CD Copy Protection Case Goes to Court 228
grungie writes "From The Register: Belgian consumer watchdog Test-Achats (Test Aankoop), known for its crusade against Nokia's "unsafe batteries", starts the new year with a fresh assault on the music industry. It is taking the music giants EMI, Sony, BMG Music and Universal Music to court for installing anti-piracy systems on their audio CDs. This is excellent news! I was less than happy when I had to use cdparanoia to add The Foo Fighters' latest to my iTunes collection. I used to live in Belgium: Test Achat is serious about the protection of consumer rights. Let's hope other countries follow suit." You can read the stories in French as well as Dutch.
Go Belgium! (I hope this happens here as well) (Score:5, Insightful)
Already as early as 2002, EFN [www.efn.no] (Norway's version of EFF) has launched campaigns against the purchase of certain types of CDs [www.efn.no] as well as offering assistance [www.efn.no] in pressing charges against record producers whose CDs damage CD and/or DVD players or computers.
By the way, the verdict against DVD-Jon is NOT going to be appealed!
Re:Go Belgium! (I hope this happens here as well) (Score:5, Informative)
This is a copyright issue, so it is on topic. Here's [aftenposten.no] a link.
I remember there being a public outcry in Norway when certain cd's would not play on computers etc. I was expecting to see this appear in a Norwegian court, but a Belgian one will do!
Re:Go Belgium! (I hope this happens here as well) (Score:5, Informative)
I have a feeling that it eventually will appear in a Norwegian court. There is more than enough support for it to happen, and a good PR campaign by EFN and consumer rights groups will bring even more support. I think the "delay" (i.e. why it hasn't been in court already) has been due to the whole DVD-Jon thing. But now that that's over, we can move on to other things.
Re:Go Belgium! (I hope this happens here as well) (Score:5, Insightful)
Hopefully people in this country will eventually join up in a large enough grouping and say enough is enough. Its really pathetic when you have organizations that tell you how to do things and we just bow our heads and go ok... we surrender.
Now of course before this gets replied to a million times, these comments refer to the general public and not exactly the community that will be reading this.
Re:Go Belgium! (I hope this happens here as well) (Score:3, Insightful)
I am sure Norway will get there one day. Corruption is multilingual.
l8,
AC
"Enough is enough"? (Score:4, Insightful)
I mean, it's not the end of the world if you do not have the latest Foo Fighters so speak with the almighty dollar because in the end that is all that will work with these guys. Curbing your spending will lead to a sales dip as they release these copy-protected CDs and, as everyone becomes accustomed, sales will eventually return close or above to their previous levels. The record companies outlined this happening already. They outline all these possible scenarios when releasing new technology that affects the consumer. They're not stupid.
So bite the bullet and stop buying. I did.
I'm personally back on the wagon regarding going to movie theaters. I'm sick of the garbage put out but started going to the Matrix and Lord of the Ring movies. Now that they're finished the theaters will not get a dime of my money for some mediocre crap. I went 2 years without going to a theater last time around and will go longer this time. Opportunistic movie executives will probably blame the dip on P2P.
Re:"Enough is enough"? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:"Enough is enough"? (Score:2)
Hear that parents? If your children insist on using their "spending money" to feed the monster, you can join in the fray by making your kids use up their money on the "in-style" clothes and makeup they want. Given a choice between a new CD and wearing something other than the standard classic collegiate look, almost any teenager will opt for style over the music. Just offer to buy the run of the mill jeans and shirts. If the teen wants hip-hugger flared bottom pants
Re:"Enough is enough"? (Score:4, Interesting)
Sadly, they spun the sales drop as a result of your 'voting with your wallet' policy as "sales down due to piracy."
Re:Go Belgium! (I hope this happens here as well) (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't see how this is such a good thing. Wouldn't be better to see the corporations be trashed in High Court instead of now, just letting if pass, ready to be picked up with someone else and at a more convenient time.
