EMI Customer Relations Tells It Like It Is 1080
hype7 writes "The Register is running a story about the most outrageous email sent from a customer services rep at BMI in Germany to a customer who had difficulty playing a copy-protected CD in his CD player. One of the most stunning lines from the translation: "If you plan to continue protesting about future audio media releases with copy protection, forget it; copy protection is a reality, and within a matter of months more or less all audio media worldwide are copy protected. And this is a good thing for the music industry. In order to make this happen we will do anything within our power - whether you like it or not.""
The scary part... (Score:5, Interesting)
And to think... (Score:4, Interesting)
I think we have a new "piss off the public" " king-of-the-hill now...
kraftwerk (Score:1, Interesting)
*shooting in background*
A quote from the article (Score:3, Interesting)
I know people have mentioned it before; but if you listen to some of the 128kb MP3 files out there, a recording taken from the headphone jack could be an improvement. Rather than fight copy protection, I think we should educate the "pirates" as to a good encoding system (Ogg, LAME MP3)
Protest, boycott, lets do something..... (Score:5, Interesting)
Lets do something about this. Something other then complaining and giving up.
Re:The attitude! (Score:5, Interesting)
MS learnt recently that having a shitty attitude doesn't necessarily do you any favours [theregister.co.uk], and if they can learnt then anyone can . . .
At odds with the other big fish? (Score:5, Interesting)
Also, considering that most people who buy stuff want it to work anywhere and everywhere, I wonder how long it'll take the general public to simply stop buying, as it's no longer 'safe' to do so..
Especially with some of the new laws in the EU, and the UK being put forward as also written on The Register [theregister.co.uk]. And if people buy even less than they did before they protected the media, who are they going to blame? Perhaps this is a case of things needing to get worse before they get better, and perhaps even be a case of the big recording industries shooting themselves in the foot and crippling themselves..
Malk
Wow. (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyone want to take bets on the one straw that will break the consumer's backs?
Personally, I think it will come when people regularly cannot play discs in their cars. Or PlayStations/Xboxen. There's a lot of 'convergence' devices out there. Furthermore, in the car example, many manufacturers are actually using CD-ROM mechanisms in dashboard players simply because they are cheaper and more error-tolerant (except of course, in the case of purposeful errors introduced by the record companies).
Ph33r my mighty analog plug, you slack-jawed marketroid fuckwits.
Time to make a statement (Score:3, Interesting)
Not anymore. I have a CD collection of well over 300 CDs I have bought over the past ten years. I am no longer going to buy ANY pre-recorded music until the industry stops treating good, responsible consumers like myself as criminals.
I am going to catalog my CD collection and put it on eBay. I will donate the proceeds to the EFF.
I will send the link into
--Jon
Consequence of a Monopoly (Score:3, Interesting)
Branding all customers as pirates, giving out terse PR statements, and not providing satisfactory responses are just consequences of the record companies having exclusive access to popular media.
Look at the airline industry: polite, apologetic, and responsive. Why? There's hundreds of competitive airlines out there.
Look at the Record Industry: rude, unresponsive, and completely devoid of PR sense -- Consequence of record companies colluding with each other record companies to maintain their monopoly.
There ARE avenues of competition, such as pay-per-use Internet media distribution, but they nixed it at governmental levels because it threatens their monopolistic attitude.
What record companies don't understand is that if they treat consumers with respect and ship products at reasonable prices to compensate for a good piece of recorded media, consumers would be more inclined to purchase such products instead of downloading it off of Kazaa. What's worse is that these "state of the art" copy protection measures are so breakable that they tend to show up on Kazaa in no time flat.
Re:Intellectual property (Score:2, Interesting)
2. Nobody claims to have produced music they share with friends. They are simply helping their friends to avoid paying for the media.
A couple of points... (Score:3, Interesting)
Now I check.
"If it is from BMI, I will not buy."
Since the music from the big firms is so much crap, I am down to two or three artists on those labels anyways.
