The Manic Mechanic

A large number of people on my friends list are serious music fans, musicians and DJs (why is that?). A court case I've been following might be of interest to some of you. A judge has determined that a record label can not stop the sale of "promotional" recorded works (CDs, vinyl, etc) by the people who originally received those items. The labels defense had been the promo materials, being given away rather than sold, were 'licensed' to the recipients and that those recipients did not actually 'own' the items. By attempting to sell the materials, the seller was committing 'copyright infringement' by violating the license agreement, and the labels halted the sales and auctions by invoking the beloved DMCA.

Music companies have long tried to stop the sale of used records and CDs, but time and time again were thwarted by something known as the "First Sale Doctrine" which basically states that once an item is purchased, one has the right to re-sell that item. Unless a contract was signed stating otherwise, there is nothing the primary seller can do to stop subsequent sales of a particular item. Promotional materials have long held a high collector value and can bring big bucks for sellers of those sorts of items. While a music company might snarl at the prospect of someone re-selling a CD that they had purchased because the sale brought in no more profit for the company, these companies have historically been in a tizzy over the market for promo material given away at their own cost. By waving the DMCA around these companies figured they had found a convenient tool to work their bidding. Instead, a level-headed judge proved that the promo stuff fell under the rights of first sale despite being free, and the similar area of law that states a party can't hand out unsolicited items to people then expecting payment of some sort. The CDs were considered 'gifts' and once out of their hands, the labels had no more say in how they were to be used.

Wonderful! Finally here is a definitive, pro-consumer ruling that has some pretty big implications for the future and helps protect individuals and organizations from draconian abuse from corporations bent on having final say on what we as consumers can or cannot do with products we buy, even after the sale.

I know a couple of my dear readers had encountered this sort of issue when trying to sell on eBay some promo stuff only to have it continually shut down. Maybe now you can tell 'em to go pound sand. And now your friendly local used record store can breathe a bit easier too.

I read here that Hollywood claims that 50 percent of all pirated movies originate from Canada. Reasons given for this vary from the Canadian copyright laws being too lax, to the multilingual releases found in Montreal and Quebec having a broader demand worldwide. Movie industry types complain that "internal policies of police forces including the RCMP, make it extremely difficult for them to crack down on movie piracy".

I am assuming that Canadian theatregoers would not appreciate those broad-brimmed RCMP hats blocking their view of the screen, and the horses would be a distracting and wanting popcorn handouts.

Jesus T. Cruise, people. While I am all for artists and performers as well as their industries and backers getting what is due to them, I see their 'war on piracy' to be about as effective as the dubious 'war on drugs'. Quite often the source of pirated movies come not from the camcordered tapes from theatergoers, but quite often are DVD 'screeners' sent out to reviewers and industry types. In short, their own back yard. What truly gets me, especially in the U.S., is how much the industry coddles up to the government to created draconian laws for minor infractions and uses the notion of fighting piracy as a caliper to quietly push for regulations and technical measures designed solely to limit what honest, paying consumers can do with the media they own. At the rate things are going, one will have to charge admission to people other than direct family members who get invited over to their friend's homes for a movie night. These fees, of course, will have to be sent directly to the movie indsutries themselves to recover from 'lost revenue'.

Mark my words. Your TiVo will one day charge you to use the 'rewind' button.

This whole ordeal makes me wonder... Do Canadian pirates say "Aaarrrrrhhh" like 'standard' pirates do, or is it more like "Eeehhhhhhh...rrrrr"? ;)

One of my fave techie sites, Ars Technica, has a little write-up of yet another example of just how far the recording industry will go in delivering a crippled, defective and damaging product to faithful paying customers as well as leaving them no recourse whatsoever in returning such products or repairing any damage done.

I realize that I am preaching to the choir here in my blog. Just today I had a discussion at work with a couple people who basically did not realize that this kind of shit goes on, or is becoming more prevalent day by day. This has not one damn thing to do with stopping so-called 'piracy', and it has never been. These companies want to be able to control every last aspect of how 'their' 'content' is used, and making money on it at every turn. The reactions from these people was nothing short of shock and anger. Spread the word to your non-technical friends. Point out every instance of such heavy handedness from conglomerates and tell them to vote with their dollars. Turn them away from manufactured, focus group-derived tripe and onto talented, independent artists on listener-friendly labels. Your friends, and those artists, will thank you.

And for you Windows users, disable autorun on your optical drives. Your PC will thank you.