FC: Nathan Cochrane on BMG and crippled music CDs

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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Date: Thu, 07 Nov 2002 11:41:40 +1100
From: Nathan Cochrane <ncochrane () theage fairfax com au>
Reply-To: ncochrane () theage fairfax com au
Organization: The Age newspaper

Hi Declan

According to the Reg, BMG says it will make only crippled music CDs from 
now on. These CDs don't work in many home stereos and car CD players, and 
even Philips has expressed its anger. BMG is unrepetent and claims its CDs 
are fully Redbook (audio CD standard) compliant and will continue to use 
the CD-logo, a trademark owned by Philips and used under license.

It may be possible under consumer laws in many countries for disgruntled 
consumers to return these discs as if they were faulty, especially if the 
CDs are not clearly labelled as not being classic music CDs.

This is something Australian consumer watchdogs have tracked and doubtless 
standards groups, such as Standards Australia and equivalent bodies 
elsewhere in the world, would have opinions.

More:

'No more music CDs without copy protection,' claims BMG unit
By John Lettice
Posted: 06/11/2002 at 11:28 GMT
Faced with adverse publicity to copy protection on CDs, a year ago 
Bertelsmann Music Group bravely gave in and promised to replace a clutch of 
Natalie Imbruglia CDs which were protected by Midbar's Cactus Data Shield. 
But a year is a long time, BMG is at it again, this time apparently set on 
applying copy protection to all its music products.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/27960.html

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Copy protection on CDs is 'worthless'
19:00 06 November 02
The technology built into some CDs to stop people copying them is futile, 
according to a computer scientist who has put today's antipiracy systems 
under the microscope. He believes the continual software and hardware 
upgrades issued by the makers of computer CD drives and audio CD players 
render copy protection systems pointless in the long run.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993020

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Battle lines over protection
By NATHAN COCHRANE
Tuesday 15 January 2002
Recently, millions of music CDs have been offered for sale in the US and 
Europe that will not play properly on personal computers, the source of 
music file sharing over the Internet.
Klaus Petri, a spokesman for Philips, which, with Sony jointly holds most 
of the patents on the CD audio format, told Financial Times Deutschland 
that the Dutch pioneer is unhappy at the trend but will leave it to 
consumers to launch legal actions against the recording industry.
The patents granted in the 1980s expire in the next two years.
http://www.theage.com.au/business/2002/01/15/FFXR74U4FWC.html

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We should return all the "damaged CDs to the dealers for refund . If they 
have the Philips seal they are clearly defective and if they do not then 
they were falsely advertised
Dave (Farber)
From: Monty Solomon <monty () roscom com>
The Big Rip-Off
Labels move to block CD audio ripping
Neil McAllister, Special to SF Gate
Thursday, January 31, 2002
Judging by the way the major record labels have been acting lately,
you'd think the compact disc was the biggest mistake they ever made.
Never mind that the CD format has been outselling audiocassettes
since 1991 -- the recording industry seems like it wants those silver
discs off the shelves, and it's been working hard to do something
about it.
https://mail.lab.net/lists/archive/ip-exploder/2002-February.txt
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Nathan Cochrane
Deputy IT Editor
:Next:
The Age and Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.next.theage.com.au




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