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Fight for your rights: corrupt CDs infringe fair use
By Teresa Dickert
Staff Writer
Pink, Kid Rock, Ozzy Osbourne, Britney Spears, and Marilyn Manson. One would not imagine these artists to be linked in anyway, but they are. Each of these artists has produced a record that landed itself on a list of "corrupt CDs" at http://www.fatchucks.com/. It is a list that contains discs reported by consumers that do not properly play on computerized devices such as computers, DVD players, PlayStation, MP3 players, high-end stereo equipment, car CD players, and other playing devices.
These discs have been made with the purpose of preventing people from copying the electronic media for personal use, which as of yet is still legal through a complicated right called "fair-use." Because of this, these defective CDs have taken heat, and many consumers as well as companies implore that these CDs be specifically marked in one-way or another.
In accordance, Philips Electronics, holder of the most CD digital audio (CD-DA) patents and co-creator of the format, declared that CDs including anti-copying technology break the CD-DA standard, and therefore should not be allowed to use the "Compact Disc" logo. Consumer groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (http://www.eff.org), have glorified Philips statements, and started letter writing campaigns of their own, among other actions.
Not alone in the fight, Congressman Rick Boucher, expressed his outrage in a January 2002 document addressed to Hilary B. Rosen, president and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and Jay Berman, chairman and chief executive of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). In the letter he implores Rosen and Berman to inform consumers, retailers, and device-manufacturers about the technologies being used and their effects (http://www.dotcomscoop.com/article.php?sid=80).
The fight against corrupt CDs can be seen as a small part of a larger picture trying to protect a wide variety of intellectual property including DVDs, games, software, and more. In March 2002, Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.) introduced the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA). This copyright control would force manufacturers to embed copy protection in all devices that can receive digital media.
Yet, among the hubbub, it should be noted that in the case of "corrupted CDs," and perhaps in the case of all anti-pirate technology to date, the copy protection devices in place are easy to break. Fat Chucks even gives step-by-step instructions on how to bypass different styles of protective technologies. Due to this reason, and reasons such as this one, even Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen has stated that copy protection efforts are doomed to failure.
Has this issue caused you distress, and would you like to express your sentiments somehow? You are not alone. Fat Chucks has suggested a list of seven things you can do:
1) E-mail others
2) Let the CD distributors/sellers know how you feel
3) Sign "no-corrupt CDs" petitions
4) Write the RIAA
5) Reply to an e-mail from CDNow
6) Print and share a list of corrupt CDs compiled on the Fat Chucks website
7) Contact the FTC
If you are at all interested in the future of music, I would encourage you to take action in one of these ways. The details can be found here: http://www.fatchucks.com/corruptcds/action.html. It might also be a good idea to stay in touch with this issue through the following two websites: http://www.futureofmusic.org/ and http://www.eff.org/.
