News

A Revealing DRM Story

Barry Ritholtz posts a revealing story on his experience this weekend trying to purchase a copy-controlled CD.  As Ritholtz notes, it is difficult to decide which part of the story is stranger – the fact that the band doesn't want its work copy-controlled and did not provide permission for the use of the technology? Or the fact that the copy-control has nothing to do with infringement concerns but rather is a by-product of a commercial battle between Sony and Apple? Or the fact that the DRM provider openly acknowledges that its copy-controls don't work?  Perhaps it is none of the above – from a Canadian perspective the strangest part is that Canadian policy makers have the benefit of witnessing these experiences and yet are still pursuing anti-circumvention legislation.

4 Comments

  1. Ther is also this write-up to tick you off even more.
    http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/10/sony-rootkits-and-digital-rights.html

  2. Russell McOrmond says:

    Letter to competition bureau, MP, Indust
    I wrote the following to the Industry Minister, Industry critics and my MP this morning. It included a reference to Barry Ritholtz’s story.

    —cut—

    I sent the following message to the Competition Bureau this morning. As this affects Bill C-60 I believe it is appropriate for the Industry Minister and Industry critics to be aware of this important issue.

    Summary: So-called “copy control” and DRM are issues of contract law, not copyright law. This is the jurisdiction of the provinces, not the federal government. These technologically encoded contracts, also known as “paracopyright”, are hidden from consumers, and must be made transparent and accountable as with other contract formats. The Competition Bureau should be intervening in Bill C-60 to ensure that “paracopyright” is not inappropriately protected in Canadian Copyright law.

    I would like to add that Bill C-60 should be amended to remove protection for “paracopyright” being added to Copyright, but that the ability to adequately scrutinize “paracopyright” be added to the Competition Act and PIPEDA.

    My contact information:

    Russell McOrmond

    I then included a copy of the letter at: http://www.digital-copyright.ca/discuss/5863

  3. Russell McOrmond says:

    Letter to competition bureau, MP, Indust
    I wrote the following to the Industry Minister, Industry critics and my MP this morning. It included a reference to Barry Ritholtz’s story.

    —cut—

    I sent the following message to the Competition Bureau this morning. As this affects Bill C-60 I believe it is appropriate for the Industry Minister and Industry critics to be aware of this important issue.

    Summary: So-called “copy control” and DRM are issues of contract law, not copyright law. This is the jurisdiction of the provinces, not the federal government. These technologically encoded contracts, also known as “paracopyright”, are hidden from consumers, and must be made transparent and accountable as with other contract formats. The Competition Bureau should be intervening in Bill C-60 to ensure that “paracopyright” is not inappropriately protected in Canadian Copyright law.

    I would like to add that Bill C-60 should be amended to remove protection for “paracopyright” being added to Copyright, but that the ability to adequately scrutinize “paracopyright” be added to the Competition Act and PIPEDA.

    My contact information:

    Russell McOrmond

    I then included a copy of the letter at: http://www.digital-copyright.ca/discuss/5863

  4. Spyware included with DRM!!!
    http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/31/2016223&tid=172&tid=158

    I believe I have seen this installed on a few computers that caused massive problems that required the computer to be formatted. It included generating numerous, timely errors with svchost, a file necessary to run Windows, and disabling sound output from the computer. Windows however could still play sounds.

    Even if this problem was not caused by Sony’s DRM, which I am 90% positive it was, this is downright disgusting. If I buy a CD, I should be able to make mp3s from it and put them on my iPod so I can play them in my car. By Sony doing this, this is actually encouraging people downloading music illegally, because if I ever buy a CD and cannot rip it, that is exactly what I am going to do.

    Speaking purely about myself, I have downloaded many mp3s and then gone out and bought the album. “Illegal” downloads have led to many CD sales that otherwise I would not have bought because I never would have known if I liked the band or not. I should mention I own approximately 500 Audio CDs, so I am talking about maybe 200 CDs or so that I bought because I heard a mp3 and liked it.

    I used to be split on downloading mp3s. I still believe in supporting the artists, but not the record company if you know what I mean (it should be noted that most of the money is going to the record company and most of what is not is going to the RIAA or to the store!). After initially hearing about Sony’s DRM, copyright protection, the RIAA suing a 7 year old girl, and all the infringements of our first amendment here in the United States, my stance has drastically changed.

    If the record companies want to stop people downloading music, then they should begin to offer replacement CDs for those who scratch theirs (something like if you mail in a scratched CD to them they will replace it!). After all you are paying for what is on the CD and not the CD itself, or so they say. And when Audio CDs phase out and Audio DVDs or minidiscs or whatever is next comes in, we should be able to mail in our audio cds and a small fee of about $2 and get them shipped back along with a discounted copy of the new format, or something along those lines. They do not do this, so as far as I am concerned they have no business trying to stop people from downloading music if in fact what we pay for is the content of the CD. No, what we pay for is for the CEO of record companies like Sony to buy a new Rolls Royce every other day!

    So I have made it my initiative to boycott the recording industries. If I can get enough people to join me, we can drop CD sales to near nothing, then maybe they will figure it out. As far as I am concerned, I will never buy another CD again.

    Listening party at my house every Friday and Saturday night!!!!! đŸ™‚