‘Don’t sue our DRM researchers!’
p2p news / p2pnet: The EFF wants to look for more DRM on music CDs and is asking for assurances from EMI, one of the Big Four record labels, that it won’t try to sue researchers.
The foundation has sent an open letter to EMI Music, which handles performers including Coldplay, calling on it to to publicly promise, “not to pursue any legal action against computer security researchers who examine the copy-protection technologies used on some EMI CDs”.
The Sony BMG DRM spyware debacle has left the entire corporate music industry reeling, but Sony BMG wasn’t alone in using DRM on its music CDs, says the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation).
In fact, Coldplay’s X&Y album is reportedly all-but unplayable because of it.
“Several record labels owned by EMI, including Virgin Records, Capitol Records, and Liberty Records, use similar copy-protection technologies supplied by Macrovision,” says the EFF. “On those CDs, an end user license agreement (EULA) forbids reverse engineering for any reason, including security testing. In addition, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has chilled the efforts of computer security researchers interested in examining copy-protected CDs.”
Music fans, “deserve to know whether EMI’s copy-protected CDs are exposing their computers to security risks,” says Fred von Lohmann, senior EFF staff attorney.
“When it comes to computer security, it pays to have as many independent experts kick the tires as possible, and that can only happen if EMI assures those experts that they won’t be sued for their trouble.”
Also See:
all-but unplayable – DRM ruins Coldplay album, January 5, 2006
January 5th, 2006 at 4:31 pm
Yeah, right, like EMI are going to be nice guys about this. It is outrageous that EULAs and the DMCA can prevent reverse engineering for security reasons. The potential for abuse becomes limitless. Fortunately the DCMA is only U.S. law, and EULAs are only as effective as a country’s willingness to enforce it. Perhaps reverse engineering could be done in a country that is not in the RIAA’s pocket. I have noticed with EULA’s that you can’t even read most of them until you have already purchased the product. As I have said in previous posts, the LEAST that could be done is to require EULA’s and any type of drm to be listed on the OUTSIDE of the product, so that the customer can make an informed decision before purchasing. Perhaps the EFF should push for a law requiring this.
January 5th, 2006 at 8:58 pm
DRM is becoming the headache that the media cartels will find out wasn’t worth the hassel nor the investment, just as Sony found out.
Of course, we all realise that the plunging sales has nothing to do with the very thing that customers love to hate about music. I can’t play it in my cd player in my vehicle, Joe can’t legally rip a copy of what he has purchased, and Jane can’t take her copy back because she is unsatisfied with the quality of contents. What’s not to love about it?
January 6th, 2006 at 1:20 pm
I stopped buying CD`s! ( except for independent labels, which I still support with my mighty $$$ )
Considering I was spending around $3000.00 a year on comercial music, it`s a big loss for the music companies, even worse for them is that I will NEVER buy any products from them again.
EMI, SONY, all just losers…..
Downloading and Uploading are not illegal where I live …