Re:Go Belgium! (I hope this happens here as well) (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Go Belgium! (I hope this happens here as well) (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/security/story/0, 2000048600,20282218,00.htm
Even before the Norway case was filed, however, entertainment industry lobbyists had been pressing lawmakers in that country and elsewhere to enact tougher copyright laws, modeled on controversial U.S. legislation that makes it easier for authorities to win prison terms for people who crack encryption schemes or distribute cracking tools.
Re:Go Belgium! (I hope this happens here as well) (Score:2)
Perhaps, but I wouldn't bet somebody's quality of life over it. If he loses, it's midly bad for us, but for him it's the shits. Can't say I'd feel good about him serving jail time or paying fines for the rest of his life. I'd rather a deep-pocketed corporation be the defendent.
Parent post accidently off-topic! Sorry! (Score:2)
Sorry, got my windows mixed up. I thought I was reading about DVD-Jon, not the CD protection story. I apologize. Please mod as off-topic.
Link. Not the best, but the first I found. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Link. Not the best, but the first I found. (Score:5, Funny)
Damage (Score:3, Interesting)
I should not have to spend ANY energy fixing my stuff due to actions of others.
As an extreme example.
A terrorist can blow up a building and kill a few people, but we can just rebuild and make a few new people. I don't think anyone would argue that such easily repaired damage is insignificant.
Re:Go Belgium! (I hope this happens here as well) (Score:2)
Don't like it... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Don't like it... (Score:2, Insightful)
Me: Is this Kings of Leon CD copy protected?
Shop: Yeah - it wont play on a PC
Me: Shit - got anything that will?
Shop: White Stripes will play - CD is even white like the KoL one
Me: That'll have to do then
Shop: White Stripes are shit though - but hey - at least it'll play!
Me: Yeah - lifes a bitch
Double Edged Sword (Score:5, Insightful)
The trouble is, if we rightfully boycott a poor and intentionally crippled product, the record companies will blame their declining sales on P2P networks. The government will then step in to provide them a corporate crutch and start putting people using the future of media distribution in jail.
It's an ugly situation. The best thing we can do is help indy music sales and make sure they report their numbers. We need to make it clear that the sales of the Big Five are declining while others are increasing. Maybe the government will notice the signifigance of that.
Then again, maybe not.
Re:Double Edged Sword (Score:4, Insightful)
Then the best thing we can do is boycott P2P networks and help them get banned so that the RIAA can't use them as a crutch in their fight against declining music sales. As it is they have a very good argument. I, personally, haven't bought any music since the 1990's and download any songs from Kazaa that catch my ear on the radio. If Kazaa and others were gone I would probably be forced to buy the music instead.
Re:Double Edged Sword (Score:2)
This is the current attitude of the RIAA, and it's breaindead. People were copying songs DECADES before the internet was even invented. If the P2P networks all shut down, people will just srat encoding songs off of the radio and TV stations. Hell, my digital satelitte MuchMusic signal is as good or better than any CD.
Re:Double Edged Sword (Score:2)
I love having friends like this - "Hey, can I borrow your CDs for a minute?"
Support independent artists. (Score:3, Informative)
Here's a good place to start:
Cool music from a guy you've never heard of. [johnpbarton.com]
CD's are RIAA free and not copy protected!
Re:Don't like it... (Score:2, Interesting)
After reading about how copy protection works [disctronics.co.uk], I can only assume that I must be lucky enough to own a drive [google.com] that can read these disks?
Re:Don't like it... (Score:5, Interesting)
If the industry didn't package these things like CDs and make them look like CDs, then "don't like it it, don't buy it" would make a lot more sense.
Imagine: you go to the store to buy some flour so you can bake some bread. There's an isle with a bunch of sacks of flour. You go to that isle, and pick up a sack that appears to contain flour (but you don't read all the printing on the back of the sack) and buy it. Then you get home, make your bread, and it comes out all wrong. You look at your "flour" sack and find out -- oops -- it's actually rat poison, not flour. Ok, now technically this is your fault, and you should have paid more attention to what you were buying. But why did the store have this crap on the same isle as the flour, mixed in with the flour sacks, in a sack that looks almost exactly like a flour sack (except for some fine printing on the back)? It smacks of fraud and deception.
