h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/32636.html
report on a recent court case in France.

One interesting point is that the court case found EMI guilty basically because they didn't warn the buyer that the disk might not play on certain players....

If that's the case then as of the moment that restricted CDs and DVDs came on the market the sellers of CD/DVD players for PCs etc could find themselves up against the same problem...

Buy a DVD player for your computer, take it home, find out some of your DVDs won't play - and unless you were specifically told about copy protection when you bought it you should be able to get your money back or a player that _will_ read the disk.

I have only one CD with copy protection, it plays fine on the PC but wont play on my CD player

Another aspect to this is that (I believe) in some European countries (including France) you are legally allowed to make a copy of a CD for your own use (e.g. backup, car use, etc.) and this technology takes that away from you.

Also check the UK campaign for digital rights at http://ukcdr.org - very interesting reading....

Let the following be a warning to ya all...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/32731.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/32740.html

The IRAA are buffoons. As well as the 12 year old, they are also suing and 91 year old from Texas.

Really, you'd think the industry could do without the ill will, and also could do with spending the money on addressing the problems of their own bloated and over priced product than suing people like this.

Perhaps instead of blaming downloads for the reduction in CD sales, they could blame the drop in music quality.

The evidence (from any half ways independent study I've seen) suggests that those that download songs actually buy MORE music.

Sure there will always be those that take the p*ss, but then there were those with piles and piles of copied cassettes in the 70s and 80s too. Nobody went after them with the big guns.

There is no other product (bar possibly software) that we are expected to buy without knowing what it is, and with absolutely no recourse should the product turn out to be of poor quality.

I for one have bought demonstrably more music since the advent of Napster and Kazaa, simply for that very reason - I can *now* listen to what I buy before handing over the fat end of £15-£20 for a product of unknown quality. I'd experiment more if Cd prices were lower - and the recent decision by some majors to lower back catalogue prices is pointless. We already have saturation levels of Blur, oasis and Elton bl**dy John, you fools. perhaps if you concentrated on putting out NEW, GOOD product at SENSIBLE prices, we'd think about buying more of it...

Benefactors have been as diverse as Lee Sankey, Lab 4, Kenny Wayne Shephard, Lucinda Williams, Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh and many many others.

And if they really want to sue me for loss of income regarding T Bone Burnett's 'Talking Animals album, or Kissing the Pinks 'Last Film single, well, they'd have to get the bl**dy things back into print first...

I for one have bought demonstrably more music since the advent of Napster and Kazaa, simply for that very reason - I can *now* listen to what I buy before handing over the fat end of £15-£20 for a product of unknown quality. I'd experiment more if Cd prices were lower - and the recent decision by some majors to lower back catalogue prices is pointless. We already have saturation levels of Blur, oasis and Elton bl**dy John, you fools. perhaps if you concentrated on putting out NEW, GOOD product at SENSIBLE prices, we'd think about buying more of it...

Benefactors have been as diverse as Lee Sankey, Lab 4, Kenny Wayne Shephard, Lucinda Williams, Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh and many many others.

And if they really want to sue me for loss of income regarding T Bone Burnett's 'Talking Animals' album, or Kissing the Pinks 'Last Film single, well, they'd have to get the bl**dy things back into print first, at which point i would happily delete the copies on my pc and buy them...

I for one have bought demonstrably more music since the advent of Napster and Kazaa, simply for that very reason - I can *now* listen to what I buy before handing over the fat end of £15-£20 for a product of unknown quality. I'd experiment more if Cd prices were lower - and the recent decision by some majors to lower back catalogue prices is pointless. We already have saturation levels of Blur, oasis and Elton bl**dy John, you fools. perhaps if you concentrated on putting out NEW, GOOD product at SENSIBLE prices, we'd think about buying more of it...

Benefactors have been as diverse as Lee Sankey, Lab 4, Kenny Wayne Shephard, Lucinda Williams, Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh and many many others.

And if they really want to sue me for loss of income regarding T Bone Burnett's 'Talking Animals' album, or Kissing the Pinks 'Last Film single, well, they'd have to get the bl**dy things back into print first, at which point i would happily delete the copies on my pc and buy them...

Beggarin' BBC servers!

and another tale of warning for all you naughty P2P types
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/32762.html