The latest episode in the war between music companies and their paying customers (the one where Sony decides it’s OK to surreptitiously take over your PC so you can’t make a copy of the music you thought you bought from them) has finally pushed me over the edge.
I’ve been a big buyer of prerecorded ‘media’ for over 35 years. I have two or three hundred vinyl LPs, several dozen 45’s, a hundred or so audio cassettes, and roughly 60 prerecorded reel-to-reel tapes. They are jammed in my closet with a couple hundred VHS tapes, 450 CDs, and 500-odd DVDs. (Mercifully, I skipped the 8-track, Betamax and laserdisc formats.)
Part of my media collection
I have to believe the record companies and movie studios would consider me a good customer. But with every day that passes it becomes more and more obvious that the greedy bastards who run these media companies prefer to treat me (and all their customers) like criminals. They continually expect us to pay more for less, and even then they are not satisfied. They want to pretend to ’sell’ us their product, but they don’t want us to actually have it. Well I’ve had enough.
From this day forward I will never spend a another dime on content that I can’t use the way I please. If I can’t copy it to my hard drive and play it using the devices I want, when and where I want, I won’t be buying it. Period.
They can all take their DRM, and their broadcast flags, and their rootkits, and their Compact Discs that aren’t really compact discs and shove them up their bottom-lines.
Additional Thoughts
Nov 11 – 8:50 AM
I’m blown away by the reactions my little tirade has produced. A raw nerve must have been hanging right out there in the open.
But there’s a few points I want to add/clarify.
- I said I was going to stop buying content that is burdened with these ridiculous and futile restrictions. I did not say I was going to start stealing that content. My point is to patronize only those companies that treat their customers with some respect.
- I forgot to mention the looming disaster of HD video on disc. Both of the competing HD disc standards will come equipped with the most monstrous, invasive, and customer-hating DRM ever devised by engineers and lawyers. If you want something to boycott, that would be it.
- Finally, a further rant. How did this shit come to be called copy protection? It is clearly intended to be copy prevention.
This article just got slashdotted, so get ready for some traffic.
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/10/1948237
keep buying music. just avoid the riaa: http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/
People suggest all sorts of things about how musicians make money. First off, most musicians barely make any money at all. Second, most of us lose money on any tour of any scale. Home town gigs – sure, though if you count all your expenses up (rent on rehersal space, strings, sticks and heads, amps, instruments) odds are you aren’t making much. Some electronic musicians don’t really play live at all.
Some musicians have great deals where they keep their publishing and thus make a royalty on every song they write. And for folks that write songs, but who don’t perform, mechanicals are essentially their livelihood. These are paid more accurately on recorded sales than on performances.
I don’t know if you know this yet….but you’ve been /.ed.
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/10/1948237&tid=176&tid=1
I’ve virtually given up music for this reason. I haven’t purchased a CD in years. I haven’t downloaded the music either. I get my music fix from the local community radio station and ocassionally from an internet radio station.
I don’t mind paying for good music, or even for mediocre music. But I am not the least bit interested in paying an industry that sues 12-year-olds, tries to cripple new technology, and gets congress to pass all sorts of intrusive technology laws.
(I’ve also cut out most TV and movies for similar reasons and because they’re just a big waste of time.)
I’ll come back when the industry starts treating me like a valued customer.
Another label with no DRM that works on the honor system is Magnatune (http://www.magnatune.com). You can download music for free in several different compressed formats, then pay for the music you like and download it in uncompressed form.
They keep half of the proceeds, and the music remains the property of the artist.
@”famous music artist”
I do own a store. I just don’t tell people what kind of pot pies they’re allowed to put in their microwave.
There is another example to show how genuine buyers are at loss. When you buy an original game CD/DVD, you need to put the disk in the optical drive everytime you play the game. As a result, it gets scratched more and more and eventually it craps out.
But the people who get such games from you-know-which sites can directly play those games.. no CD/DVD required with their good ol’patches
I wonder why are companies making things difficult for the original buyers? You know how bad Windows XP Activation is.. the ppl with pirated copies don’t need to activate.. but people with geniume copies need to do that every time they re-install the OS.
Infact it is better using the illegal version… I guess with their marketing policies, these companies are infact promoting that.