The reason these discs are made to appear like CDs, is that if they were marketed as not CDs and segregated to a different part of the store (much like most stores don't have the cassette tapes and LPs mixed in with the CDs), then people wouldn't buy them. The motive for their fraud is that they are attempting to avoid marketplace accountability. "Don't like it, don't buy it" is exactly the strategy that they are trying to circumvent.
Re:Don't like it... (Score:5, Insightful)
Technically these "CDs" are NOT actual CDs. They do not conform to red book standards. Philips is not happy about this. [wired.com]
This is like me going to an auto parts store and buying pre-mixed antifreeze, then finding out that it's just plain water. Sure it will work okay in some instances, but it's not what it was advertised to be and it's inferior.
The should be able to copy-protect their discs all they want, but they should be called something other than "compact discs". They are deliberately misleading the consumer about what they are buying.
Wouldn't you be pissed if:
You just spend fifteen buck on something that wasn't what they said it was, doesn't work, and the store is refusing to take it back!
Re:Don't like it... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Don't like it... (Score:2)
Re:Don't like it... (Score:2)
It's a win-win scenario for them in their argumentation.
Re:Don't like it... (Score:2, Funny)
Press releases (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Press releases (Score:2, Interesting)
Belgium is a small country, so what impact is this likely to have on major record labels? They seem hell-bent on continuing this practice, and I can't see them doing Belgian-specific pressings to get around this.
Re:Press releases (Score:3, Interesting)
Fair Use, in other words, with a levy on media to support the music industry (we have this in Canada, too). My French is somewhat better than Google's, but they got that part right.
Thin edge of the wedge - which can work both ways. Leg
About the Nokia battery test (Score:5, Informative)
Re:About the Nokia battery test (Score:2, Informative)
The batteries in question were branded as Nokia batteries but Nokia claimed that they were pirated (in the non murdering and pillaging sense) products. Later tests with batteries provided by Nokia proved them safe.
Re:About the Nokia battery test (Score:2)
Re:About the Nokia battery test (Score:3, Informative)
Re:About the Nokia battery test (Score:4, Insightful)
a lot of piracy is such, brand piracy(making a product similar to a brand product cheaply and then selling it off with the brand products reputation, adidas, nike & all suffer from this). most of the piracy products caught in Finnish-Russian border for example are such(video game controllers, caps, jeans, tobacco..) products - products that would be legal if they weren't branded as some big companys products when they aren't(certifications aside). this is among the most dangerous piracy as well as the products sometimes aren't even safe..
Re:About the Nokia battery test (Score:2)
So far, the only fact that has been determined by independent experts is that some Nokia-branded batteries explode, and others don't. The claims that the ones that do explode are fakes, and the ones that don't are the sam
Probability of Success? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd like to see the return policy be implemented.. (Score:2, Interesting)
It would be nice to return the RIAA fsckers an opened music CD, in these cases
EU does have sensible return policy (Score:5, Interesting)
If you buy something from the CD rack of your music shop, and it won't play in your CD playing equipment, you are entitled to a refund.
In fact, buying such a CD, then returning it for just that reason, provides "valuable" feedback to the labels on how acceptable / workable copy-protection isn't. (Maybe we should all go buy the stuff, then return it to send a message?)
Re:EU does have sensible return policy (Score:4, Interesting)
The story could make big news because if enough people did it, you could push that band up the charts and create a distortion. Particularly, do it in a week when there's a big chart battle like Victoria Beckham, but pick someone completely different.
Re:EU does have sensible return policy (Score:3, Interesting)
They buy any CD they want (with c/p warnings), rip it on the computer without a problem. Then they bring it back to the shop saying that it won't play on their (mp3)discman/car audio/home theater and demand a refund.
Always works.
rrw
Also in France (Score:5, Informative)
(see here [afjv.com], for example).
