EFF Releases Music DRM Guide

Chris Chiasson writes "The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recently created a plain English guide to several fair use restrictions that major online music services, such as Apple's iTunes, force on their customers via Digital Rights Management (DRM) laden music files and End User License Agreements (EULAs). An excerpt from the guide follows: 'Forget about breaking the DRM to make traditional uses like CD burning and so forth. Breaking the DRM or distributing the tools to break DRM may expose you to liability under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) even if you're not making any illegal uses.' The EFF also lists four alternative music services which sell unrestricted files."

Re:Missing from list

[rebeka thomas]

The best bit about magnatune is you get to download their entire catalog without paying. Best few weeks I've spent on the net.

Re:DRM Circumvention

[Anonymous Coward]

...their use still requires some kind of Robin Hood/civil disobedience line of reasoning to properly operate.

They require you to have a certain line of reasoning to operate properly...? So if a RIAA guy tried them, they wouldn't work? ;-)

Re:Independent music recommendation services?

[sd_diamond]

Ok, so I've had it with the musicians who have sold their souls to the corporations. With the advert of the Internet,

Freudian slip?

Re:Independent music recommendation services?

[RAMMS+EIN]

``With the advert of the Internet,

Freudian slip?''

Absolutely! See, those Dvorak keyboards are good for something after all ('r' is right above 'n' on a Dvorak keyboard).

DRMed CDs

[spisska]

But remember, those "easily" converted music CDs are starting to include DRM mechanisms as well.

What follows is most of a post I sent to a mailing list not long ago about copy protected CDs, and what (if anything) you can do about it:

The only real answer is to stop buying, and let the record stores and production companies know why you've stopped buying.

I actually had a fairly amusing experience not too long ago along these lines. I was at the mall waiting for my wife to finish looking for something or other and I wandered into the music shop. It's the first time I've been in a cookie-cutter mall music shop in probably 10 years. They haven't got any better.

But anyway, I had no intention of buying anything, but wanted to see what would happen. So I picked up some copy-protected disc (can't remember which one) and headed over to the counter. The converstion went something like this:

Me: Hi. Do you have this record in a Compact Disc format?

Salesdrone: That is a Compact Disc.

Me: No it isn't. [showing the disc] There's no CD logo on it, it isn't red-book compliant.

SD: That is a music CD, it will play in your CD player.

Me: I didn't ask for a music disc, I asked for a Compact Disc. Do you have one?

SD: That is a compact disc.

Me: This is most definitely not a Compact Disc. A Compact Disc has an emblem on it indicating that it's compliant with the red-book CD Audio standard. This has no emblem, so it's not red-book compliant, therefore it's not a CD. Do you have a CD?

[I have since learned that this is not strictly true -- a lot of red-book CDs do have the emblem on the packaging, but not all. However, the emblem will be on the disc itself. If there is no emblem on the disc, then you can be fairly sure that it's not a red-book CD, i.e. it's been DRMed]

SD: That is a CD. Would you like to buy it?

Me: Let me talk to the manager.

SD: [grumble, grumble, goes to get manager]

Manager: How can I help you.

Me: Sorry to be a bother, I'm just trying to find out if you have this record on Compact Disc.

Mngr: That is a compact disc.

Me: As I explained to your colleague, it is not a Compact Disc because there is no emblem indicating red-book CD Audio compliance. Do you have it on Compact Disc?

Mngr: Ah. Well this is better than Compact Disc [I nearly lost it when he said that, but kept my composure and plugged along].

Me: How?

Mngr: You can play it on your computer and keep the tracks as high-quality Windows media files.

Me: But I can play a Compact Disc on my computer, and I don't run Windows.

Mngr: Look, This is a music disc that will play in any CD player. Would you like to buy it.

Me: No. I'd like to buy a Compact Disc. Do you have one?

Mngr: If you look around, I'm sure you'll find a lot of Compact Discs in the store.

Me: But not this one?

Mngr: No, I guess not.

Me: Thanks anyway for your time. [leaves]

When we went by the shop a little later, I noticed some of the employees were looking very closely at CD boxes. I can only hope they were looking for the logo.

The moral of the story is that I have very little power against the music companies, and the only power I can excercise is to not purchase their goods. Along the same lines, I don't download their goods either. A legal download gives them cash and legitimacy, while an illicit download gives them ammunition. All I want to give them is the finger.

Instead, I've been gradually filling my Myth box with music from my local library. They've got tens of thousands of CDs [though I've never seen any of these better-than-CDs there], and don't seem to want to tell me where and how to listen them. My current crop is The Miles Davis Quintet box set, The The's Dusk, Tom Waits' Alice, and Falling in Love with Duke Ellington.

If it came down to it, I'd rather live without music than do anything that would help the current major record labels.

Just my $0.02.

Re:Get rid of Apple DRM on Linux [thnx to DVD Jon]

[Hatta]

The site is here (no html hyperlink, copy and paste if you want):

nanocrew.net/?page_id=59

WTF?! it took you longer to type that disclaimer than it would have to wrap the link in html tags. Here, I'll do it:

nanocrew.net/?page_id=59 [nanocrew.net]

Re:Get rid of Apple DRM on Linux [thnx to DVD Jon]

[afree87]

I admit it, I don't need the software but I clicked that link because I was bored.

Forgive me, Jon :(