There is LOTS of good music locally that does not have the DRM crap and is actually worth listening to. (And when i buy their albums, I know that the musicians are getting paid.)
The copy protection is not much of a hinderence. The programs I use to rip to MP3 or OGG have not choked on anything yet. Since I only listen to music on my computer, I will continue to convert stuff I own to a usable format no matter what the RIAA says.
But I refuse to buy crippled discs.
We can boycott and protest all we like... (Score:5, Interesting)
As long as an item, be it copy-protected CD, DVD, PS2 game, etc.. is sold at Wal-Mart, Target, and the like, a boycott will never succeed. If all of us stopped buying CDs tomorrow, Cletus T. Bohunk would still go out and buy his Fullscren copy of Spider-Man. He'd still by the Allman Bros. Greatest Hits (no offense to fans), and its not going to matter if it works in his computer, because he doesn't use that to play music like we do! He puts it in his $49 DVD player and listens to it through his 20 year old Magnavox TV speakers. Or he puts it in the $20 boom box he also bought from Wal-Mart. While I agree that if CDs stop playing in cars, there will be a huge outcry from the public, calling for boycotts simply won't work in such a small community as ours...
(Yes, I realize it isn't a SMALL community. But in the grand scope of US vs. the population in general, we don't measure up.)
Independent Artists (Score:3, Interesting)
I recommend that you guys read, if you haven't, Courtney Love's speech [salon.com]about the labels and artist's pay.
I sincerely believe that it will happen: artists will go independent or to new label companies that cater to the fans and break the business process for the major labels.
The software industry tried many years ago copy-protection and mostly it didn't work. Only some holdouts like AutoCad remained copy-protected. Now MS is trying again and I doubt they will succeed.
Artists need to be paid. Period.
But I don't think we need to make some un-talented sons-of-a-bitch rich in the process. We want the music from the artist and the artist needs our money to be able to dedicate him/herself to art. If we cut the middleman, both the fan and the artist benefit.
How to deal with this... (Score:5, Interesting)
You do three things when a disc won't play on a standard player because of copy protection:
- Insure that the disc has the CDDA label on it, that you legitimately bought it and that it's a standard player (car stereo, home stereo, etc.) and not a computer drive. Basically give the music guys no toehold at all to call you a pirate, unless they want to claim that playing an original purchased CD on your stereo is piracy.
- Return the disc to the store as defective.
- If the store refuses to exchange it for a working disc, or refund your money if they can't find a working disc, file a complaint about the store with your local government's consumer protection office. Don't treat this as an intellectual-property issue, that's playing into the music industry's hands, treat it as a defective-merchandise issue where the warranty and related issues are much more clear-cut and much more in your favor.
When stores start getting in legal hot water for defective merchandise and failure to obey warranty laws, their legal departments will take notice and have a talk with the music industry sales reps. Even the big chains will drop labels rather than take the legal heat on a large scale.Re:In other words... (Score:5, Interesting)
I made a comment like that once and somebody accused me of trying to rationalize theft. I got news to all of you who are thinking that: I have purchased a number of games at $50ish a piece. I've never downloaded a game from P2P. I'm not adverse to buying. The reason that the games industry isn't taking so much flack over protection is that they give you ways to preview your purchase. On PC's, you can buy demo CDs or download game demos off the web. On consoles, you can rent games at places like Blockbuster. They know how to treat their customers.
The matter is not that people don't want to pay for their products, it's a matter of making a satisfactory purchase. I cannot take a CD back if I don't like it, I can't rent a CD, and they're trying to prevent me from previewing music on places like Kazaa. Well gee. Why would I spend $18 on something I might like? Letting people read magazines didn't put publishers out of business.
Vote with yours dollars (Score:2, Interesting)
fuzzy math (Score:3, Interesting)
There are 250 Million blank CDRs and tapes bought and used this year for copying music in comparison to 213 Million prerecorded audio media. This means the owners are only being paid for 46 per cent of the musical content. For a comparison: In 1998 almost 90% of all audio media was paid for.