Re:Also in France (Score:2)
<p>
On the plus side, so far I've never seen a CD even attempt to resist the usual "cdparanoia -B" I submit them to. I'm actually curious
Re:Also in France (Score:2)
And indeed, the fine print on recent discs says exactly what your last sentence says.
Re:Also in France (Score:2)
but this also had a important impact in the mainstream news, before the holiday seasons.
Quick translation of link (Score:2, Informative)
CD copy protection condamned.
TGI, Nanterre, 2003/09/02
(TGI is Tribunal de Grande Instance, the french court for those cases)
Facts
Due to "plaintes" (basically people complaining and/or filling suit) on the impossibility to play some CD on certain car cd players, the UFC-Que Choisir association (UFC is an association created to defend custumers) filled suit against EMI Music France, producer of said CD.
Decisi
Re:Also in France (Score:2)
stopping copy-protection doesn't grant fair use (Score:5, Interesting)
The UK seems to ban making backup copies of music you've bought, and doesn't permit you to copy your own CDs so you can listen to them on your car cassette player. Allegedly. What's the rest of Europe / the world like? Here's an area where the US has some sensible rules.
Yes - I know you can ignore the law...
Re:stopping copy-protection doesn't grant fair use (Score:2, Interesting)
Belgium taxes blank media, proceeds of this tax supposedly go to "authors". One of the claims is that the right to make personal copies is explixitly granted in the law that sets up these taxes, therefore making prevention of personal-copying actually illegal.
Re:stopping copy-protection doesn't grant fair use (Score:2)
We in Holland enjoy a generous fair-use policy. I am even allowed to make copies of borrowed or rented movies/music! (strictly for personal use only) This privilege is supposedly paid for by the levies on blank media, so in contrast to other countries, we actually get something in return for these levies.
As for fair rights laws... I would like to see these rights codified to be proper rights rather than a privilege. That would mean that "the right to make copie
Re:Yes - I know you can ignore the law... (Score:2)
Insist on seeing the Compact Disk logo. The copy protected disks don't have it. Not buying the non-functional disks don't break the law and have an added benifit of encouraging their demise just like the Circuit City DVD format.
They can add stuff to make a CD useless. Don't cry foul when nobody wants to buy it.
some references (Score:4, Informative)
and some [opendemocracy.net] background [bbc.co.uk].
Re:stopping copy-protection doesn't grant fair use (Score:2)
watchdog... and a good one (Score:5, Informative)
And being totally independent, they can take some serious badass attitude !
They also have a pretty good website [testaankoop.be] (in dutch & french) that accomagnies their monthly magazine. Each edition has at least a few product comparisions that many many belgians respect. When we bought our childrens car-seats, we followed their advice, even tho their top-pick was 15% more expensive.
They also have a pretty big library of 'target prices' for many products.
Why are you people STILL buying CDs? (Score:5, Insightful)
Stop purchasing industry CDs!
Your purchase of music released on a label affiliated with the RIAA indirectly supports these efforts which most of you agree is capricious, unfair, predatory and illegal. And yet all I see are a bunch of people who complain about copy protection, the myriad subpoenas being sent by the RIAA standing in line down at the local Best Buy (which is another evil altogether) because they have to have the new friggin' Puddle Of Mudd (or is that Dumm?) CD.
If you really want to send the industry a message, don't buy CDs on labels that are part of the RIAA. Look at places like CD Baby [cdbaby.com], which are not affiliated with the RIAA, offer 2-minute high-quality preview of many of the songs on each CD, sell non copy-protected CDs, and offer all the rights that you should expect in your CDs. Yes, you can rip the CD and download it to your MP3 player, and no one is going to come and hunt you down like the dog you are merely for exercising your fair use rights.
It really is going to take a big effort on all our parts to get this message out. But while people mindlessly go down to the local box retailer to buy another copy protected CD from some industry teat-sucking band, you're really not helping things.
I noticed it was a Foo Fighters' CD that the story poster bought. How about, 'It's times like these you need to think again...'?
