GristyMcFisty used our news submit to tell us
that the Belgium consumer organisation Test-Aankoop (translated to Test-Achats)
is sueing the record industry over audio copy protections. Lately record
companies have added copy protections to CDs to prevent illegal copying and
distrubution over file sharing networks.
Many of these protections make
use of modifications of the CD standard and are therefor not always compatible
with excisting CD players. Consumers should expect that every CD they purchase
plays in their CD player. Besides that the protection also prevent (or at least
make it hard) to make legal personal backups.
it has received lots of consumer complaints in recent months about CDs equipped with anti-piracy systems, in particular 'Laundry Service' by Shakira, '1 Giant Leap' by Faithless and Bjork's 'Greatest Hits'. Often, these CDs can't be read by PCs and car stereos, and prevent users from making legal private copies, according to Test-Achats. Test-Achats is thought to be the first consumer watchdog to challenge the music industry in court over anti-piracy protection |
In 2001, a Californian woman filed a lawsuit against an
independent record label for embedding technology in CDs that blocked people
from listening to songs on a PC. The case was settled by
implementing a return policy. From then on, record companies began to include a
warning that copy-protected CDs are not designed to work with DVD or CD ROM
players. Also Philips said it was prepared to sue manufacturers if they failed
to include clearly inform users that their products are copy-protected. More
about this case can be found here.
Source: TheRegister.co.uk
