The Recording Industry is at it again. This time they are suing XM Satellite Radio and Sirius over new time/place-shifting devices that act like TiVO for Radio. I’ve long wanted this for even normal FM, since I got my DVR. Most times it for the pause feature, or for rewinding back to a part I missed. The RIAA claims that users are now being able to download tracks they here on their receivers, and keep them forever. The thing is, none of the devices allow you to off load the music to any other format or player, much like almost all of the DVRs on the market (and the ones that can are home built and run software designed for this purpose).
Sirius rolled over, which is a bit strange to me, considering XM is owned by Clear Channel. They agreed to pay $15 per device sold, on top of the usual 2% Fair Use “tax” that has been applied to devices that store media broadcasts since the days of home-taping and beta-max.
In the case of XM, they refused, and the RIAA slapped them with a federal lawsuit. And just so you know that the RIAA is still in the same frame of mind as they typically are, one device, the XM Inno, even has the feature to push a button and purchase the track they saved on Napster. Basically they want XM to pay up, or pull these devices from the market.
The madness continues.
originally published on dr.xnlb.com
Tag Archive for 'Electronic Devices'
Music
- The RIAA has sued more than 20,000 music fans for file sharing, yet file sharing continues to rapidly increase both online and offline.? When will you stop suing music fans?
- The RIAA has sued over 20,000 music fans for file sharing, who have on average paid a $3,750 settlement.? That’s over $75,000,000.? Has any money collected from your lawsuits gone to pay actual artists? Where’s all that money going?
- The RIAA has sued over 20,000 music fans for file sharing.? Recently, an RIAA representative reportedly suggested that “students drop out of college or go to community college in order to be able to afford [P2P lawsuit] settlements.” Do you stand by this advice? Is this really good advice for our children’s futures?
- The RIAA said that it only went after individual file sharers because you couldn’t go after P2P system creators. After the Supreme Court’s Grokster decision, shouldn’t you stop going after music fans?
- Major entertainment companies have repeatedly brought lawsuits to block new technologies, including the VCR, Digital Audio Tape recorders, the first MP3 player, the ReplayTV PVR, and now P2P software. Why is your industry so hostile to new technologies?
- DRM has clearly failed to stop songs from getting on file sharing networks, but it does prevent me from moving lawfully purchased music onto my iPod and other portable devices.? Unlike the major record labels, many popular indie labels offer mp3 downloads through sites like eMusic.? Why won’t you let fans purchase mp3s as well?
- The RIAA says that it doesn’t mind if I rip CDs to my personal computer and put them on my iPod.? Do I need your permission to do this or can I legally do it even if you object?
- Recording off the radio is clearly permitted by copyright law and something Americans have done for over 25 years, but the RIAA supports legislation restricting devices that record from digital radio. Why are you against TiVo for radio?
- Sony BMG recently implemented a DRM technology that damaged users’ computers.? But for independent researchers’ analyses, this serious flaw may have gone undiscovered. After this scandal, will record labels allow any computer scientist or security expert to examine these products and agree not to sue them under the DMCA?
Video
- The major movie studios have been enjoying some of their most profitable years in history over the past five years. Can you cite to any specific studies that prove noncommercial file sharing among fans, as opposed to commercial DVD piracy, has hurt the studios’ bottom line in any significant way?
- Is it legal for me to bypass CSS DVD encryption in order to skip the “unskippable” previews at the beginning of so many DVDs? Why should I have to be forced to watch these ads when I already bought the DVD?
- Is it legal for me to skip the commercials when I play back time-shifted TV recordings on my TiVo or other PVR? How is this different than getting up and going to the bathroom?
- Why are there region-code restrictions on DVDs? How does this prevent copyright infringement? Is it illegal for me to buy or and use a region-free DVD player, or to modify a DVD player to be region-free?
- In several lawsuits, the MPAA has repeatedly said that it’s illegal to make a back-up of a DVD that I purchased.? Why is this illegal?
- Is it ever legal for me to use software like DVD Shrink or Handbrake to rip a digital copy of a DVD I own onto a video iPod or my laptop? What if I want clips to use for a class report? Or if a teacher wants to include a clip in a PowerPoint slide?
- Is there anything illegal about copying TV shows I’ve recorded off the air onto my video iPod?
- If the MPAA-backed “broadcast flag” bill passes, I won’t be able to move recorded TV content digitally to my current video iPod.? Why should TV studios get to take away my ability to lawfully time- and space-shift?