In other words, they believe that without the availability of blank CD-Rs, they would have sold 463 million CDs last year. Which is to say that without piracy, the annual growth in CD sales over the past 3-4 years would have been between 20% and 30%.
I assume that they're correct because they're so smart and all. Perhaps the world economy would have skirted the current recession if it wasn't for those bad pirates stealing profits from helpless corporations?
It's their music, not yours! (Score:2, Interesting)
At the end of the day you are creating a product. And people create products to make money. It wouldn't be fare to buy a box of corn flakes and take it home, and put is in your Plexstor 24x corn copier and make all you want and never by corn flakes again... thats not right, and neither is copying a friends CD to aviod buying it.
Are all listeners pirates, no. Are all CDR's sold used to copy CD's that people would have bought otherwise, no. However, you show me a way to sell unprotected music and still make sure that you can make money on it, and make sure no one is stealing from you, and I'll change my mind. Until then this is the only option we have.
They are crazy with the complaints (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Exactly. (Score:1, Interesting)
If it gets to be to much of an expense PITA for Best Buy to deal with the returns, they're in a better position to put pressure on the labels then we are.
Buy then return (Score:1, Interesting)
Target large retailers with clout such as Wal-Mart, Tower Records, Virgin,
If the large retailers get hit in the wallet with copy protected CD returns they may push back on the media producers.
Re:Bullshit (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The attitude! (Score:5, Interesting)
This isn't really an issue (Score:5, Interesting)
Second of all, only the big labels with lots of money are going to copy protect their CDs. It's not like the copy protection they're implementing is FREE. It was invented by someone who no doubt patented it and is licensing it to the CD makers (which, consequently, raises the price of CDs).
Personally, I don't care if Britney Spears CDs are copy protected - nor CDs from other no-talent hacks who claim to be artists. Also, I think this protection scheme could be a great instrument in the downfall of such crappy music[sic]. Afterall, teenagers are probably the biggest pirates of this stuff, and it's not like they have money to buy the CDs if they can't copy them, so it can only result in less proliferation of this garbage. Eeeeeexcellent.
There's lots of great music to be had out there, and you can have it without giving up your Fair Use Rights.
- Richard Shindell [richardshindell.com]
- Edie Carey [ediecarey.com]
- Lucy Kaplansky [lucykaplansky.com]
- Dispatch [dispatchmusic.com]
- Rockwell Church [rockwellchurch.com]
- Erin Mckeown [erinmckeown.com]
Just to name a few...Re:The attitude! (Score:2, Interesting)
- this was the Register's translation of the letter from EMI, not the actual German text
- Germany has a slightly different culture - still a lot of pretty authoritarian folks running around compared to many other places. And a lot of that authoritarian attitude has gone down fairly well in the past. (Think of the German "beer purity laws", or see how far you can drive a low-rider on the Autobahn)
But having said that, I do believe that the music industry is about to discover that they are the students in a very pricey school rather than the administration.You will (Score:5, Interesting)
or your both of your neighbors and all their children...
People will keep buying music regardless. Their car cd-players, and home cd-players will play them, and if they don't, their new players will play their old CD's.
Consumers are so used to getting screwed into buying "upgrades" to correct home made problems, they won't even blink.
And people won't stop paying for music in the copy protected future anymore than they don't buy macrovision protected DVD's now.
Even if everyone that read
If it is the only way music is being sold, it is the only way music is being purchased. And people won't stop purchasing entertainment.
HOWTO:Bypass BMI Copy Protection (Score:2, Interesting)
Now after a beer/bongrip/blowjob or whatever it is you do when you get home break out your brand new Sharpie A.k.a. 37337 0-day cr4ckz and pick the first BMI music CD out of your collection that has copy protection.
Now apply your 0-day sharpie cr4ckz to the outer rim of the CD. Story was run on slash a few months ago, surprised no one else mentioned it.
