There’s tons of business for us Hollywood folks to take care of today - that chair by the pool isn’t going to sit on itself after all. But the comments from my weekend tirade on anti-media tirades has produced a lot of good discussion, so maybe that’ll hold you ravenous beasts until tomorrow.
The biggest news around here today is that the sitcom pilot that my loverly wife had a small role on has been picked up as a “midseason replacement” by NBC. What this seems to mean is that Jeanne will likely have a small recurring role on a TV show that has pretty good prospects. We’re guardedly hysterical, and I’ll keep you posted.
“Guardedly hysterical” is also my reaction to one of the CD’s I picked up this weekend, for very different reasons. It’s the new Dave Matthews album, and I won’t offer a link because I’d like you to avoid buying it. No, not on artistic grounds. And not because of the feverish and cult-like intensity of his fans - though they’re the reason why I generally avoid mentioning Dave Matthews’ name in public places. The last time I did so I woke up 45 days later at an airport where I’d apparently been handing out flowers.
No, it’s because of the strong “digital rights management” encrypted onto the disc, which makes “fair use” copying about as easy as building a nuclear submarine in your backyard. Here’s the record label’s helpful advice on how to listen to the music you just bought:
If you have a PC place the CD into your computer and allow the CD to automatically start. If the CD does not automatically start, open your Windows Explorer, locate the drive letter for your CD drive and double-click on the LaunchCD.exe file located on your CD.
Once the application has been launched and the End User License Agreement has been accepted, you can click the Copy Songs button on the top menu.
Follow the instructions to copy the secure Windows Media Files (WMA) to your PC. Make a note of where you are copying the songs to, you will need to get to these secure Windows Media Files in the next steps.
Once the WMA files are on your PC you can open and listen to the songs with Windows Media Player 9.0 or higher. You may also play them in any compatible player that can play secure Windows Media files, such as MusicMatch, RealPlayer, and Winamp, but it will require that you obtain a license to do so. To obtain this license,from the Welcome Screen of the user interface, click on the link below the album art that says If your music does not play in your preferred player, click here. Follow the instructions to download the alternate license.
Using Windows Media Player only, you can then burn the songs to a CD. Please note that in order to burn the files, you need to upgrade to or already have Windows Media Player 9 or greater.
Once the CD has been burned, place the copied CD back into your computer and open iTunes. iTunes can now rip the songs as you would a normal CD.
See? Easy as a self-appendectomy. Worse, any self-respecting pirate has already found a way around the protection. A quick Google search assured me that these “protection” schemes have about the same effect on music pirates as a fierce-looking figurehead on a prow did on the more colorful, pegleg-and-parrot-and-saying-Aaarg-a-lot pirates of yesteryear.
This sort of thing is precisely why Rep. Rick Boucher has to file an updated Digital Media Consumer Rights Act every year. But that alone won’t do it. At the risk of provoking a legion of angry, tambourine-beating fans to show up at my apartment, I’m hereby urging you all not to buy the new Dave Matthews album. This will not stand. All we have to do is stand up to this kind of -
Excuse me, there’s someone at my door and an overwhelming smell of sandalwood. Be right back -
Fanny Roborat
30 comments
tess
May 16, 2005 at 10:58 pm
1Indeed — though those DCMA people are getting more aggressive about shutting down my favorite bittorrent sites. Though I’m actually kinda glad becuase I was getting sick of seeing ugly people’s tits and vagina’s every time I want to download “House” or the latest Beck album.
Hehe — encryption. That’s such a stupid scheme.
As my boyfriend explained to me, if you can play it, you can hack it, rip it, and put it up online.
music and meaning
May 16, 2005 at 11:26 pm
2(Guarded) congrats to Jeanne!
A few days ago, PhotoMatt posted a warning not to play the new DMB CD using a Windows computer — apparently it causes all sorts of trouble.
Speaking as a musician, I would never make people jump through that many hoops in order to listen to a CD that they bought.
Abner Cadaver
May 16, 2005 at 11:39 pm
3ARRRGH! Encryption, indeed! A good cutlass and a strong arm’ll make that an old hag1 heh heh hew haw!
