EMI and Sony Lose Lawsuit Over Crippled Music Disks 407
neves writes "A brazilian consumer has sued EMI and Sony, and won! The reason was a copy protection technology in the best seller album "Tribalistas" that didn't play in his car. You can read about it in Folha de São Paulo (babelfish translation here), brazilian biggest newspaper. They must be very afraid, since EMI vice-president defended the company himself in a lawsuit involving less than US$ 350,00. A more detailed report is in my music site Agenda do Samba & Choro (babelfish here), where we release some of the lawsuit files to make it easier for others to sue them. Since last year, we are calling for a boycott (babelfish) of copy protected albums. The companies appealed, and said that they will take the case to the Supreme Court, because it is a 'question of principles'. The consumer is sueing them again, because all new EMI albums in Brazil are being released with copy protection and won't work in his car."
Re:I wonder how effective this will be... (Score:5, Interesting)
Excellent news! (Score:4, Interesting)
Under US Law (Score:5, Interesting)
I hope it does go to the supreme court so we can get rid of these CDs that infringe on my rights.
What is the Legal Framework of the Judgement ?? (Score:5, Interesting)
I would be interested in knowing as to what the logical reasoning and the legal framework of the case was.
Was the winning based on something substantial, or could it be just overcome by the CD producer putting up a disclaimer sticker on the CD saying the "this might not work on certain devices." Basically the intention is to understand the depth of the victory.
Could somebody help with some links or any more info??
Clear Labeling (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Oh RIGHT. (Score:5, Interesting)
When the consumer sues its Extortion.
When the RIAA sues its protecting your property rights
Re:I wonder.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Pretty sure that in US terms it would be 350.00, but it's not a typo. Sound odd?
In a lot of countries they reverse the roles of the comma and the period in numbers. Confused the hell out of me when I first saw it, but it's true. $350,000.00 is written $350.000,00 for instance. Disturbing, isn't it?
Re:Clear Labeling (Score:2, Interesting)
Surely there _is_ something wrong with copy-protected CDs if at the same time all blank media is "piracy-taxed"?
annoy the shop, leave them at the counter (Score:2, Interesting)
Shop will have to put them back themselves. It's their fault if they sell faulty items.
Tell the artist directly (Score:5, Interesting)
Sure enough, out he came to sign copies of his CD for those who were going to buy a copy. I worked my way to the front with a copy of his CD in hand, and handed it over. I pointed out the copy protection notice, then said "although I really liked your show and your new stuff, I'm not going to buy a copy of your CD since I can't play it on my PC or in my car".
He looked a bit shocked, and asked what I was talking about. I said that the copy protection would prevent me from playing the CD on my PC or in my car, and that since that was where I listen to music 99% of the time, his CD wouldn't be much use to me. I handed him one of my business cards and told him to call me if he wanted to talk about it further - there was a bunch of people behind me waiting for their CDs to be signed...
I got the impression that he either didn't know his CD was released copy protected, that he wasn't sure what copy protection actually meant for a CD, or that he was surprised that someone like me (a 40 year old, normal looking guy, not an obviously raving half-wit) would confront him with something like this after his show.
I also got the impression that he was going to look into it further - he's a 40ish guy also, with a fairly niche appeal and presumably wife/kids/mortgage etc. like the rest of us. He probably didn't like hearing a fan tell him people couldn't play his music in the car or at their PC.
I'll check out his CD in the stores again in another month or so to see if it's had the copy protection removed.
Re:Limitations of USian capitalist model (Score:2, Interesting)
Call it an linguistic attempt of anti-propaganda.
Re:Excellent news! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Excellent news! (Score:4, Interesting)
I know Philadelphia has a fairly large number of unemployed Lawyers. Surely one of them would take up the charge. Hell, I'd set up a fundraiser to pay the court fees.
Although, the folks to be doing the suing should really by Phillips (and ironically) Sony. They license the CD logo and the CD-Audio trademark. Producing materials that cripple the standard is grounds to have a license revoked.
Did you ever notice... (Score:5, Interesting)
I am strongly in favour of globalization, but it must be done with the interests of the public, instead of large vested interests. That means doing away with crap such as region coded DVDs and damaging tariffs. I should be able to travel whatever products I choose from anywhere I want, excepting only really offensive stuff like narcotics and weaponry.
Re:Under US Law (Score:3, Interesting)
I was looking at Weird Al's "Poodle Hat" in the store the other day, but was confused as to whether or not I could play it in my PC without some Windows-only copy protection thing kicking in, because there was no "CD" symbol on the case.
Re:Under US Law (Score:1, Interesting)
Damaged (Score:2, Interesting)
Move along people. There's nothing to see here. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Excellent news! (Score:3, Interesting)
In case you haven't noticed, the CD or Conpact Disk Digital Audio logo has all but dissappeared from the display bins, even at CitGo/7-11.
If it doesn't carry the logo, it gets dropped back in the bin like the trash it is.
Re your sig, I started programming on a 1.79 mhz RCA 1802 cpu, where it took 8 of those 1.79 mhz cycles for one machine cycle. You had it good, or you had it bad, depending on ones point of view. That cpu was a most unusual one, having features that were well before its time that made programming rather productive if used. I generated a new academy countdown for tv commercials with some simple TTL circuitry and 6 bytes of dma per vertical scan. Your 8088 couldn't do that with 10k of code.
Re:Excellent news! (Score:3, Interesting)
The french lawsuit is two pronged (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:VSA (Score:2, Interesting)
For example, though in the context I found the use of VSA it merely translated the acronym from Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika.
A quick summary of this story. (Score:3, Interesting)
1. There are not one but MULTIPLE lawsuits on that matter in France. The lawsuit ruled this june was brought by the "Consommation Logement et Cadre de Vie" (CCLV) association against EMI. There are pending lawsuits against sony and BMG. Then there is another french consumers association ("UFC Que Choisir") who sued EMI France, Warner France, Universal Pictures Video, Fnac and Auchan (the two latter are distributors).
2. The court just tested CDs of ONE artist and constated they could not be READ by some devices although the system was stated to prevent COPY.
3. The ruling stated that EMI had one month to put a label on that CD stating : "Warning, this CD cannot be read on every reader or autoradio".
4. EMI appealed.
5. the judgement is on this site [juriscom.net].
6. Another article about the situation in Belgium [lesoir.be] where I read that an asshole from IFPI says "there is only 4 to 8 complains for 10 thousand CD" so it is not a problem. Lawsuit coming