p2pnet.net News:- Members of the Big Four record label cartel, led by Britain’s EMI and “coordinated through their U.S. and international trade associations” [read RIAA and IFPI] are, “creating a ‘wish list’ of CD rights protection features they want to see in Longhorn. Microsoft, in turn, has provided its own set of guidelines for the labels, without yet promising anything …”

The quotes come in a CNET News story which makes it clear the music industry, at the least, flat out isn’t going to accept that DRM in any form just won’t work – unless it’s counting on the offline record buying public as its principal source of income.

Because anyone who’s online and who’s spent any time checking out the possibilities of obtaining music over the Net knows copy protection works only in the minds of the people who are making it and trying to sell it, such as Sunncomm and BMG.

The two companies have been locked in a strange, no-winners kind of partnership which has done little more than show clearly and unequivocally that what one company can join, a few skilled amateurs can put assunder, and in a matter of moments.

The fiasco where BMG billed Velvet Revolver’s Contraband as ‘protected against unauthorized duplication’ via SunnComm’s MediaMax is just one example. It was on the p2p networks almost at the moment it was released.

The long list of Sunncomm failures notwithstanding, EMI is said to be thinking that maybe MediaMax will do the trick.

But, “The labels are far from unanimous on their thoughts about how to use, or even whether to use, copy protection technology on CDs,” says CNET, although, “sources said most are eager to avoid being locked into Microsoft technology and want to ensure that Longhorn provides a platform for copy protection that is at least as consumer-friendly as Apple Computer’s iTunes Music Store.”

It goes on to quote :EMI Music chairman David Munns, “who has helped coordinate discussions among the music labels,” as saying, “We’re asking Microsoft to put in a framework – not to say what the rules are . This would solve consumer confusion and help make the whole thing a much more friendly and easier consumer experience.”

One of the problems the cartel refuses to acknowledge is online, ‘consumers’ aren’t consumers anymore: thanks to the Net, they’re customers again, which means they can, and do, pick and choose, using any means they can find to test ‘product’ before spending good money on it.

The p2p networks allow them to do this. DRM tries to stop the process.

But as p2pnet reader Iain Elder points out, “Everyone can beat DRM, and you don’t even need to be a hacker. If you have a personal CD player, and a line-feed cable (with the small jack plugs), then you can rip the CD analogally.” (Is ‘analogally‘ a word, Iain? ; )

In the meanwhile, “EMI, in particular, has previously talked with Microsoft about ways to make copy protection a simpler experience by building support more deeply into the operating system,” according to CNET.

“One idea from the record label side would be to let the operating system recognize a CD, when it is put in the tray, and automatically set in motion whatever usage rules have been specified by the label itself on the CD. This might include limits on the number of copies that can be made or what rules would be associated with a digitally ‘ripped’ file, for example.”

CNET says discussions that have included the major and larger independent labels and, “Representatives from the RIAA are scheduled to meet with Microsoft on Sept. 20 to discuss the requests”.

But Bill and the Boyz don’t want to, “support technologies that might be viewed by consumers as aggressive or potentially related to spyware, sources said”.

In LA, they’re still scrambling for a way to ‘protect’ screeners.

But it’ll all be moot anyhow because by the time Longhorn finally hits the streets, we’ll be sharing by mind-melds.

====================

See:-

fiasco – MediaMax protected CD online, p2pnet, June 18, 2004

analogally – (see Reader’s Write in above story)

pick and choose - Customer choice is back, p2pnet, September 12, 2004

scrambling – Scrambled Screeners, p2pnet, September 4, 2004

(Cheers Drake ; )

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