You Forgot Another RIAA income source... (Score:2, Informative)
They and their member labels probably have some other income streams we can cut off as well. If you know of one, please chime in.
Re:You Forgot Another RIAA income source... (Score:2)
Compulsary licensing. The money is funneled through the RIAA no matter who's songs play on the radio.
Stop Illegally Sharing/Downloading Too! (Score:5, Informative)
Whether or not they ARE in fact losing money due to P2P is irrelevant. All they have to do is 'convince' a congress-monkey that they're right. If fewer and fewer of their songs are present on P2P networks, the less of a case they have.
Re:Why are you people STILL buying CDs? (Score:3, Funny)
You must be new around here. On odd days, we all agree that the MPAA and RIAA are evil, obsolete business models, etc etc, and must die. On even days, we salivate over the next in the Matrix or LoTR (or whatever) franchise.
Don't worry, you'll get used to it.
i call BS (Score:3, Insightful)
i happen to like some of the "industry teat-sucking bands"! in your scheme i'm not allowed to support them out of idealism?
i agree that the system sucks. but i like music, not only indie music.
, or buy them used. (Score:3, Insightful)
That way you can actually pay for your goods, yet still not give a red cent of your money to the label.
The band/artist does not get any either, but that's no different than buying new anyway.This is, of course, assuming that your goal is to not reward the RIAA, yet still buy music honestly.
Re:Why are you people STILL buying CDs? (Score:2)
Many have noted the music industry giants will rush to blame their economic failures on ANYTHING besides their own incompetance.
Re:Why are you people STILL buying CDs? (Score:2)
Installing software (Score:5, Insightful)
Granted, the user shouldn't be running under an admin account (or get infected with all sorts of random crapware), but still. If that's the case I'd like to see them get smacked down for installing software without the user's consent...
"Consumers" should have no rights. (Score:3, Insightful)
The physical music medium is something owned by someone else. You have been loaned that medium in order to listen to that music. How is this so difficult?
Laws are not needed to "protect" consumers or businesses. Natural law says that if I own a lawnmower and loan it to you under a contract, you have to return it to me.
If you don't like my contract, don't use my lawnmower. The same is true about music.
"Consumers" should have no rights. (Score:5, Insightful)
No, I own the physical medium.
I bought it, I did not license it.
If I take it from a store without paying, they claim it is theft, not a license violation.
Re:"Consumers" should have no rights. (Score:2)
You're not buying a CD, you're buying the rights to listen to the CD in a certain way.
Re:"Consumers" should have no rights. (Score:2)
If I buy a music CD and someone takes it from me, that person can be PROSECUTED and JAILED for theft of personal property. MY personal property.
Go talk to some cops and judges. They'll set you straight.
- It's not a suggestion, it's THE LAW.
Re:"Consumers" should have no rights. (Score:2)
Re:"Consumers" should have no rights. (Score:2)
I chose all three.
Pick a career you like.
Work within the law, this can be done.
Spend less money then you make, and you will have lots of money. This sounds self evident, but if you live below your means, you can easily obtain a significant amount of money to enjoy in large chunks (vacations, big screen TV etc.)
Re:"Consumers" should have no rights. (Score:2)
if it runs in a CD player (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:if it runs in a CD player (Score:5, Informative)
Unfortunately, that's not quite true. One of the popular copy protection mechanisms is actually to misformat the CD slightly; a consumer CD player has enough tolerance to still play it, but a high-quality audio CD player, or a player designed for high-speed data is designed to much finer tolerances and can't. If you look carefully at those CD cases, you will see they are missing the usual CD logo, because technically speaking they aren't CDs as they don't conform to the official standard. They are just objects the same dimension as CDs that happen to play in some CD players and not in others - and by coincidence, those others are the ones used in PCs. In other words, it's a hack, or an anti-hack if you prefer.
ts completely pointless.. Only annoys the ppl who bought it
Now that is true.
