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19 Sep 2005
A rock musician has expressed anger at digital rights management (DRM) technology after hearing complaints from fans who are having difficulty importing his group's songs to programs like iTunes.
Speaking on a music forum, Tim Foreman, bassist with San Diego rock band Switchfoot, wrote: "My heart is heavy with this whole copy-protection thing.
"We were horrified when we first heard about the new copy-protection policy that is being implemented by most major labels, including Sony (our own label), and immediately looked into all our options for removing this from our new album.
"Unfortunately, this is the new policy for all new major releases from these record companies. It is heartbreaking to see our blood, sweat and tears over the past two years blurred by the confusion and frustration surrounding this new technology.
"It is also unfortunate when bands such as ourselves, Foo Fighters, Coldplay, etc. are the target of this criticism, when there is no possible way to avoid this new industry policy."
Foreman then went on to provide details of how to crack the digital rights protection.
He justified his actions saying: "We refuse to allow corporate policy to taint the family we've developed together.
"We deeply regret that there exists the need for any of our listeners to spend more than 30 seconds importing our music, but we're asking as friends and partners in this journey together to spend the extra 10 minutes that it takes to import these songs."
John Buckman, founder of music download service Magnatune, said: "Users do not want DRM so I am not surprised that a band is doing this.
"Music sales are sold by the four majors and not many bands are actually in favour of DRM because it stops you ripping CDs and is implemented in a range of ways by the online music sellers like iTunes.
"Advising fans to get round the technology could be a bit risky. It is a crime in the US to subvert DRM and therefore it may be a crime to incite people to do so."
The title of Switchfoot's latest album, Nothing is Sound, seems strangely prescient.
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Do you agree?
...but I havn't had such problems...
I'm following the debate, but I have not noticed any such protection. I've been using iPods since they were initially released and by now I have many thousands of songs, most of them actually purchased! I have not bought a single song from iTunes yet, simply because they are too expensive. There are sites priced at only 1/10. I at least believe that they are legal, so why should I bother to steal when I can buy cheap? I have not experienced a single difficult downloading yet (but sometimes difficulties to change tagging when I want to change the tagging language). The protectionism that you are describing sounds really bad, but I have not seen it! Mbenzi
Posted by: Mbenzi 06 Oct 2005
Online Purchases Sound Worse
But when you buy the music online, you're getting a compressed version of the song that doesn't sound as good. I'd be more willing to buy online if they gave me the option of buying an uncompressed version of the song. Until then, I'd rather get the actual CD.
Posted by: Dave 21 Sep 2005
The instructions...
...are on the band's site, or did you not read (and comprehend) the whole article? It's a common thing to do for what they're saying - personally, I buy music online so I don't have to dabble with a CD I purchased that may or may not have copy protection. Burning online-bought tracks negates the necessity for physical media if you have a digital audio player that's compatible with the service you buy from.
Posted by: WarpKat 20 Sep 2005
How to
F the record companies! They should be sued for installing malicious software/spyware/malware on consumers' computers in the guise of trying to protect their greedy asses. Be careful putting these DRM CDs in your computer because they can wreak havoc with your registry settings and make your computer's media player behave strangely. I know this from using the Velvet Revolver CD. Ripped it anyway!
Posted by: NoDRM 20 Sep 2005
Easy now, WarpKat
Nowhere in the article does it mention that he posted the instructions on the bands website...
Posted by: Clear Reader 20 Sep 2005
What else can be done?
People are always going to steal and pass around music, so it's no wonder the record companies want DRM. The problem is the DRM is easily defeated and pirated anyway so in fact, DRM only deters legitimate music buyers. This is a problem. I'm afraid the only way to persuade record companies to drop the useless DRM is to not buy CDs with DRM at all and write to them to let them know why. That last step is important, otherwise sales drops will be falsely blamed on piracy.
Posted by: Kevin Hayes 19 Sep 2005
where the tips?
where are the instructions then?!!
Posted by: ed 19 Sep 2005