Coming to Sam Goody This Xmas--Angry Shopper! (Score:5, Interesting)
"Hi, are you ready to check out?"
"Yes, uhm, could you tell me if this," the customer holds up the first title for the clerk to see, "is copy protected?"
The clerk has this "uh-oh" look and nods.
"Yes," the clerk hesitantly replies trying to avoid the attention of the other clerk who is busy ringing up someone else's order.
The Customer holds up each title and each time the clerk nods, looking less happy as the customer puts them in a seperate pile, until at last there's only the pile of copy protected titles.
"Well, it was nice shopping. See ya." The customer shrugs.
The clerk watches as the customer walks away from the counter, leaving the small pile of titles, probably near $200 worth, sitting on the counter.
The worst part...if this kind of thing happens a new policy of ignorance will emerge, where the clerks will simply say they don't know or can't say. And then the store will refuse to accept any media for refund or exchange once it's been opened.
Oh, and don't forget, there's always a charge for refunding purchases made with some form of plastic, so there's going to be many people who will simply "eat it". Especially the passive cattle with plastic in this great land of diminishing returns.
Cheers.
Re:Arrogant, because they can afford to be. (Score:4, Interesting)
Fan X is even likely to try out "that kazaa thing my kids/friends are talking about" in order to continue getting music.
For this reason, Phillips shouldn't be the only one going against BMI, but also every single label that doesn't use copy-protection on their CDs, because it's quite possible that copy-protected CDs will ruin it for the entire industry.
Hamburger theory (Score:5, Interesting)
But the customer was German too (Score:5, Interesting)
It's worth skipping from The Register to the original German, then running the customer's letter through babelfish. You might get a better idea of why he got such a response - the letter talks about the inevitable hacking, and how BMG have lost him as a customer. Read it...he's being fairly inflammatory himself.
Cheers,
Ian
BOYCOTT BOYCOTT BOYCOTT (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Paging the Lawyers (Score:1, Interesting)
Ahhh... but compliance does not always equal conformance -- it's generally a case by case thing but I assume that Phillips intended the CD standard to be a conforming (read absolute) standard. Dependending upon the legal definitions, they might be able to put "Red-Book Compliant" but not "Red-Book Conformant". For example, the open group talks about POSIX conformance, and not compliance -- a weaker word.
Here's where Phillips should sue though. I walk into best buy and wander into the section with the big sign saying "CD's" thinking "Compact Discs." The discs that BMI is selling do not conform to the CD standard. That's fraudulent not only on behalf of BMI, but on behalf of BB for not properly labeling the signs above their merchandise.
The BMI disc should be under a section with another big sign calling them "CPMM" (Copy Protected Music Media) or some such acronym so there's no confusion and the customer knows exactly what he's getting -- something that's not a CD.
analog hole? (Score:4, Interesting)
I have a couple of these [hollywooddj.com] at home. They supplement my turntables, mainly for when I only have a song on cd or need to use something I can only find in mp3 format. They're dirt cheap nowadays, under $100. Not great for dj-ing, but they will play ANYTHING. I had a cd I stepped on that cracked almost in half (a crack running from the center all the way to the outside edge) and it didn't even skip. I didn't realize the thing was cracked until I tried to rip a copy of it. Doh! I had copy protected it! But fortunately the cd player itself has a digital output, so I just ran it into my friend's Audigy. I had to record it at 1x speed obviously, but I got a digitally perfect recording. As more people get dvd players and other gizmo's with digital output, sound cards with digital input will explode in popularity. The most copy protection can offer the music industry is that a couple years from now people won't be able to rip at 16x, but they'll be able to copy at 1x. A lot of you out there may have an Audigy or Extigy already. Do you also have a dvd player? I'm sure your dvd player can play cds, so you already have a means of creating digitally perfect copies of protected cds.
idiots (Score:2, Interesting)
Wow, I didn't realize it was only possible to burn MUSIC on to CDRs.