Auros
May 17, 2005 at 2:38 am
4Dammit, Abner beat me to the saying of “Arrrrr!”
I’ve given up on DMB, anyways. They don’t seem to have done anything really impressive since the first album.
JB
May 17, 2005 at 3:04 am
5Let us know what the name of Jeanne’s show is going to be. And all the other details as well…, very exciting, congrats to her.
Remember the days when you could buy a record and tape it to cassette? No one ever made a big deal about that.
I have to mention that I was very disappointed when I bought a song from msn.com and then found I wasn’t able to copy it to cd. The intent, I guess, was for me to just play it on my computer. Well, I soon found a way around their protective ’stuff’, but I was annoyed and perplexed. Perhaps I was being naive, but I had figured when I bought the song that I would copy it to cd so that I could listen to it without having to lug my desktop computer around with me everywhere.
What you are talking about regarding the Dave Mathews CD is different though. Sounds like you just wanted to play the darn thing period, and they have made that difficult to do. Not very customer friendly. I don’t thing we have to worry about that catching on. Or do we? What label is Dave on? Sony?
Mary
May 17, 2005 at 8:42 am
6Don’t worry, Adam. The only time I listen to Dave Mathews is when I have the Santana CD/DVD playing. However, making someone who (over)pays for a CD jump thru so many hoops to just play it is criminal. Shame on DMB for allowing such a thing.
Johnnyboy
May 17, 2005 at 9:02 am
7“Remember the days when you could buy a record and tape it to cassette? No one ever made a big deal about that.”
You might be too young (which means that I’m really old), but there was a time when “HOME TAPING IS KILLING MUSIC” was printed on most album sleeves and K7 boxes. I guess music didn’t quite die from it, although when I head Dave Matthews’ recent work I kinda wish it did…
Lindsay
May 17, 2005 at 10:10 am
8Personally, I’m still giggling over that Sony protection scheme that could be defeated with a black permanent marker.
Dee
May 17, 2005 at 10:15 am
9When I start seeing record execs with foodstamps in Safeway, I’ll start believing that the music industry is “suffering” because of new technologies.
In the meantime, I’ll listen to satellite radio and my old Aretha CD’s. If they’re going to make me jump through that many hoops, screw ‘em.
jason
May 17, 2005 at 11:32 am
10You are one funny dude. By the way, could you burn me a copy?
jrm
May 17, 2005 at 11:57 am
11Who’s Dave Mathews.
Lynne
May 17, 2005 at 12:20 pm
12JB - I now have a vision of you in my head, walking down the street with a desk top on your shoulder like a boom box of old, listening to the Message by Grand Master Flash. I’m not sure where your speakers would be…I’m working on that part of the visual.
Eric
May 17, 2005 at 12:49 pm
13Trying to encrypt bits while shipping the key on the same CD is like trying to make water that is not wet. It can’t be done.
Jim
May 17, 2005 at 12:59 pm
14JB,
Dave Mathews Band is apparently on the brand new Microsoft label, not Sony.
madbard
May 17, 2005 at 1:20 pm
15Unwet water! Get your unwet water right here!
Courtesy RIAA and Intelligent Design.
Get a Mac.Richard
May 17, 2005 at 2:09 pm
16Dave Matthews on the Microsoft label, eh? I’d never have guessed. Minus ten points to Mr. Gates for assuming anyone not in an asylum would want to make copies of a Dave Matthews CD. (Sorry, Adam, but it had to be said.) I must stop the criticism there, however, as Dave might dump a load of raw sewage on my head when I least expect it.
Speaking as someone who’s putting large chunks of his entire music collection onto a brand new PC, I can say I’ve had similar problems playing certain CDs with excessive DRM - most notably the first Kings of Leon album. You would have thought the big and not so big guns had learnt their lessons from the last Michael Jackson album’s DRM balls up, but nay.
Still, why don’t you take / send the CD back to the store and say you meant to buy Eric Matthews’ new album instead? Attaboy.
JB
May 17, 2005 at 2:39 pm
17I have to admit Johnnyboy that as I typed
“Remember the days when you could buy a record and tape it to cassette? No one ever made a big deal about that.”
