Response from Universal re CD copy protection
Like many here' I sent off an email to Universal when they announced that they were copy-protecting all of their CD's, rendering them unplayable in Macs and DVD players. In return I received the following canned response:
Thank you for your feedback regarding copy protected CDs. We
appreciate your opinion, as the consumer experience with the music we all
love has always been a priority at the Universal Music Group.
Unfortunately, over the last few years, the music industry has been faced
with a growing problem of unauthorized CD "ripping" leading to illegal
Internet distribution of music - a practice that is hurting everyone from
recording artists to songwriters to record stores. This illegal copying is
taking place on a massive scale, with literally millions of copies being
made without any compensation to the creators of the music. If a way is
not found to protect the music from these abuses, recording artists,
songwriters and many others will be deprived of their livelihoods. The
changing economics could cause fewer new artists to get a chance to find
their audience.
Universal Music Group is committed to protecting the rights of our artists,
songwriters, and copyright holders, and, like the rest of the entertainment
industry, is evaluating emerging technologies to assess their viability while
also attempting to maximize the consumer experience. In addition,
Universal is exploring new ways to make music available in a variety of
online formats. We are also working with technology companies on new
offline formats that appeal to consumers.
We have licensed copy protection technologies developed by others and
are experimenting with the integration of those technologies into some of
our CDs as a first step in measuring their effectiveness in an evolving
marketplace. While the CDs with copy protection may not be playable in a
limited number of CD players, UMG is currently working with our
technology providers to achieve 100% playability. We also hope to
include Macintosh-based playability on copy-protected discs in the future.
We have not finalized our plans for 2002 nor have we made a commitment
to put copy protection on all of our CD releases.
UMG has also established <a href="http://www.musichelponline.com"; target="_blank">www.musichelponline.com</a> to provide
consumers with support and to answer any questions you may have
concerning copy protected CDs.
We appreciate your business, and your support for the musicians who
bring so much to all of our lives.
Thank you for your feedback regarding copy protected CDs. We
appreciate your opinion, as the consumer experience with the music we all
love has always been a priority at the Universal Music Group.
Unfortunately, over the last few years, the music industry has been faced
with a growing problem of unauthorized CD "ripping" leading to illegal
Internet distribution of music - a practice that is hurting everyone from
recording artists to songwriters to record stores. This illegal copying is
taking place on a massive scale, with literally millions of copies being
made without any compensation to the creators of the music. If a way is
not found to protect the music from these abuses, recording artists,
songwriters and many others will be deprived of their livelihoods. The
changing economics could cause fewer new artists to get a chance to find
their audience.
Universal Music Group is committed to protecting the rights of our artists,
songwriters, and copyright holders, and, like the rest of the entertainment
industry, is evaluating emerging technologies to assess their viability while
also attempting to maximize the consumer experience. In addition,
Universal is exploring new ways to make music available in a variety of
online formats. We are also working with technology companies on new
offline formats that appeal to consumers.
We have licensed copy protection technologies developed by others and
are experimenting with the integration of those technologies into some of
our CDs as a first step in measuring their effectiveness in an evolving
marketplace. While the CDs with copy protection may not be playable in a
limited number of CD players, UMG is currently working with our
technology providers to achieve 100% playability. We also hope to
include Macintosh-based playability on copy-protected discs in the future.
We have not finalized our plans for 2002 nor have we made a commitment
to put copy protection on all of our CD releases.
UMG has also established <a href="http://www.musichelponline.com"; target="_blank">www.musichelponline.com</a> to provide
consumers with support and to answer any questions you may have
concerning copy protected CDs.
We appreciate your business, and your support for the musicians who
bring so much to all of our lives.
Comments
I guess not.
Thanks,
SM
95% of the MP3s I have are ripped from CDs that are sitting in a holder in my living room.
These guys are ****ed.
Why not just copy it to (digital) tape or other and import it into iTunes and burn or similar?
But I have faith that it won't be long untill some-one posts a crack. It's annoyning but this time I don't think they be able to challenge it. And the reason is simple. If I need to crack the copy-protection just to play the disc, then my posting the info and programs to do the same doesn't amount to 'Theft'. There is an implicit understanding (and a standard) that CD's play in CD drives. I'm just helping people access their 'fair use'
<strong>I don't get it.
Why not just copy it to (digital) tape or other and import it into iTunes and burn or similar?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Becasue we should not have to go out of our way to put OUR music on OUR OWN MP3 players...
Damn. I don't even want to support Universal anymore. THey have been on my shit list eve3r since their Jurassic Park DTS fiasco and now this...
<strong>I buy lots of CDs, but I VERY rarely ever play the actual CD. I play them on the iPod, on my Mac (mostly here), play MP3 CDs, and CDs with playlists I create.</strong><hr></blockquote>
And that's the key. Record companies are really going to have to reevaluate how they do business, and how they make their money. They seem to think that the CD is the only way to go with digital music, when they need to realize that consumers don't just play that game anymore.
The record companies seem to want to continue grasping the idea that when you buy a CD, you buy the rights to play music off of that disc only. What they need to realize is that digital music's evolution is all but dictating that when you buy a CD, you are buying the LICENSE to use that data in any way you choose. That may include the actual purchased CD, mp3's on your computer, mp3 CDs, burning your own music mixes, or portable mp3 players.
If I burn a music CD for myself with songs from 13 different albums that I bought, I'm not violating copyright, because it's for my personal use. I still own the original CDs, but choose to make my listening and cataloging more convenient. The record company still got their money.
<strong>I don't get it.
Why not just copy it to (digital) tape or other and import it into iTunes and burn or similar?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Becasue we should not have to go out of our way to put OUR music on OUR OWN MP3 players...
Damn. I don't even want to support Universal anymore. THey have been on my shit list eve3r since their Jurassic Park DTS fiasco and now this...
<strong>
Becasue we should not have to go out of our way to put OUR music on OUR OWN MP3 players...
Damn. I don't even want to support Universal anymore. THey have been on my shit list eve3r since their Jurassic Park DTS fiasco and now this...
Toast CD Spin Doctor can import/digitize it via the mic in. I'm doing this with my children's audio tapes and such. You can't just copy the 'data' to the HD and cut it that way?
Seems like there are more ways to do this than the 'automatic' way.
This all actually reminds me of something I thought of earlier, and heck, with the features of iPhoto it almost fits into the picture. Apple should add Peer to Peer file sharing to iTunes
[Edit: fixed some spelling]
[ 01-10-2002: Message edited by: SledgeHammer ]</p>
<strong>Copy protecting CD's is going to stop people from ripping CD's just like shutting down Napster stopped people from trading music over the internet. DVD's are copy protected too, but I can rip the data onto my computer with a 64k program I downloaded somewhere. As soon as they develop the copy protection someone will be busy writing something to break it. Universal will fail to "protect" there music while merely pissing off the consumers.
This all actually reminds me of something I thought of earlier, and heck, with the features of iPhoto it almost fits into the picture. Apple should add Peer to Peer file sharing to iTunes
The problem remains though. The Music and Publishing industry get a small % of royalties from the sale of Blank Media. This is crazy! They are already getting money to offset potential losses yet they have the "Cast Irons" to actually impede our rights governed by the Home Recording Act! This in unacceptable. We shouldn't have to look for cracks to increase the access to our music. If this is the case then these royalties need to cease immediately!
I sent Universal an e-mail saying that i would simply not be buying ANYTHING form them again. not that they care.
Next thing they'll do is make is protected so that you have to pay every time you listen to the disc.