European Blow to DRM
Published January 05, 2004
Euro consumer group sues record labels over copy protection:
- A European consumer watchdog body is suing the world's largest music companies for selling copy-protected compact discs that won't play on car stereos and computers, the Belgium-based organization said on Monday.
The group, known in Dutch as Test-Aankoop and in French as Test-Achats, said it has received more than 200 complaints from consumers who objected to a technology that prevents consumers from making a back-up version on a blank disc and limits playback on certain devices.
Industry observers believe Test-Aankoop's suit is the biggest European legal challenge yet to the music industry's controversial campaign to release copy-protected discs, to minimize the impact that digital piracy is having on sales.
....The group said it wants the labels to end the practice of issuing protected discs and to reimburse customers.
"We are trying to establish legal precedent in this matter. Then we expect other consumer organizations will follow," said Mechels Ivo, a spokesman for the group.
Since introducing copy-protection technology two years ago — typically by embedding a layer of data on the rings of a compact disc that prevents playback on all but a home stereo or portable hi-fi device — the music industry has been hit with torrents of criticism from individual consumers.
The question of whether consumers are entitled to make back-up copies of music they buy has also become a heated legal debate.
....Test-Aankoop said it had contacted industry trade group the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) in the autumn about the consumer concerns.
The IFPI on Monday called the suit baseless. "European law is clear that record companies and other copyright holders have the right to protect their works through technical means," the trade group said in a statement. [Reuters]
- European Blow to DRM
- Published: January 05, 2004
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- Section: Sci/Tech
- Filed Under: Music: News
- Writer: Eric Olsen
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i've never had any problems with copy-protected cds...but what happens if you pick a cd that is protected and won't play in your computer?
with the folks at best buy or walmart balk at its return? or will they just give you another one?
it goes without saying that i think copy protection is just plain stupid.
Luckily the US does not have them. There have been some reports that a few buyers have picked up a disc here or there that didn't work, but that may just be "human error." I've never encountered one myself, and I sure buy a lot of music.
with the folks at best buy or walmart balk at its return? or will they just give you another one?
If it's defective (and by nature it is) then you should be able to return it and get another one. Which is exactly my point - if everyone bought and returned all these faulty discs, it would make a huge impact on the European record industry. As it is, being in the US, I have to be very, very careful if I order an import now. The likelihood of me being able to return an import CD back to Europe for another one is pretty low. Which sucks, because the other regions always get cool bonus tracks and/or discs.
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The only way for consumers to fight this is to buy the discs and return them, over and over and over. When the record companies are faced with hundreds of thousands of returns on these purposely faulty products, they might begin to see the light.
Once again, they are doing something that only hurts the very people they want to have on their side - the music buyers. It has been proven time and time again that any and all copyright protection will be thwarted. If I know in advance that something is not going to play in the two players that I use 99% of the time (my computer's CDROM drive and my car's CD player) I will not buy it and will instead seek out the very thing they want to put an end to. I absolutely will not, under any circumstances, put my money into a product that won't play. Even if I have the mp3s, my conscience will not allow me to support this faulty medium - every sale tells them it's okay to keep it up. This works out for them, though, doesn't it - it helps prove that people are downloading instead of buying, when in fact people may be downloading only because they can't play what they've bought. So it goes back to what I mentioned before: buy and return, as many times as you can. That's the only way I see the message will get through to them.