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[Mysticeti]

As someone who has converted their entire CD collection to MP3 files one could say I have a vested interest in the future of digitized music.

Before I go any further it's best that I be clear: My digital music library consists solely of music from MY compact discs and a handful of perfectly legal downloads from mp3.com and emusic.com (not a single note from Napster or it's ilk).

Given that I don't have any "illegal" music in my library I should have nothing to fear from "the music industry", right?

Wrong!

The music industry is undertaking a three prong attack to stop anyone and everyone from having a digital music collection.

First prong: stop the sharing of existing music.  The RIAA sued Napster to stop the sharing of copyrighted music.  In shutting down Napster they also succeeded in stopping the sharing of non-copyrighted music.  But I never became worked-up about Napster's demise since it seemed that by and large it was being used by people to spread music they had no legal right to.

Second prong: prevent new CD releases from being converted into MP3 files (or other digital formats).  The record industry is experimenting with creating mutant compact discs that will not play on existing hardware (CD-ROM's). This tactic should concern anyone who listens to CDs on their home computer, work computer, and/or laptop, because regardless if they intend to convert these mutant CDs to MP3 files or not, the CDs simply will not play.  In fact there are reports that these "CDs" cause some systems to crash, or worse: void your warranty.

Third prong: get laws passed that ensure all new hardware sold will be incapable of making copies of any digital media.  The current bill, known as the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act, or CBDTPA, will make it impossible to make legitimate copies of CDs and other media.

It's these last two items that should raise the ire amongst law abiding citizens.  These items assume that everyone is a criminal, prone to indiscriminate copying of copyrighting material.  This is the music (and movie) industry saying "We don't care about consumer rights to fair use of the media they buy" and it should have us consumers crying foul!

What can be done?

We can boycott any CDs that don't work in CD-ROM players.  Any such CD should be clearly marked and if it isn't, return it.  Some stores don't allow returning opened CDs in which case I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a class action suit against the manufacturer.

We should write to our representatives in Washington and ask them to vote against bills which do not adequately support the fair use rights of consumers.


For more information:
http://msnbc.com/news/734617.asp?0si=-
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-912695.html?tag=fd_top
http://www.eff.org/IP/SSSCA_CBDTPA/

[Trelane]

What can be done?

Second point:
Buy a roll of electrical tape or marker. You're probably laughing to yourself and saying "what the...?" Check out this URL: http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=16426

Third point:
Write your congressman. Research, research, research. Don't vote for a man who knows nothing about the industries he plans to ruin. Don't vote for a puppet. Most politicians fall into these categories, but Ernest Hollings is the worst of the breed. For fun, check out some of his other bills and proposals. A wise man once said to me, "we have the best congress money can buy!"

Now, don't worry yourself over the CBDTPA. It's being strongly opposed. Besides, prisons aren't big enough to hold all of us!

[dragyn]

No matter what they do, it's not gonna stop anything. You can still record from line in on a sound card. Are they gonna stop selling sound cards? Most likely not. Is someone gonna hack the new CD copying protection? Probably.

Right now I refuse to buy any new CDs. I used to buy them all the time.

[Stebajo]

---Now, don't worry yourself over the CBDTPA. It's being strongly opposed. Besides, prisons aren't big enough to hold all of us!

Trelane, I agree with you!
And in second istance, we know that they have paid a lot of money that bad joke of last CD by Natalie Imbruglia, in first to pay new system royalties, than because the system was to much aggressive and they had to refund customers with a normal CD. And fourth, the cd is now of course present everywhere in internet.   !
I've anyhow paid more than 200 CD of my own and I hope it could be sufficient to skip the jail!

[Trelane]

Dragyn:
Someone already did hack the CD copy protection scheme... with a marker! Read the link in my previous post. The article is in German, but I think the pictures do a good job at explaining how to do it.

But, I'm with everyone else on the issue of copy protected CDs. I will refuse to buy them. If they don't play on all my equipment, they are nonstandard therefore making them useless junk. They also hinder my fair use rights. Let's show the record companies who's boss with our wallets (or lack thereof ).

Mike

[Dave]

Try this site as well.
They will forward faxes for you to try to halt this crap.
http://www.digitalconsumer.org/

[Dave]

Also to Dragyn,
The CD's that are coming out in Europe right now will not play on any PC CD player, so souncard has nothing to do with it. If it won't play on computer, you won't be recording anything from souncard.

[RxMan]

Dragyn clearly stated from the LINE IN on the sound card. Simply connect the LINE OUT on a standard CD Player or Amp to the LINE IN on the sound card and record.

Simple as that.

[Scronch]

Myst:

First prong: stop the sharing -- as you know, there are dozens of Napster clones.  Always will be, because even if peer-to-peer has to have a "corporate home" somewhere, someone can always plop that server in Uganda or Sweden or Russia or...

Second prong: protected CD's -- as you say, don't buy 'em.

Third prong: CBDTPA -- it isn't 1984 anymore.  You will always be able to find non-crippled hardware for purchase via the Interent.  If there's a buck to be made, someone will set up shop with a satellite link in Uganda or Sweden or Russia or...

Stop worrying.

Scronch

[C.A.T.]

There is ALWAYS a way around such things.  However the nuisance for such amazing acts of foolishness may get to us, the fact remains that technology is not going to sleep. So while corporations and governments try to cash in on the "illegal" or underground market and trade of digital information (which, as I see it, is largely why such legislations become inaugurated) such things cannot be stoped, just made to an irritation.  

