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This week a letter by me on the subject of copy protection (henceforth to be referred to as access controls
as that is a much better descriptor of what they do) got published in Drum Media (a free music paper).
This letter was somewhat more sensible (and vastly less funny) than my last letter to them which was written from the perspective of a penguin. They printed that one too.
On the lighter side of ill thought out copy protection
In the Netherlands the release of 100th Window was promoted with limited edition Massive Attack Apple iPods. Then they followed that up by releasing the album in a copy protected format that's incompatible with the iPod.
You couldn't make this stuff up!
Disturbing lack of links recently.
My blog seems to have become monodimensional of late. Partly because I've been pasting in text that's was used in link free mediums. Partly because of blog-lazyness. (I wonder if someone has coined a phrase for this. Half-blarsed
sounds good).
To make up for this here are some links relating to the copy protected disc issue:
- Massive Attack Forums
- EMI Australia forum for discussing copy controls
- Another angry blogger
- The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
- The album at the HMV website, complete with my review
- The album at Chaosmusic, complete with my review
- The U.K. Campaign for Digital Rights has a good summary of issues involving these discs.
Copy Protection part 2
I exchanged 100th Window for the Zwan album. I am slightly disappointed at myself for exchanging because I fear that HMV (and possibly EMI) may not see that as the same as the loss of a sale.
However I was very definately going to buy the Zwan album anyway today so this is the loss of a sale.
I was on my lunch hour and quite frankly had better things to be doing than arguing to get my money back to make a point and then spending it on the Zwan album straight away.
I was a little disappointed with the ease with which HMV took it back as I'd managed to work myself up quite a bit about the whole situation and could have done with a bit of a spleen venting over copy protection.
According to the sign behind the desk at HMV their return policy is that if you have the receipt and the goods are still in saleable condition they'll take it.
As such I didn't even have to bring up the copy protection. The girl behind the desk just looked at the disc and said they couldn't take it because of fingerprints on the disk (non-playing side) but when I rather curtly suggested she wipe them off she had no objections and the exchange was made.
She could probably tell that I was a bit irate, I wonder if she's had any other people returning 100th Window?
I don't think this is over yet for me.
I think I will be writing to HMV to point out that the copy protection has cost them a sale.
I think I will also write and make a complaint to the ACCC. Even though I have made my return I still think the insufficient labeling on the CD needs to be brought to their attention. A consumer should not need to spend their valuable time returning a good because the only disclosure is a tiny sticker with even tinier writing stuffed in the lower right hand corner (and therefore likely to be hidden under the thumb of any right handed person who picks up the CD to look at it).
Great weekend in football
Manchester united 0 - 3 Arsenal.Olympic Sharks 2 - 3 Northern Spirit.
Shooting yourself in the foot
From: Paul McGarryTo: copycontrol@emi.com.au
Dear sir/madam,
Over the years I have spent a significant amount of money purchasing music from bands I like.
I own approximately 400 CDs which contain almost 300 hours of music.
A full list of the CDs I own is available at http://pmcg.whollyshit.org/cdcatalogue/
I also own a Sony NW-MS11 network walkman which uses a memory stick to temporarily store music for playing. Obviously it is a device whose tiny size and weight makes it significantly more pleasant to use than a cd based player.
Today I purchased the new Massive Attack album "100th Window" without noticing the (tiny) copy protection sticker on it.
This "copy protection" severely reduces the value of the CD to me as I can no longer play it on my preferred device.
Whatever theoretical gains this technology gives you as a company (a quick search reveals that it certainly doesn't stop tracks being freely available on the internet) these copy protection mechanisms definitely hurt your genuine customers.
I for one should no longer be considered as part of your potential market for any other CDs that come with "copy protection".
--http://pmcg.blogspot.com/
http://pmcg.whollyshit.org/
Opera Release Swedish Chef Edition
Get the scoop.Sun Exclusive
Or, in other wordswe just made this up. Still, I think Ronaldo joining Arsenal is something I could live with.
Irritation
Recently I've been finding myself becoming increasingly irritated with websites that seem to assume I want to open links in a new window. Some of them are friends sites, some of them are even people whose blogs I read because of their intimacy with web technologies.
But whatever the site it irritates me because:
- Clicking on such a link causes something
unexpected
to happen, interrupting my thought and browsing process. - If I did want to open the link in a new window, my browser provides countless ways of doing so with minimal fuss (drag and drop, shift-click, right click->open in new window all spring to mind and keyboard equivalents).
- If I don't want a targeted link to open in a new window I have to:
- Somehow identify that it is a targeted link.
- Find a way to open it in the current window (the only thing that springs to mind is drag and drop, I'm probably screwed on the keyboard).
In order to minimise my pain I've altered user style sheet to identify such links so that I'm no longer taken by surprise when I click one. Ultimatly I just wish people would let me browse how I want to unless they have a exceptionally good reason not to.
Bonsai Update
I was given a bonsai kit for Christmas and it's recently started to bust a move, so I thought I'd post a picture.
I don't need all four of those shoots so I'll be lopping at least a couple of them before they get much bigger.
Get Your War On
Cool Present Time
Today Tamsin gave me a box of "Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans". Despite Pottermania and a bunch of boring Harry Potter sweets turning up in Australia the Every Flavour Beans weren't released here so these ones have come all the way from America (thus the misspelling of "Flavour"). As well as your bog standard flavours you get "black pepper", "Booger" (another Americanism?), "Dirt", "Ear Wax", "Grass", "Sardine", "Spinach" and "Vomit".Cheers Tams!
