[wordup] Copy-protected CDs come to NZ....

[Adam Shand]

Via: Simon Horsburgh <simon.horsburgh at stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
Via: nz.general
From: http://www.aardvark.co.nz/

I've just finished talking with Michael Gladding from Sony Music and
he tells me that there are plans to start marketing copy-protected CDs
in NZ stores.

He claims that unless the industry does something to stem piracy,
local jobs will be lost within the retail and distribution chains.

I asked him what's to stop those who want to RIP music CDs from simply
buying unprotected copies from Amazon.com and he said "nothing."

It is hard to understand how encouraging pirates to source their
master copies from the USA rather than through local stores will have
any affect on the alleged decline of the industry.

When I suggested that copy-protecting music CDs was a rather futile
gesture since the demographic which seems most active is also the same
group of people who will simply do a DAD rip from their CD player into
their soundcard he became quite agitated.

He claims that a lage number of copy-protected Celine Dion CDs have
recently been sold with very little negative feedback.  When I
suggested that perhaps the industry was being very careful to use
artists that don't appeal to the generation of people who are most
likely to rip their CDs to MP3 or burn backups he begrudgingly
acknowledged that it could be seen that way.

I suggested that by protecting Charlie Pride and Celine Dion CDs, they
can then crow about how people are quite happy that the technology
doesn't cause problems -- but when they tried it with Natalie
Imbruglia's latest release the stirred up a whole heap of trouble.

Michael confirms that, even though the target demographic for the
Brn&GtBrnt campaign are those who are very computer and Net-aware,
there is still no website to provide these people with information or
to answer their questions.  Is this typical of how out of touch the
industry is with the demands and needs of the marketplace?

Perhaps the most worrying aspect of the whole interview was Michael's
staunch view that *ALL* copying is illegal.

He made it clear that here in NZ, unlike the USA, there is no such
thing as fair use and the copyright act forbids all copying.  Yes, it
is absolutely illegal to burn a copy for the CD player in the car or
for your walkman.

He suggests that if your favourite $39.95 CD gets scratched or damaged
then you just buy another one.  "This was always the case with vinyl"
he told me.   Can I suggest that this simply proves how "stuck int he
past" the recording industry is?

I suggested that, in the days of vinyl, many people used to tape their
LPs and then store them safely -- using the taped copies for
day-to-day listening.  In a rather aggitated fasion, I was told that
that was rubbish and nobody did this.

Was I really so strange in wanting to protect my original vinyl
recordings??

Paradoxically, it seems that the recording industry intends to take no
action against TVNZ after they aired a piece on this morning's
Breakfast programme in which technology commentator Pat Pilcher walked
people through the process of ripping vinyl recordings onto CDR.

Gladding said that such a transfer is definitely illegal.

When I pointed out that a few months ago Dick Smith Electronics were
promoting their CDR drives with the claim that people could create
their own music compilation disks Gladding said that he wishes he'd
known about -- clearly implying (at least to me) that they might have
acted on this.

I asked if, in light of the fact that the Net-savvy pirates seem to be
ignoring the Brn&GtBrnt campaign, a special website would be built to
better communicate the industry's concerns and to allow people to have
their questions answered I was told "yes"

When asked when such a site would be put online I was told that no
timeframe has been decided and that over half a million dollars had
already been spent on promoting the campaign.  I was also told by
Gladding that he was a busy guy and this wasn't the only thing he did.

Funny -- I would have thought that if music piracy is really the
massive problem the industry claims, then $2K-$3K for a small website
would have been a great investment.

Oh well... I bet you all can't wait to rush out and buy those
copy-protected music CDs when they hit the shelves eh?

Or does someone have a better idea?