- Major entertainment companies have repeatedly brought lawsuits to block new technologies, including the VCR, Digital Audio Tape recorders, the first MP3 player, the ReplayTV PVR, and now P2P software. Why is your industry so hostile to new technologies?
- Hollywood is pushing legislation to “plug the analog hole.” These restrictions won’t keep copyrighted video off of file sharing networks, but they will block me from excerpting a recorded TV show for a school report or using tools like the Slingbox to send recorded TV shows to myself over the Internet.? Why are you trying to restrict these legitimae uses?
Questions posed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Reprinted with permission. Spotted on Boing Boing and Digg.
Did you ever notice how all those cell phones, mp3 players, laptop speakers, and most small computer speakers have no bass in the songs you play on them?
Do you think that the perceived value of music might also realted to the fidelity or limtations of the speakers?
Is there something wrong with the fact that most people’s highest quality stereo is in their car?
Maybe this explains some of the trends in the songs that sell well as ringtones.
Or maybe it’s a sad commentary on where we spend the most personal time…
The above cartoon was made by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit, ACLU-for-the-internet organization. It’s a characterization of Big Entertainment as Super Villains, fighting fair use and crippling gadgets in a single bound. It’s sad because it’s true.
originally published on xnlb.com
Not every MP3 player is an iPod, in fact the remaining market is mostly made up of other players with Microsoft’s “Plays for Sure” certification. This certification means that it will work with Windows Media Audio files with DRM built in. The “Plays for Sure” files are Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s “Fair Play” protected AAC files.
For months, hackers have been voiding the warranties on their iRiver brand devices in order to enable them to switch from DRM mode to UMS mode, in order to make it function more like other players on the market. UMS or USB Mass Storage, allows users to load MP3s and other files onto their players, and allows them to treat the device as a USB Flash drive.
Instead of declaring war on it’s consumers by making this feature harder to bypass, to their credit, iRiver has released a firmware update to ‘officially’ switch back and forth between modes; without voiding your warranty. This update doesn’t seem to allow users to continue playing DRM’d WMA files without authorizaiton, only providing consumers more uses for a device they’ve already paid money for. More companies should adopt this approach to customer service. iRiver’s customers clearly wanted this abillity, other players in the market give them that ability, and in a tactic that is sure to have saved them a mass exodus to Apple or another MP3 player manufacturer, iRiver gave users what they wanted. Kudos, to you iRiver… you may have been the first to market a portable MP3 player, and Apple may own more percentage of the market, but you are certainly not out of the game yet.
This story is yet another example of why DRM does more to hurt consumers than it does to protect content. More companies should take the risk and offer non-DRM files for their customers to purchase, and because they don’t, Independent Record Labels have a huge opportunity to market to a large group of informed consumers who know what DRM is and can articulate why they don’t want any part of it. eMusic is one of the early pioneers, offering a subscriptioin service that allows for a certain number of downloads of 320kps MP3s for a fair monthly fee. Our personal favorite is Bleep.com, which is owned and operated by the infamous Warp Records. This download store allows for full previews (in 30 second increments, similiar to skipping the needle around on a record at your local vinyl store), and boasts the largest selection of underground electronic music covering all of the notable labels in this genre. Digital DJs will appreciate the integration of Native Instrument’s Traktor 3 DJ Studio with Beatport. Beatport caters more to to the danceable and club friendly end of the underground music scene, and is partially owned by Stanton and Native Instruments. By combining a software platform with a digital distribution store, they hope to mimic the success of Apple’s iTunes and iTunes Music Store one-two punch. DJs can browse, preview and download tracks in the same enviroment that they mix the music, which makes it easy to get non-DRM music ready to DJ with, sense Traktor 3 doesn’t support any DRM formats due to licenseing and other nasty restrictions. Even DIY-Till-We-Die record label, Nophi Recordings, has created their own low cost, bootstraped digital distribution site, Phitunes, built using paypal, a little ingenuity and a lot of elbow grease.
DRM alternatives are sprouting up everywhere, and is a direct reaction to Big Content’s (RIAA/MPAA) war against consumers and the things they want to do with the devices and media that they legally purchased. Independent Record Labels and Unsigned Artists have a huge opening in which to service consumers demands and get their music into the ear’s of people that will appreciate it. The risk that somebody will pirate the non-DRM music they legally purchased is small, as the files have more percieved value than files they nicked from their favorite p2p program, I guaratee.
