[TheRealKennRoss]

My CD-ROM tray is empty, a victim of a broken record in-dus-try

I bought Charlie Prides latest, but it wasn't like a regular C-D

The wrappin said nothin' about this copyright protection scheme

oh, this is worse than my wife leavin' me

Re:Easily fixed

[Nightpaw]

Maybe if you wore a different disguise every day?

Like this [penny-arcade.com]?

Re:Package warnings

[AintTooProudToBeg]

To listen to this cd:

1. Purchase a modem or ethernet card.

2. Have everyone in your home discontinue any phone conversations
-or-
Purchase a second phone line
-or-
Purchase cable modem/DSL service

3. Sign up for internet access. For your convienence, AOL will be installed automatically. All you need is a credit card.

4. Install MediaCloQ(TM) - This will send your personal information to us using secure proprietary technology written in Visual Basic by the CEO's nephew.
http://www.record-lable.com/register.asp?Name=Jo e+ Smith&Address=123+Main+St

5. Enjoy!