Piracy Vs. iPods (Score:4, Insightful)
How much longer will it be before a 'copy-protection' scheme that effectively stops you making any sales to iPod (or similiar) owners harms sales more than the increased level of copying that supposedly happens with non-protected CDs?
When you factor in that its going to be the people most into music who are prepared to shell out for devices like this, these "copy protections" have to be be at best of dubious value.
Re:Piracy Vs. iPods (Score:2)
Given than an iPod costs around GBP300 and a CD player can be had for around GBP9, it will be a long time before the former has the ubiquity of the latter.
Foo Fighters latest (Score:3, Informative)
response from IFPI (local RIAA) (Score:5, Interesting)
I've searched their site but haven't seen that response listed anywhere, but that's not really strange because their entire piracysection (with subsection for facts, CD-R and internet) are "to be defined" since that section went onto their site months ago.
But on (flemish) TV this is the mantra of the IFPI spokepeople, and with t -my guess is- they're trying to divert the rage of average belgian joe who just bought a CD that doesn't play in his car from the CDproducers to the carmanifacturers (they should have given you a real CDplayer with your car).
Arh, normally I would just say fuck'm , don't buy their crap; but now I'm pissed at their disinformation and want to see them judged for the smegheads the are.
good reasons to use CD-ROM tech in car CD Players (Score:5, Interesting)
Since the "copy protection" is generally done by interfering with the error detection features of the CD standard, this product is inherently less suitable for in-car or personal player use (while jogging, say). It's also more vulnerable to scratches... Almost like in the old days with vinyl records?
But your local RIAA folk are still wrong. Consumers should be able to play their music CDs in ANY CD player. That's what the standard is for, after all.
Landmark decision to be expected? (Score:3, Interesting)
The first question is: can we expect a landmark decision here?
Yes, I think we can. Like with the Kazaa case in The Netherlands, people will most probably be looking forward to the outcome of this case. Furthermore, legal decisions in a civil case can be enforced all around Europe (when decided for those countries) by means of the Brussels and Lugano conventions.
Next question: how soon will there be a decision?
In a long, long time, probably. When I take my teachers seriously (best of the best of dutch IP lawyers), lawsuits can take years in Belgium, depending on the cravings of the judge. When it's a good day for hunting, you're lost.
However, I do not want to copy this statement directly. Perhaps there's someone from Belgium to throw some light on this case?
Selling CD's that can't be played... (Score:3, Insightful)
Silly gooses, how long until they realize they need to change their business model for the times.
ZiN
you should always use cdparanoia (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:you should always use cdparanoia (Score:4, Informative)
Not all of us use Linux as our primary desktop. I do have one as a dev box, but other than that, it's Windows on the desktop and Linux for servers.
Re:you should always use cdparanoia (Score:3, Informative)
You can use cdparanoia for a good rip under Windows using CDex [sourceforge.net]. Highly recommended ripper. I also suggest using the R3mix VBR quality preset, which did very well in blind-tests against uncompressed audio.
Copy protection holding back purchases in my home (Score:4, Interesting)
We have put off purchasing a DVD/CD player (and now recorder) for the living room, two portable mp3 players, a DVD-Ram/+R/-R recorder for the computer, an mp3 stereo deck for the car, a kitchen CD/mp3 player radio for mom, and a portable mp3 stereo for outdoor trips all because it is unknown if any of these items will restrict us from playing the music that we own.
I'll be taking a cd with mp3s on it to the local electronics outlet in the next few months to see if there are problems playing mp3s on several car stereo decks in the price range we can afford. We'll gladly give up a bit of sound quality (especially in a car) for the convenience of being able to play over a hundred songs on a single cd rather than shuffling cds while driving, especially being able to eliminate songs we don't like.
DVD recorder for the computer? Was planning on getting a deck that included DVD-Ram thanks to the random access feature, especially suitable for computer files and archiving, but which can also be used for audio and video creation for playback in the living room. That plan appears to be on hold because we're waiting to see if DVD-Ram format survives, and waiting to get more info on the ability to playback music and videos we own, without ridiculous restrictions.