I was wondering if maybe I was in the midst of a process of selective memory, but then I figured, Naaah, my childhood was blissfull and took place in a world as virtuous as only my innocent and yearning mind could conceive.
“Home taping is killing music.” printed on a t-shirt might make a bundle at the next RIAA conference.
And Lynne, can you see the bright orange extension cord?
JB
May 17, 2005 at 2:42 pm
18Hey. Look at that. I can preview my message as I type it. I can even see my misteaks and, wow, neato.
Didn’t someone just ask for this yesterday? What great customer service.
Harold
May 17, 2005 at 5:46 pm
19The sad thing about this, as soon as one person hacks the CD and posts the files, the cat’s out of the bag, and the songs are free for the downloading for everybody who doesn’t mind engaging in a criminal act.* Meanwhile, good folks who aren’t trying to do anything criminal but are just trying to make a backup copy (less attractive to thieves when it’s tossed on your car seat), a mix disc or just play the damned thing on their PC will still have to go through all sorts of hoops just to do it.
*Disclaimer: I work in the CD/DVD industry on the manufacturing side, and I can tell you that we are getting murdered by all the illegal downloading that’s going on. If you think this is a victimless crime or one that only hurts the corporate overlords, you’re wrong.
Pete IVDL
May 17, 2005 at 6:06 pm
20Speaking as someone who makes a limited living from copying records, tapes, wax cylinders, etc. for Nice People, I don’t know whether I hate DRM more, or the fact that DRM is such an annoying joke.
Of course, I may just be bitter and twisted from beating my head against the various copyright acts in the US and Oz for the last 2 years… (I bitch about this on my website , in the FAQs. Mea maxim culpa.
It seems that the music industry wants us to purchase a right to listen to their product until it wears out or breaks, when we then have the right to purchase another right to listen to a worse copy of the same product, and woe betide anyone who tries to make a BACKUP COPY so that their original copy doesn’t get worn out. Of course, this applies only to records and tapes, CDs and DVDs are another kettle of fish.
No, it’s not right that anyone rips off any artist’s work; but it also isn’t right to deny folks the ability to listen to that artist without jumping through DRM hoops. In this case, it sounds like Adam can get another licence to bypass all the hoopla, and for free. D’oh.
Instant Water! Directions: just add water.
Adam Felber
May 17, 2005 at 10:14 pm
21Let me be a little clearer: I can listen to the album just fine, because the DRM doesn’t work on Macs,
It’s the principle of the thing that got my dander up. After getting the album home, I noted all the DRM small-print on the back cover (which was somewhat covered up by the price tag). I then went online, where I found out that I was fine with my Mac (I generally listen to my music in the car (through my iPod’s connection to my stereo, or when I’m walking. My car has no CD player, so the ability to transfer the music to my ‘Pod is… the whole point of buying it).
But going online made one thing clear - customers are annoyed, flummoxed, and bewildered by the DRM. Just go and check out the reviews at Amazon and you’ll get a taste of the annoyance. The confusion is on various message boards. No matter how you slice it, the pirates were unfazed while a lot of honest consumers found themselves locked out of music they thought they owned.
Grrrrrrrr.
Murray
May 17, 2005 at 10:54 pm
22When copies are outlawed, only outlaws will have copies, or something like that.
Congrats Adam, You have the right idea. The wife has a successful career, (steady income) and you are free to do as you want. (The trick is making her feel good because she is doing so well, while distracting her from noticing you may not be).
Works for me.
tess
May 17, 2005 at 11:07 pm
23Actually, the most amusing rational for pirate or downloading music and movies was to “protect the environment from polluting CDs and DVDs.” Personally, I prefer to buy my music and movies in a solid format, and now that I’m a student again, only if it’s cheap. Unfortunately I haven’t found a nice used place to buy my stuff on the cheap so I’ve been downloading my stuff (unless it’s classical, then I have to buy new).
Though I’ll give downloading this much — if it’s good enough (like “Howl’s Moving Castle” which is coming out in the state in late June), I’ll buy it or go to the theaters anyway. It’s helped feed my interest in bands like The Decemberists, Ani DiFranco, and The Black Keys, and depending on a person’s psychology, I may buy it anyway because it’s a solid purchase.