With fucking idiots like this in the biz, it almost makes you want to pirate their overpriced shit to get his ass out of a job.
I can tell you this though, their current stance and "fuck you consumer" attitude WILL increase piratism of music, and WILL decrease sales of music. Their ignorance prevents them from seeing that, but it will happen. Never, NEVER slap someone in the face after they give you money.
In the future, the music industry will think they won.. But I can promise you, I will not buy a single music cd again. I will pirate every last little song, and support my favorite bands by purchasing concert tickets and memoribilia at them.
It's the way it should be anyhow.
Solution: Listen to NON-RIAA music! (Score:5, Interesting)
Let's start with someone you may have heard of: Slobberbone [slobberbone.com]. These guys tour constantly (they were just in my town Wednesday night for the 6th or 7th time in about 2 years). Though no recording can really do their live shows justice, they manage to cram more of their immense musical talent into each subsequent album they produce. They are really an amazing rock band, and you should definitely listen to them or go see them.
How about another example? Here you go: Kirk Rundstrom: Blue China (review) [rockzilla.net] - Kirk Rundstrom, lead singer/songwriter/guitarist of the bizarre bluegrass band "Split Lip Rayfield" is out on his own now, and the albums he's putting out these days are completely insanely good. Seriously. I won't do him as much justice as the review I've linked here, but I will tell you that what this guy does with rock and bluegrass is completely different than anything else that has ever been recorded. His new album manages to sound entirely different even from his own usual style, which in my opinion shows a growth sadly missing in nearly all of the RIAA's "artists".
Don't forget to visit this site as well: Bloodshot Records [bloodshotrecords.com] - Maybe you missed the whole alt-country genre when the recording industry thought it was going to be the next big thing and signed a whole bunch of bands like the Old 97's, Ryan Adams, Uncle Tupelo/Wilco/Son Volt, and so forth. This style of music (called "insurgent country" by Bloodshot) has already passed through a brief, sort of popular phase, and back into relative obscurity. There are A LOT of really talented bands on Bloodshot that never got a big break, but blow away anything the RIAA has ever managed to put onto an album. I suggest you check out some of these people, like Neko Case, Split Lip Rayfield, The Sadies, Alejandro Escovedo, The Blacks, and anyone else who sounds interesting there. Prepare to have your musical knowledge broadened.
If you're ever around my area (Lincoln, NE), we have some really good local bands as well. It would do you some good if you're from around here to check out some of the shows. Besides the local talent, nearly everyone I mentioned above has been through here quite recently. If they're in a little town like Lincoln, chances are you can see them in your town as well.
Where's the letter that prompted this? (Score:3, Interesting)
Lemon Laws! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I tried to post first (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes there are so many assumptions in that letter.
They don't care. The ship is sinking. They will end up with a different business model but they are not happy with the revenue prospects. If you want one of my cds just let me know. I sell them dirt cheap you pay for the cdr and shipping.
Re:oh well (Score:2, Interesting)
Actually, if you read all the reports of modern payola, radio stations play what they're paid to play. And I'm pretty sure the record companies wouldn't pay the stations if airplay didn't affect cd sales. So I'm pretty sure you've got the cause and effect reversed.
One-sided (Score:2, Interesting)
Sounds Bogus (Score:4, Interesting)
He went on for several pages telling me how stupid i was for asking if drivers for NT would be available in the future for one of their scanners.
A simple 2 line question, got me 3 pages of inane babble.
That said, this still sounds fake.. who would be stupid enough in this day and age to trash their public opinion like this?
Perhaps a little documentable proof? And if its given, we publish it EVERYWHERE.
Bullshit! (Score:5, Interesting)
Bullshit!
It's one thing if these guys seize control of all broadcast media, shut out anyone smaller than say Polygram, lock out all the rack jobbers and Wal-Marts so it's flat impossible for a competing record label to get in, ever, and brainwash the people into believing they are the gatekeepers to *feh!* quality. Fine. Go ahead and do that, oops, done it already, cheers.
