[FS-UK-announce] Record Companies: The Paying Public are Not Your Guinea Pigs!

[Julian T. J. Midgley]

The press release below going (gone, in some cases) out to the usual
suspects...

With thanks to all those who contributed, especially Phil Hunt for his
pre-emptive publicity job - as far as I can tell, the article in The
Register came about purely because they picked up on it from one of the
sites that Phil got us mentioned on, and *actually* *bothered* *to* *read*
*our* *website* when researching the article.  Anyway, was mightily
impressed, and have sent Tony Smith a 'thank you' along with the Press
Release that follows.  (Most of which was written by Martin Keegan from a
few notes I sent him this morning when I realised I wasn't going to have
time to do a decent job before work.)

Julian


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 4, 2001

Press Contacts: Julian T. J. Midgley <jtjm@uk.eurorights.org>
                Phone: +44 7713 166000

                Jim Peters <jim@uazu.net>

SATURDAY, 6 OCTOBER 2001 - CDR DELIVERS MESSAGE TO RECORD COMPANIES:
"THE PAYING PUBLIC ARE NOT YOUR GUINEA PIGS!"

Cambridge, England -

Supporters of the Campaign for Digital Rights will take part in a Day
of Action this Saturday, by distributing leaflets outside major record
stores across the UK, warning consumers of the existence of the new
"copy-protected" CDs.

Leafletting events are currently planned in Birmingham, Brighton,
Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Newcastle and Rugby.
See http://uazu.net/cd/volunteers.html for an up-to-the-minute list.


BACKGROUND

Record companies have started to introduce new "copy-protected" CDs
into the shops. These disks are designed to function differently from
normal CDs in that they allow the record companies to control
consumers' usage of music, curtailing customers' choice as to which
playback systems they may use and when, and restricting copying of
music, irrespective of whether such copying would be legal.

Several so-called "copy-protection" schemes have been spotted in the
wild, controlling usage of particular CDs currently on sale in the UK
and Germany. Most schemes involve the introduction of deliberate
errors in the music or track data, which prevent the normal operation
of particular types of CD players, specifically many CD-ROM drives,
Playstations and DVD drives, all of which are commonly used by
consumers for enjoying music. These errors may decrease the durability
of the disks, by increasing its vulnerability to scratches.

More disturbingly, the use of some of the new breed of CDs is to be
mediated via the Internet: if a customer takes a CD controlled by the
scheme marketed by US firm SunnCom out of an audio CD player and
places it in her computer, she may find herself taken to an Internet
website and required to trade her personal details in return for a
"licence" to listen to the music she believed she had already
bought. In the event that a customer has no Internet connection, or if
the firm mediating access were to go bust, the CD would be rendered
useless on a customer's computer. Most British homes do not have the
necessary Internet bandwidth to download large amounts of audio data
in a reasonable time, and some consumers may not have the money to
purchase an audio CD drive in addition to their computer's CD drive.

The music industry claims the new CDs are a necessary step to thwart
unauthorised copying, but they also prevent legitimate uses. While the
protection mechanisms can easily be circumvented by those intent on
doing so, innocent consumers have no way to restore the sound quality,
repair damaged CDs or avoid the inconvenience these measures impose.

"If I go into a shop, and pay 15 UKP for a CD, I expect that CD to
work on all the CD playing devices I own, including CDROM drives in my
PC or laptop," said Julian Midgley, Leader of the UK Campaign for
Digital Rights, "Similarly, if I buy someone a CD for Christmas, I
don't expect to get a phone call from them in six months time saying
'My old CD player failed, so I bought a DVD drive instead.  But that
CD you gave me won't play in it.'

"If the record industries want to experiment with copy protection, let
them do so in their laboratories, and not at the expense of the
general public.  And if they want to sell these CDs, let them make
the warning labels prominent and truthful."

The UK Campaign for Digital Rights will be compiling a database of all
affected titles, and asks anyone who comes across a CD that won't play
successfully on their equipment to send details to
dodgy-cd@uk.eurorights.org so that our research team can buy a copy
and determine which "copy-protection" scheme is in use, and what
limitations this imposes on the purchaser.

For the low-down on these CD "copy-protection" mechanisms see:
http://uk.eurorights.org/issues/cd/.

Full details of Saturday's action (including how to volunteer to run
an event) may be found at: http://uk.eurorights.org/calendar/

For general information on the Campaign for Digital Rights, see
http://uk.eurorights.org/


-- 
Julian T. J. Midgley                      http://www.xenoclast.org/
Cambridge, England.                          PGP Key ID: 0xBCC7863F
Beware the European Copyright Directive:  http://uk.eurorights.org/