Critical Eye - Don't Confuse Fans With Pirates

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.yil.com/columns/column.asp?columnist=ebert&date=020401&page=01

April 2002
By Roger Ebert

This year, Universal's music division plans to use a new
copy-protection scheme that excludes its discs from being played at
all on "Macs, DVD players, and CD-compatible video game consoles."  
This according to Peter Cohen of MacCentral, who also reports that the
plan will block discs from being copied to other CDs or being saved to
the hard drives of most PCs in the MP3 format. The first disc to get
this treatment is More Fast and Furious: Music From and Inspired by
the Motion Picture, a title that will live in infamy.

That the CD itself has been ripped off from other CDs (it is a
compilation of tracks having little connection to the movie or one
another) is a delightful irony. That Universal has copy-protected it,
and blocked out Macs and DVD players altogether, has to be the worst
marketing decision in consumer electronics since the original DivX
format (which was Circuit City's widely hated, intrusive pay-per-view
system). It confuses fans with pirates. My guess is that no musician
or band still actively engaged in trying to build an audience will
want to come anywhere near it.

The determined pirate, of course, will not be affected by the new CDs. 
She will simply connect her stereo to her computer, then press 
"record" on her ripping software as she presses "play" on her 
conventional CD player. This will yield a digital file that can be 
shared with the world (not to mention her portable MP3 player).

Why do people grab music off the Net and download it to CDs, iPods, 
and other storage devices? Because they like it. They like it a lot. 
They like it enough to go to the trouble of obtaining it despite the 
various roadblocks. They are fans. Would they rather have a mint CD 
from Virgin or Tower, with the original cover art? Of course. Will 
they eventually be paying customers for the music they are currently 
sampling? In most cases, yes. Technically they are stealing, but in 
fact they are an instrumental part of the process by which a lot of 
real CDs get sold.

Back when I was a member of the prime music-buying demographic, I went 
into Markland's Record Store on Main Street in Urbana, Illinois, and 
took the latest 45s into a soundproof listening booth where I could 
sample them. I sampled them a lot. So did all the other kids. 
Sometimes we would sample the same song every day for a week. The 
Marklands knew what we were up to. They also knew that we yearned to 
own those records, and that when we found the 89 cents for a 45 or the 
$3.98 for an LP we'd be their customers. We were fueling our 
enthusiasm.

MP3 fans using the Web are essentially doing the same thing. They are 
finding new bands and singers. They are spreading the word. If the 
music industry ever finds a way to block the copying of music, the 
bands that are protected will be invisible to this most sincere form 
of promotion and publicity.

Consider, too, that most of those fans are not necessarily short of 
funds. Hey, they own a PC that can rip and burn. Their time is 
valuable. When they discover a band they like, they can spend a lot of 
time downloading it off the Web or a little time buying the CD at 
discount. Studies suggest that more sales are generated by the 
music-sharing process than are lost.

The late, unlamented DivX scheme represented the same idiotic 
marketing reasoning that the Universal Music Group has implemented. So 
did the Hollywood studios' original opposition to home video. We live 
in a time of buzz, when musical reputations are formed below the radar 
of the accountants of the music industry. The way to launch a new CD 
is to get it talked about - not to insult potential fans by making it 
unplayable on their equipment even after they buy it legitimately.

Peter Cohen reports that Universal plans to offer refunds to customers 
who buy a disc and find they cannot play it. He also observes, "Many 
retailers employ a no-return policy once the CD's wrapper is off." And 
wisely so, since it would be the easiest thing in the world to buy a 
disc, rip it to your computer through your stereo, post it on the Web, 
and then return the CD for a refund. Did I just say that?



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