Portable mp3 stereo playback? We'll wait to see what becomes popular. Probably another year. In the meantime, cassettes that we can record at home without restrictions will have to do (which is something we've been doing since cassettes overtook 8-track player/recorders).
Living room DVD player? Forget it. If we need to play back a video, it will be piped from one of the computers on our home lan through a s-video output to the television, as we are already doing. Thanks to broadband, and a relative's dvd player (and his patience), we can watch any dvd we want without paying for a player. Our house is between his house and his job, and he doesn't have to buy any videos, we keep him well supplied.
Without full disclosure on restrictions, we won't waste any money on consumer electronics unless we find out beforehand through someone else's experiences, whether the hardware works with the music and videos we own. We've been burned by incompatible software, and software that doesn't work as advertised, costing hundreds of dollars each, and we aren't going to start the same thing with consumer electronics. I have another relative who has been burned by the Sony mini-discs.
Any consumer electronics we buy in the future MUST be compatible with the music and videos we own, and must be able to play (and record for backup) them in every way currently available and every way that makes sense. Or we won't purchase them. That's the bottom line.
Re:Copy protection holding back purchases in my ho (Score:2)
But you DON'T own the music, you own a license to it.
Re:Copy protection holding back purchases in my ho (Score:2)
Was planning on getting a deck that included DVD-Ram thanks to the random access feature, especially suitable for computer files and archiving, bu
copy protection, etc.... (Score:2, Interesting)
But why? (Score:4, Funny)
Why use cdparanoia when you can just go online and download it from your favorite P2P service? :)
Re:But why? (Score:2)
The rights of the middle "man" (Score:3, Interesting)
It's pretty clear that the artist has ownership rights to some high degree, and that the purchaser of the art has ownership rights. Similarly for the farmer and the those sitting down to eat. But in our system of middlemen the artist and farmer on average barely scrape by, often holding a second job to do that, while those about to "consume" get an abundance of adulterated junk of low artistic and nutritional quality while our money makes the middlemen very comfortable indeed. Meanwhile the farms and music makers are forced to consolidate into megafarms and megastars....
What would happen if our food middlemen decided to add substances to, say, the potatoes of one distributor that would poison only those who ate the meat of another distributor? You don't, after all, have to eat those potatoes. You don't have to buy those copy-protected CDS, either, or combine them with musical equipment they won't work in. (My DVD player plays CDs. Just why should I want to buy a separate CD player to play the crippled ones?) But clearly something's wrong here. Food from different suppliers should be as fully compatible as possible. Musical items from different suppliers, likewise.
Anything else is restriction of the fundamental ownership rights of the artist/farmer and the appreciator/eater. The laws need to be restructured so that the middle men are allowed only those rights which in no way infringe on the fundamental rights owners, who produce and consume whatever the middlemen distribute. Distribution should be recognized not as ownership, but as the relation of a cargo carrier to the cargo carried.
And we must realize that anything which robs from the final customer also robs from the original producer. The century-long history of the obliteration of small farmers due to the stranglehold on markets by middlemen amply demonstrates the economic principles involved when middlemen are allowed too much sway. One way to address this is to alter the balance of laws so that fictitious corporate "persons" never have rights equal to individual living persons - whether the persons who play music, the persons who run family farms, or the persons who enjoy a good tune with a good meal.
Right On, Belgians! (Score:2)
Fight for our rights
/sheepish grin
Just don't...err...waffle.
Gah! I feel dirty for a pun of such depravity.
Re:I use this tool to beat the CD's (Score:5, Informative)
Attention Meta-Moderators! (Score:2)
He's changed his sig now, so it really IS a screenshot.
Nasty tactic for trolling and getting the moderations marked as "unfair".
DISCLAIMER: I haven's actually seen the offending link. When I tried it, it was a screenshot. This does not mean that I was looking for gay porn. It means that I was studying pop-up technology. Honest.
Don't click that last measure link... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Just hold down the shift key... (Score:2)