[dvd-discuss] NY Times article on CD Copy Protection

["Arnold G. Reinhold" <reinhold(at)world.std.com>]

Today's New York Times has an interesting article "CD Technology 
Stops Copies, but It Starts a Controversy" 
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/01/technology/01PROT.html

One question I have is whether the purveyors of this new technology 
are violating consumer protection and fair trade laws.

Here's my favorite quote:

'But Macrovision , one company supplying the industry with the new 
technology, said several CD's bearing its copy-protection system had 
been released by major labels in the United States and were being 
sold in record stores across the country. "It doesn't have a big 
label on it saying `copy protected,' " said Brian McPhail, vice 
president and general manager of Macrovision's consumer software 
division. "But some of these have been pretty high distributions."'

Another quote:

'"More Music from the Fast and the Furious," released by Universal in 
December, will sometimes not play correctly on Macintosh computers, 
and people who listen to the CD on a computer hear poorer sound than 
they would on a CD player. A small warning on the label says it is 
copy-protected. It says: "Playback problems may be experienced. If 
you experience playback problems, return this disc for a refund."

That is misleading. There are more than playback problems involved. 
Courts have ruled that "space shifting"  tracks to a portable player 
is legal. A consumer expecting to do this would be mislead by the 
above labeling.

The failure to clearly label disks that are copy protected means that 
consumers have to go through the added expense of returning disks 
they can't use, stores lose customer goodwill, and competing record 
companies lose the opportunity to sell the consumer a title that is 
not copy protected.


Arnold Reinhold