The fact is people will pirate stuff.. whatever these companies do, the crackers will find a way through. But, these companies don’t seem to understand such a basic thing.
This is where I appreciate Apple.
Amen. I haven’t purchased a CD in literally years, and I don’t plan on starting again any time soon. The independent music labels are a step in the right direction, but for most artists, there is a need for a large amount of marketing (because otherwise, no one would buy their crappy music). The independent labels can’t compete with the Big Boys, and since the Big Boys are in bed with Clear Channel (virtually all radio stations), you’ll never hear any other kind of music on the radio.
The consumers really ARE at the mercy of the record labels, but being treated like a criminal is only going to work for so long. As soon as a critical mass is built up against DRM and associated technology, one major player is going to cave in. After that, the profits will shift to them, causing everyone else to follow suit.
Personally, I think artists should be compensated for their music, and I don’t have a problem spending $1 per song, but I want to be able to copy them ANYWHERE, as many times as I want, without tracking and without Sony’s Rootkits destroying my computer and opening me up to trojans and viruses (bad move Sony, you totally lost my confidence–how are you any better than the kids that write these worms?)
Artists should band together and do the following:
1. Start buying radio stations (or satellite stations, or whatever). Have no-commercial stations available for FREE, playing their music. People will listen, because people hate commercials.
2. Sell the songs for $1 each without any caveats (NO DRM). If people copy and distribute them, then that’s GOOD because more people will be listening to your music, and your sales will actually INCREASE (studies show this).
3. Tour! This is where the majority of ARTIST’S money comes from (not from CD sales). Therefore, who cares if everyone shares your songs? If they like the music, they’ll want to see you in concert, when you can charge us $40-$500 a seat.
What’s missing? The record companies. They aren’t necessary. They’re obsolete. It’s only a matter of time.
@ Les Posen
“-4. The EULA you click in to allow the SonyBMG CD to insert its wares contains unbelievable restrictions.”
Just an FYI – the EULA was changed after the RootKit was discovered to allow include the RootKit (or software) on a users system. Aside from that, you are right, there are unbelievable restrictions.
AMEN!
Im not sure the silent boycott approach ever works. My usual tactic is to buy the DRM’d CD’s take them home and return them a day later full of righteous indignation (preferably with a shop full of customers) when I cant excercise my fair use rights and put it on my ipod. My theory is if the retailers get pissed of with the numbers of returns they will begin to apply some pressure on the music companies. I think an international day of returning DRM’d music makes a better statement than a day of not buying. Its a little more fun too…
If I can join the chorus, let me say AMEN.
Fair use provisions should not be abolished because a given industry doesn’t like new technology.
As for the music biz, I believe this quote says it best:
“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side. ”
Hunter S. Thompson
US journalist (1939 – 2005)
I have made my silent protest by not buying anything with DRM but that is getting harder and harder to do! I resent that these companies seem to enjoy restricting our freedom and determining the longevity of something that was purchased. It’s nice to know that these companies are literally taking there customers to the bank by selling them something that they do not really own!
Something that hasn’t been covered in this conversation yet: I can well understand (not buy into, mind you – but understand) iTunes DRM – you pay for each song for each device you want to listen to it on, just like…software.
Fair use tells me that once I buy the song, its mine to play anytime, anywhere on anything I want. I’m looking for the counter-argument, however. If I can “own” a song or at least own the right to play it in the manner mentioned, why can’t I “own” my software?
We know the answer to this already. One software license = one installation. There are a few exceptions to this in some titles, but – it begs the question that I’m looking for an intelligent reply to: I pay for the software – why can’t I “play” it anytime, anywhere, on any PC I own?
The reason of course is that one=one makes money and nobody publishing popular commercial software would make any if you could install one copy on 100’s of machines.
But think about it. Back when I was in HS in the 70’s, a “bootleg” was usually a live concert rip. I could record my stuff on as many cassettes as I wanted and record directly off of FM radio. I may be wrong but it occurs to me that the shift in music licensing concepts changed when one copy=one installation became prevalant in the early 80’s. Someone in the music industry must have slapped themselves in the head and said, “Hey! We own copyrighted content – why don’t *we* insist on the same licensing as software makers”?
On a different note…if I think of a tune I don’t own (and I can imagine music very easily), am I breaking copyright?