Hate The RIAA?

[JackSpratts]

This site's for you!

- js.

[TankGirl]

I hadn't visited the site for a while but was glad to have a fresh look at it. The main editorial story provides up-to-date information about the recent copy-prevention tamperings on CDs and is rather spirited as well. So allow me to quote it here... - tg

Consumers cause Virgin Retail (UK) to Call BMG on the Carpet

Consumer reaction to the new Natalie Imbuglia CD, White Lilies Island which uses copy protection provided by Midbar has caused the Virgin Retail Stores in the UK to contact BMG with concerns about the playability of the CD. As a result BMG has set up a hotline number in the UK so users can call and get an unprotected CD. It's being reported on the Natalie Imbruglia website bulletin board by fans, in the media and even on Slashdot. The campaign was organized by Eurorights UK to educate the retailers and the buying publick about the problems that copy protected CDs cause for those wishing to use the CD in other places other than a standalone home cd player. People are reporting problems with playing it on DVD/CD players, Car CD players, not to mention computer systems.

I'm sorry BMG and Natalie, but I didn't play for a Soundblaster Live Platinum to listen to streaming 32bit RealAudio. My particular setup is connected to a Aiwa Surround Sound with Dolby Digital, with 5 speakers, an an equalizer. I spend 12 to 14 hours per day sitting in front of the computer. When you introduce errors into the CD you are 1) not providing REDBOOK audio as required by the CD License 2) Pissing off your customers. You know those people who do buy the CD. Are you that committed to killing sales just to prove a point? Perhaps we should pool our money and buy them A CLUE for Christmas.

I've said it before and I will say it again. File Sharing helps CD Sales not hinder. I've discovered new music, not only from independents, but from lesser known major label artists, who you don't spend a cent on to promote. This is not about protecting the artists, not even about the money. It's about control of our culture and heritage being locked up where only a select few can access it. This will have grievous effect on the future generation of creators who can not pull from the public domain. I invite you to listen to John Perry Barlow's Speech at the Cato Institute on November 15th. He talks about faith, kind of a Paying it Forward for not only music, but all media. He talks about Civil Disobedience in the Digital age and its long term effects. Regardless if you understand the issues or not, you need to listen to this, it will provide a greater understanding of the implications of copyright extension, of DMCA with a well reasoned presentation.

[VWguy]

A very intresting editorial, thanks JS for the link.

And you tooo, TG.

[TankGirl]

The editorial writer of the above piece wholeheartedly invited the readers to listen to John Perry Barlow's [a former lyricist for the Grateful Dead, later co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation] Cato Institute speech and so do I - it's a damned good speech and kept me captivated for the 30 minutes it lasted. What was it about? Well, many things: about the fundametal nature of information and life; about the ecology of ideas and how it differs from material economies; about Napster, the RIAA and the effects of copyright legislation; about the commercial fencing of our shared cultural heritage by a few media monopolies. Barlow is a brilliant and well-informed speaker with a positive vision of the potential of the Internet. Check this one, it's good.

- tg

[JackSpratts]

Originally posted by TankGirl
Check this one, it's good.

- tg

sure is.

- js.

[Mazer]

Is redbook audio really required by a CD license?

[TankGirl]

Originally posted by Mazer
Is redbook audio really required by a CD license?

This is an interesting question, perhaps Copyright Queen might be able to answer it. When searching information on the subject I came across this story by The Standard worth checking:

Record labels plan copy-proof CDs in post-Napster age

Although the specific details of the copy-protection schemes are closely guarded, in broad terms the technology exploits the difference between the standard used by consumer CD players, known as RedBook, and the standards used for CD drives in personal computers, known as YellowBook and OrangeBook.

