I find it insulting that Sony would create a copy protection scheme that prevents you from playing their CD's in certain CD players. I do hope the DMCA gets challenged in court but I have no expectation that today's courts would rule in favor of the consumer.

If the federal government can tell the governors of 9 Western states they will block any attempt to "look into" allegations of unfair energy pricing by Enron, the President can tell a world conference that he will not sign a unanimously ratified treaty banning development and deployment of biological weapons because "it would have a negative impact on the bottom line of some American companies and I can't allow that", and the Peabody Coal Co. is protected by the federal courts while they exterminate the Hopi people with unrestrained contamination of the ground water in the Four Corners area, there certainly isn't much hope that consumers will have an effective advocate in a case regarding potential loss of corporate profits.

Good luck Griffinme... welcome to the underground....

"I find it insulting that Sony would create a copy protection scheme that prevents you from playing their CD's in certain CD players. I do hope the DMCA gets challenged in court but I have no expectation that today's courts would rule in favor of the consumer."

That's Sony's perrogative, stupid as it may be. The DMCA has nothing to do with that only that you can't hack it. What's gratifying is all the music companies that are losing money by the truckload, and they don't understand why.

Media companies have always feared new technology, VHS/Beta, digital tape recorders, CD-RW, DivX, and in the end they always find they must join because they can't win. I think we're seeing that last desperate attempts before they wise up. Tape shows off the TV, tape songs off the radio, make copies of your CD's, its all legal if its for personal use (no sharing). Besides, even if it weren't, they can't arrest everybody.

Awww come on guys.
It's perfectly normal for the record companies to try to protect their own interests. What's all this about? It would be like criticizing Brad for trying to find ways to prevent people from pirating his software.
And what's with all this government bashing? Are we supposed to be against laws now? Free for all? Get all the sotware, music, art for free? Heck, while we're at it, why not make breaking and entering legal?

Please quit trying to hide music and movie theft behind the freedom of speech.

paxx - I have no problem with Sony's or anybody else's property rights, but the media companies have never been smart about how they go about protecting it.

If they had their way no one could own a CD-RW disk, or a tape recorder, or a copying machine, or a scanner. Don't laugh, everytime a new technology that threatened to make it easy to copy their material was introduced, they have sued to have the technology outlawed. Don't laugh, its true. For example, if the movie companies had had there way, there would be no VHS, but the courts and Congress said go away. Then the movie companies finally realized that renting and selling VHS copies of their movies was an untapped gold mine.

Problem with the recording industry is they haven't figured out how to take advantage of the new technologies, and this is the first time Congress has let them off the hook.

I remember the concerns about general accessibility to colour photocopiers...and how it could impact on money forgery...

Sony would be better served by lobbying to raise the price of blank CDs....perhaps even getting a kick-back from them, and at the same time lowering the Music CD price, ultimately making the piracy issue financially unsustainable....If it cost you virtually the same for a blank as a recorded CD then there'd be no incentive...

But I guess that'll never happen...

Again, my issue is purely with the potential to harm your computer.
Burglary may be a crime...but setting a man-trap to 'prevent' it actually carries a heavier penalty...

It's really a much bigger issue. I have absolutely no problem with protecting one's copyright. I have no problem with prosecuting people that sell illegal copies.

I was in the consumer electronics business when the Betamax was released (by Sony ironically) and watched the trials where the Supreme Court decided in favor of the technology because of the potential benefits it promised (about twenty five years ago now). I worked with the guy that invented video rentals. He went through the famous "First Sale Doctrine" trials. I sold DAT machines when they were crippled with the SCMS chip and watched that format die because of the copy protection that was built in. Even the MD format was crippled taking away a brilliant recording technology because the entertainment industry didn't trust the public with a quality recording device.

What really bothers me is the fundamental change in the legislative and product development mentality which has crept into the world over the last twenty years. Now you are considered a criminal before you have done anything to deserve such a label. Rather than try to catch the bad guys, just assume everyone is a bad guy and try to prevent them from doing too much harm. This is a dangerous way to view the general public. It supresses beneficial technology and promotes petty crime while disregarding the real benefits of information technologies.

If you feel like reading a long statement on this matter, one that sums up my feelings better than I ever could, read this: http://www.lightstreamdesign.com/rant.html It's over a year old now but still speaks very well to the real tragedy of protecting private interests over the benefits that could be reaped for all mankind.

Another thing, I have kids. I have CD's. Kids scratch CD's. I would rather not spend a small fortune replaceing scratched CD's that I already paid for. I would also rather not pay for one copy on the stereo, two for the computers, one for the car. And what happens when I need to replace or reformat that computer/stereo/car? That is what the record companies are pushing for.

BTW: I don't have a single MP3 on either computer.

Nice website, DavidK.