[DMCA-Activists] EMI Germany to "Protect" All CDs

[Seth Johnson]

(Forwarded from Free Sklyarov UK list.  Article text pasted
below.  -- Seth)

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [free-sklyarov-uk] EMI Germany to "protect" all CDs
Date: Fri, 08 Nov 2002 12:40:02 +0000
From: Dominic Jackson <address@hidden>
To: address@hidden

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/28009.html>

Their customer service dept. is even more diplomatic than
BMG's!

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> http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/28009.html

All Cds Will Be Protected And You Are A Filthy Pirate

By John Lettice
Posted: 08/11/2002 at 11:42 GMT


One mad consumer relations team might be an isolated
incident, two begins to look like a trend. The dismissive
response Bertelsmann Music Group's copy protection team
recently issued to a consumer's query essentially boiled
down to, 'all Cds will be copy protected, it's not our
problem that they won't play on some devices, so tough.' But
apparently, it's a competition. EMI Germany is taking pretty
much the same attitude, and its humorously-tagged Consumer
Relations team is calling the customers pirates while it's
about it. 

Thanks to DeeKay for drawing our attention to this little
stunner, and for help in the translation. German speakers
can view the original in all its glory here, but we think
the following loose translation captures the flavour of the
atrocity (our bold on the best bits). 

"Dear Mr. xxx, 

We will refrain from addressing the points in your email
that are clearly erroneous. We also don't want to bore you
with a lengthy explanation of why the music industry is
forced to use copy protection measures, even though we would
prefer to do something else. Only this much: There are 250
Million blank CDRs and tapes bought and used this year for
copying music in comparison to 213 Million prerecorded audio
media. This means the owners are only being paid for 46 per
cent of the musical content. For a comparison: In 1998
almost 90% of all audio media was paid for. Even without a
degree in economics everyone should realise that such trends
will result in the music industry ceasing to exist. Only one
measure can be used against widespread cloning of
prerecorded audio media by burning CDRs: copy protection!
This is also the reason why record companies increasingly
have to protect their CDs. An alternative solution for
stopping this abuse is unfortunately not within sight. But
we fear that these facts don't interest you at all. Because
these measures mean the end of free music, something that
must cause you much grief. 

"Should you really have a problem with playing the CD in
question, we would like you to name the exact model of your
player. Then we can compare this model with the list we have
of players that our CDs run on without any trouble. Then
we'll see if the problem really is the copy protection or if
there are completely different reasons. The case you are
reporting that even multiple players refuse to function can,
in our experience, only originate from the realm of
fairytales. The copy protection we employ is state of the
art, this means there's nothing better available to date. If
there will be something better, we won't hesitate to use it.
Problems with playing on common CD-players are minimal, but
every now and then it happens that copy protected CDs don't
work on a player. We forward these cases immediately to our
copy protection-provider, which is trying hard to adapt the
technology accordingly and solve the problems. 

"If you plan on cracking copy protection measures and
burning the CD by other means we must point out to you that
this will be illegal in the near future when the new
European Intellectual Property law is introduced in Germany.
Such breaches of intellectual property will then also be
legally pursued by the state. The officials of the consumer
rights ministry won't tell you anything different - after
all it was the politicians who urged us to finally introduce
copy protection measures. 

"If you plan to continue protesting about future audio media
releases with copy protection, forget it; copy protection is
a reality, and within a matter of months more or less all
audio media worldwide are copy protected. And this is a good
thing for the music industry. In order to make this happen
we will do anything within our power - whether you like it
or not." 

Good, isn't it? What it has in common with the BMG response
is first, that it is written from the standpoint that the
company will not readily accept the argument that a
protected CD that won't play in some players, meaning that
consumers rejecting copy protection will therefore face a
long slog if they pursue the matter with the music company.
And they might also get a visit from the anti-piracy squad.
It still seems relatively easy to get a refund from stores,
because most of them seem not as yet to be parroting the
music companies' 'it's not broken' line, but their attitude
may change. Note however EMI's introduction of the consumer
rights card â this suggests the company intends to use the
new copyright laws to fuzz up the consumer's existing rights
to have products that actually work. Or perhaps even to
overthrow these rights. 

Second, the 'all CDs will be protected' line is clearly
massively important to them. If it's possible to buy CDs
that aren't protected, and consumers are aware of the
differentiation, then not a lot of people are likely to want
to buy the protected versions, so the introduction of copy
protection will fail. If however it becomes more difficult,
and finally impossible, then refuseniks will be driven back
to recording from the audio output. Still not an ideal
outcome for the music business, but they no doubt calculate
that the added inconvenience will reduce copying
substantially, and besides, they're not finished yet. 

Finally, view these two responses (and no doubt many others
out there) as an example of how cuddly, responsive and
customer-centric the music business will be when it has DRM.
They really are looking forward to the day when you have no
rights. ®