However the set of all audio media is not equal to the subset of all RIAA-controlled audio media.
You know, I produce audio media myself. There's the main page [ampcast.com] where I've got songs so new I don't even have a CD for them yet- also has a number of full CDs of other types of music. There's the other page [ampcast.com] which also contains numerous full CDs, this time of much more unusual and eccentric music. These are for sale, OK?
Just because the RIAA has poisoned the well so completely that people won't even fscking buy CDs from anybody, doesn't mean that these aren't commercial, for-sale, professional quality, dithered-and-mastered-from-24-bit, Red Book Compact Discs. It is THEIR fault indies are struggling (which they are). Thanks to them, people have a vague notion that it's important to never give anybody money for 'audio media', including me.
Thanks to them, they manage to set the terms and expectations for all these things, even when they have no right or jurisdiction. I mentioned the CDs I sell through Ampcast. I mentioned they're Red Book compliant. That means they are rippable, back-upable, iTunesable etc etc. Now, I also have mp3s up on the page. I used to have a lot more- and the page got so it'd take forever to load. I axed a lot of the mp3s- those songs are still on the CDs. Does that mean I want to suppress trading of the mp3s? NO, in fact on every CD I put out through Ampcast, written ON THE CD ITSELF is the message 'Please copy this CD for your friends'. And I mean it.
If I ever earn money through CDs and music, it will be because I do such good music, and conduct my business in such an enlightened way, that people WANT to support it by buying CDs of mine, and getting the cover art and stuff along with it, and knowing they contributed to my doing more music.
Thanks to the RIAA, this enlightened attitude is so UNTHINKABLE that nobody in the world would ever for a second consider it possible, so people come to one of two conclusions: (1) I am moneygrubbing slime like the RIAA, or (2) I want to work for years and blister my fingers and labor endlessly over music solely for art's sake and would be offended if anyone offered to buy a CD from me, because obviously I'd rather they download the mp3s and burn their own.
*scream*
I have to say, I am very angry with the RIAA for bringing about this state of affairs. They make a fscking mockery of anyone who wants to try and earn the occasional buck by working really hard at producing music. Music can be an all-consuming thing- some people who can do music aren't much good at anything else. I'm a lot like that in some ways. And I understand, I can accept if there's no place for it, if I can never even after decades of practice and work earn a poverty level living from making music. But GOD DAMN IT, is it necessary to poison the well so completely that nobody can even pay for their own guitar strings through selling their music? And then, to make public announcements that 'all' audio media worldwide will now be copy protected, further putting across the meme of 'there IS nothing but us' and having people eat it right up and fight over, pay attention to, only what the RIAA produces...
Now I know what being an 'unperson' feels like. And as it happens I need to go into the studio and work tonight- there's a tune I need to get on tape and get out there, based around a lyrical hook of 'this town ain't small enough for the two of you anymore', pushing the concept of third party politics. I have a killer chimey guitar hook for it. I don't have all the lyrics but one verse is going to end with comparing the Republicans and Democrats to 'Tweedledum and Tweedledee with fat and dirty faces'. I care about this stuff, I'm going for the throat and the stress of trying to produce something that can get OUT THERE and actually be heard is grating on me in a big way. It's a very tall order. Even if you know a lot of the tricks, making a hit song is damned hard work and will leave you wiped out with the ends of your fingers shredded.
And for what? I'm an unperson. I'm a serf and don't matter. The RIAA says so. And, odds are, YOU believe them without questioning it, because you're fixated on whether to, or whether not to, freely trade the stuff THEY make.
I'm a stubborn unperson- I'm going to go ahead anyway even though nothing happens and nobody notices and the RIAA will probably make uncopycontrolled media illegal next, forcing me to be not only an unperson but a criminal, and still for basically nothing.