Perhaps the key question from the consumer point of view is: am I able to play a CD I have purchased on all my CD players? For an increasing number of people their main home audio device is their computer and as the recent events around Natalie Imbuglia's album show the record companies cannot afford pushing CDs that don't play in all devices. The best they can try is to prevent direct digital copying but even that sounds like a doomed experiment to me. Whatever ingenious tricks they apply to fool the computer CD drives to consider the data on music CDs to be invalid for copying, it takes just one round in the analog domain to make the audio signal fully usable in the digital domain again. Even if 99 % of mp3 collectors would be too lazy to rip that way, the remaining 1 % will see that the 'protected' material will be available in the p2p networks anyway.

- tg

[JackSpratts]

Natalie Imbruglia's new album is available in it's entirety from my hard drive via winmx, xolox and morpheus, so i'd say this experiment has been less than successfull...for now.

- js.

[nanook]

very interesting and informative thread, all!!!!!

i said it before and jack has just said it again, only this time, the pudding has been "prooven"!

i haven't listened to JPB's speech yet, tg, but i will. the quotes u have listed have already got my mind spinning, yet again about the real issues concerning copy-proof cd's and the DMCA.

it is almost comical, to just sit back and watch the going's on, knowing full well, that it will all just crumble before the world's eyes.

will they ever wake up and realize that they really need to rethink the future, not in stopping this future, but how they are going to incorporate themselves into it?

my philosophy has always been, "there is a way to make everyone happy, here!"

of course, u know U ALL ROCK!

[TankGirl]

Hiya nanook & thanks for your kind comments!

Here's one more related link well worth checking; Jack had posted it on Zeropaid but I haven't seen anybody posting it here:

Why Copyright Laws Hurt Culture

from the above Wired story:

American copyright laws have gotten so out of hand that they are causing the death of culture and the loss of the world's intellectual history, according to Stanford technology law professor Lawrence Lessig.

Copyright has bloated from providing 14 years of protection a century ago to 70 years beyond the creator's death now, he said, and has become a tool of large corporations eager to indefinitely prolong their control of a market. Irving Berlin's songs, for example, will not go off copyright for 140 years, he said.

- tg

[JackSpratts]

*bump*

for those who haven't had the pleasure, the john perry barlow speech at the cato institute that tg mentioned above was excellent and well worth the 18meg d/l or stream. his is a powerfull argument for a free and open internet.

here are the new links:
www.boycott-riaa.com/mp3/barlow.mp3 - 64k audio file
www.boycott-riaa.com/barlow.m3u - 8kBs stream

- js.

[Smoketoomuch]

Originally posted by JackSpratts
*bump*

for those who haven't had the pleasure, the john perry barlow speech at the cato institute that tg mentioned above was excellent and well worth the 18meg d/l or stream. his is a powerfull argument for a free and open internet.

here are the new links:
www.boycott-riaa.com/mp3/barlow.mp3 - 64k audio file
www.boycott-riaa.com/barlow.m3u - 8kBs stream

- js.

Boycott RIAA - one of my favorite websites (its even on my "webpage"'s favorite links). I was just going to ask how to save streaming media in mp3 format, when you posted the above links... (but question still remains: clicked on link of TG, winamp loaded, played the file - how do I save it - Streamripper doesn't work in this case..)

I'm still listening to speech - fascinating. It should be circulated all around, made it more public, having it in written form, whatever... One other thought about boycott RIAA: check out rougues gallery - Know Thy Enemy! there are some interesting thoughts about Hillary Rosen's position in RIAA.

edit>. God, this guy is CLEVER. its so exhilirating even to listen to such clarity of thought (I mean there is even some aesthetic pleasure in listening to him besides the content to which I guess all of us agree).

[Snarkridden]

Pity about the poor recording quality, it niggled me so much i've cleaned it up a bit, removed the mic thumps and some of the screetchy sound.

It's on share now under John Barlow.

Snark..

[TankGirl]

Well done, Snark - may that great speech spread among the file sharers around the globe!

- tg

[theknife]

Wow...just streamed the speech and got to the part where he describes the legal jargon in downloading the e-book Alice In Wonderland that forbids you from reading it out loud...stopped me dead in my tracks.

I knew it was bad but I didn't think it was this bad....