Daily Archives: 11/6/2002

How to combat copy protection measures…

Today BMG announced that they are going to stop producing CDs. Instead, they are
going to produce specially encrypted CDs which have had problems in many
different players.

Want to stop this? It’s simple. Just don’t buy their CDs.

You want to change the industry: change your buying habits. When you buy a CD with
copy protection, you are giving up some of your legal rights: the right to make archival
backups of something you own, and the right to listen to your music on whatever
equipment you have. If you find a CD with copy protection on it, return it. If they won’t
accept it, complain to their manager. Talk to consumer advocates. Raise an unholy stink.
And make sure not to give them your money.

Remember DIVX? Consumers hated it. It went away.

When casinos began to change the rules to blackjack to combat card counters, people stopped
playing. They lost money. Many reinstated better rules.

Vote with your pocketbook, and they’ll do something better.