A lot of life feels like that these days- maybe partly because I _do_ have that 'musician' gene. So rather than just despair about being made the unwilling serfs of psycho corporate Republicans, now I can pour heart and soul into music which I can then despair about its never being heard, due to years of determined work by guess who? Lord RIAA.
Maybe THAT would make for a good song- a song called Lord RIAA. Bearing in mind that it's not terribly singable like that, also to keep the length between three and four minutes (closer to three is better) and keep the hooks clear of overcomplications, and be sure to have the song title recognisable as the hook of the chorus.
Which is of course How You Do It, pity that by now it's completely a moot point because nobody will ever hear it regardless.
Gah. Kill me now :P
*stubbornly goes off to record anyway. hitting drums sometimes helps.*
Re:I tried to post first (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes eye no eye maid sum gram are miss steaks.
Re:I tried to post first (Score:2, Interesting)
Give me the option to legally download the music that I want at a fair price and I'll do so. I always thought that to be good at what you do, you need to do what the customer wants, not force what you want to do on the customer. I don't care to buy a piece of plastic that is just going to take up more space on my shelf and hurt the environment a bit more. Why can't they let me download what I want and charge me a fair price for each song? Yea I know that there are a couple services out there that do this but they are not very convenient, cost as much (in most cases) as buying a regular cd, and I still have to come home and rip the damn things.
Bastards. All of them... well most anyway.
A valid point on copy protection. (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyone else remember when copy protection of software became REALLY BIG in the 80s? And back then, they were using some pretty darn good technology for the time. After years and years of copy protection, guess what the software industry decided? Those high tech solutions just don't work. It went away, put was replaced with the low-hanging fruits of copy protection "is the product CD in the cdrom drive"?
This isn't to say that there aren't copy protections here and there today. I think this Palladium thing wants to encourage them to get back into the copy protection business. A story in itself.
But you stopped seeing intentional bad sectors, dongles, and other technological goodies placed in software because they simply weren't effective in relation to the cost. And they caused problems.
Of course, things are a bit different today. The CD industry has a nice chain of stories that won't allow you to return CDs like you could return defective software years ago. But then again, today, there is internet distribution. All it takes is a few people with compromised DACs and your "latest and greatest copy protection scheme" is just as good as the low-hanging-fruit of software protection.
So, watch as the music industry plays the copy protection arms race. But I think the Internet, for reasons of providing alternative legitimate and illegitimate distributions, and sharing of information, aside from following the copy-protection lifecycle, will punish the RIAAs members above and beyond that.
Re:Wow. (Score:3, Interesting)
You know, I really don't get why the majority of us even need bit-for-bit perfect CD quality sound. I mean, if you listen to MP3s, and they're good enough for you (which is the case for the majority of people, but yes, there are exceptions), then why do I even care if it is a first generation analog copy?
And that's the other thing. We're talking about a first generation analog copy. With each successive copy, it isn't dropping a generation in quality. It is still a first generation analog copy. I think we, as consumers, need to get over the need of having a bit-for-bit perfect copy. Frankly, we don't need it. And if we realize that, it would definately give the RIAA fits when they see the shift.
Re:Whats going to happen (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I tried to post first (Score:3, Interesting)
You can subtract another stack of 'em. I have more CDRs around here than I can count, and not a single one of them has any music on it (or any video, or any pirated software). They're all full of photos, photocompositions, etc., that I've taken with my own damn camera.
It pisses me off no end that I'm treated like a criminal just because I need to store large amounts of data. There's no precedent for it (outside the media world), and people wouldn't have stood for it if there were. Are knives taxed to fund stab victims? Does a tax on nylons and dufflebags go to reimburse banks that get robbed?
Noise is cool! (Score:2, Interesting)
Fuck the RIAA. I won't buy their music. I buy CD's from bands at concerts and across the net. I also legally download directly from the bands who allow it. I won't break the law, and I will get the weird music I like. Ugh, it's so fucked up. --M