The proposals of new copyrights, protection software and "taxes" on blank media, MP3 players and burners that have come into discussion in judicial systems globally.  It's a global hot market-- right?
Though proposed argument is to supplement the artists to whom we adore to dare enjoy, who monitors such.  A 2000|PLS| year history of governments and companies feeding themselves by squashing the common freedom is speaking louder (and bothering me) more than silly laws that cause us to ruffle our feathers.
Or I am wrong as I don't have all the information... it happened one before, way back...


C.A.T.

[nila]

Here's the realistic truth,
The more they annoy people and put copy protections online,
the more the likes of you guys that have tons of legal cd's are going to stop paying for the CD's as they wont work for you and will start just downloading illegal versions instead.

You'd basically have this as a choice:
1. Go out and legally pay for the music and not be able to play it or digitise it and have it #### up your machine if it's an iMac.
2. Download it illegally, save yourself a ridiculasly expensive £16 for a cd with a couple of good tracks on it, burn it, digitise it, do whatever you want with it with no harm to your machine.

Hmm, let me think - Which one should I do??
I think most of you will choose option 2 which is why the record industry is shooting itself in the foot.
Pity they're too stupid to realise it.
There will always be a hacker out there who can overcome the protection and rip it and release it on the internet.

[nila]

One other thing I'm curious about as well.
Alot of people are now paying stupid taxes on CDR's, CDRW drives etc which go to the music industry because supposedly that's what we all use these for, illegally making music CD's.
Now if they're trying to stop us burning these billions of cd's we all burn then why the hell are we still paying them tax on all the blank cd's we buy?
They're totally making a fortune and really are laughing all the way to the bank.

[Dave]

RXman,
What I meant was you won't be able to record from your CD-ROM player installed on your PC playing music CD's.
If hooked up to an external standard player, you are correct, you would be able to record. But some of us don't have that luxury.

[Mysticeti]

A potentially interesting development... Verizon and Kazaa may attempt an end-run around the RIAA.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/05/14/music-kazaa.htm

[Stebajo]

Abe1,
you made a keen synthesis of this thread and I completely agree with you.

[dragyn]

I was just referring to LINE IN as another way to share music by bypassing the new CD protection. And anyway, MP3 is not the same as the original just like LINE IN isn't the same as ripping digitally like you said.

I will never pay for a lossy file. If there is a pay site for APE files, then I'll do that if I wanted certain tracks but not the whole thing like they're trying to do with mp3s.

I also don't promote file sharing, I'm just saying the RIAA is getting to much worked up over this lossy/badly encoded music and not letting ppl use their music as they should be able to. I most likely won't be able to put new music into the MJ mobile because of this.

APE>MPC>OGG>MP3>WMA>VQF>RA. DS>RIAA.

[Ilmar]

In the UK we as citizens do not have rights (and seemingly less since we joined the EU)....

but we do have s.14 of the Sale of Goods Act, which states that a product must be fit for its purpose or else must be replaced or refunded, not by the manufacturer, but by the store you bought it from.

If the store does not refund your money, a single call to Trading Standards Authority will usually do the trick.

Unfortunately, those guys at SOny will start plastering their CDs with warnings of compatibilty and try and get off with the small print. This will only work till it reaches the Courts and gets thrown out.

I now only  buy Naxos CDs, which sell at$7.50 or £5 here in the UK. OK, they may not be the best orchestras in the world, but the performances are artistically sincere, and the price is reasonable.

Ilmar

[C.A.T.]

Digital Content Protection
Article on line:
Part I: We set the stage for an in-depth series exploring
numerous important issues and technologies surrounding protection
of digital content. In this first segment we explore the history
of copyright protection from the 1710 Statute of Anne to present
day laws, and discuss the top-level issues.

http://extreme.ziffdavis.com/cgi-bin10/flo?y=eQPI0D411K0FBc0m8c0AX

[Mysticeti]

Thanks for the pointers.  Excellent reading.

I found this section particularly interesting:
http://www.extremetech.com/article/0,3396,s=1024&a=27038&app=3&ap=4,00.asp

To think, VCRs were *one* vote away from being outlawed!  Would I be an alarmist if I said that MP3 devices could be in similar danger?  Perhaps, but I think it behooves those who are becoming aware of the issues to enlighten as many of the masses as possible to ensure fair-use rights do not get steam rolled by the corporate giants.

[C.A.T.]

Hey all, read this artical at: http://discuss.extremetech.com/n/main.asp?webtag=extremetech&nav=messages&msg=13747.1

Now that's comedy!

CAT

[C.A.T.]

This one is better (same topic):

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chip.de%2Fpraxis_wissen%2Fpraxis_wissen_8725919.html&langpair=de%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools


CAT

[sekim]

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chip.de%2Fpraxis_wissen%2Fpraxis_wissen_8725919.html&langpair=de%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools

[DillWeed]

OH MY GOD THE SKY IS FALLING!

Digital media will not stop, ever. The recording industry got caught in a technology tidlewave and is trying to save their precious profits. They will (eventually) figure out a mechanism that works and allows them to make money. BTW, Hollywood is next - and they know it.

Anyway, the non-rippable CD's dont work. I have an associate who is the operations manager for Alliance Entertainment, who is one of the largest media distributors (http://www.aent.com/), and they have received tens of thousands of "protected" CD's back because they don't work in many CD music players.

-DW

[C.A.T.]

LOL