And why am I trying to rationlize my habits?
David
May 17, 2005 at 11:54 pm
24Moderation is active? Moderation is deader ‘n Elvis.
Julie R.
May 18, 2005 at 1:48 pm
25Congrats to Jeanne! Is it “Four Kings” or “Thick and Thin”? That’s so awesome. You’ve both been doing fabulously in L.A. — it’s wonderful when good things happen to good people. It restores a bit of my faith in humanity.
Adam Felber
May 18, 2005 at 4:14 pm
26It’s “Thick and Thin.”
Jeanne played the check-in/weigh-in receptionist at the diet center. For whatever it’s worth, one of the Executive Producers told her they’d be using her fairly often if the show got picked up.
Fingers, toes, teeth crossed.
Pete IVDL
May 18, 2005 at 5:30 pm
27Spot on, tess. I’ll happily download a clip; if I like it, I’ll buy the song if I can or the whole album if I can’t. (My latest is Il Divo; love ‘em to bits. Can’t understand a word they sing - no si parla Italiano - but even if they’re singing about taking out the rubbish, it’s bloody wonderful:))
And you raise the ugly point (and my favourite beef) regarding the Darkest Side of DRM - piracy.
I install and fix computers for friends, family, and neighbours, and I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve begged them to stop their kids from peer-to-peering music. I mean, it’s good for me - every time they ask me to remove malware (courtesy of Kazaa, or Bearshare or whatever), I have to charge ‘em - and so far, they pay more for me to spend 5 hours every month cleaning their song lists than if they bought the albums in the first place! And I’m not even going to get started on malware, lost credit card numbers, virii, etc.
And the most common reason they give for this schemozzle? “Oh, the kids can’t afford music”. Gimme a Lobsterdamn break! Even in VDL, I can buy Nelly Furtado or Powderfinger or Jethro Tull for 30 cents!
I’m not quite sure what my point is right now, but by golly, it was a good one. Something about piracy and DRM??? (Sorry)
Pete IVDL
May 18, 2005 at 5:35 pm
28BTW, guardedly ecstatic congratulations, Adam. I do hope Jeanne can now keep you in the manner to which we’d like you to become accustomed! EEeeeexcellent!
Sarah
May 20, 2005 at 11:30 pm
29The dualdisc version of this album does not have these ridiculous DRM problems. I noticed the small-print sticker on the back of the regular version when I went to buy it, and opted for the dualdisc version, which at an extra $4 was irritating but worth it since I wanted to be able to listen to this album (like all the rest of the music I OWN) anywhere I wanted.
This does not, obviously, excuse the principal behind this kind of greedy, thieving, legalistic bullshit. Just a note for the practical.
Pete IVDL
May 21, 2005 at 5:31 pm
30Sarah, you may find that you don’t actually own the music you think you own… In fact, all you have purchased is the right to play and listen to the recorded music on your own. Yep, that means your family, partner, friends, neighbours, etc, listen to your recording illegally. I know it sounds stupid, but it’s actually true. The US, UK, and Australian copyright acts (and I suspect many others) all have a deliberate loophole so more than one person can listen to the recording, as long as it isn’t actually being broadcast (the definition of which is very vague). This way, the big studios don’t have to waste all their time suing The Great Unwashed, when we deliberately and illegaly listen to music during birthday parties, housewarmings, bar mitzvahs, family get-togethers, intimate dinners for 2 with Chianti and fffffava beans…
Plus, if the recording wears out (like records and tapes used to), it was actually against the law to play a recording of such a recording. If it wore out, bad luck - you have the right to buy another copy, and that’s it. There are some loopholes with CDs and DVDs under the copyright acts, since they are viewed as ‘data recordings’, and we’re currently allowed to make one (and only one) ‘backup copy’ of the data for archive purposes. But I’m expecting this to change real soon now, since even archiving is a bit slippery (i.e. who archives it, who stores it, who retrieves it, ad infinitum).
Sorry. I’ll get off the soapbox now.