When playing a CD becomes a privilege, not a right

[Gwarsbane]

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050...50922-5339.html

When playing a CD becomes a "privilege," not a right
9/22/2005 2:01:31 PM, by Ken "Caesar" Fisher

I've spent part of my tenure here at Ars trying to warn people about the encroaching affront to our culture being brought about at the behest of the entertainment industry. It has consistently been my position that technologies like "Digital Rights Management" are less about preventing piracy, and more about finding new ways to nickel-and-dime customers. Through DRM and "contracts" for content, fair use rights are being eroded.

Of course, the industry is trying to accomplish its objective by publicly lamenting piracy. If the public and "their" politicians believe that the entertainment industry is on the verge of collapse, they'll be much more likely to accept restrictions on use of content that they've paid for. For this reason, most industry talking heads keep their comments in check when talking about DRM schemes, but from time to time we've seen people truly speak their mind. Such is the case with Tommi Kyyrä, of IFPI Finland. Mr. Kyyrä told Tietokone (Finnish) that the ability to play CDs on computers is a "privilege," and that people who have problems with CDs laden with DRM should just buy new CD players.

"Now, we need to understand that listening to music on your computer is an extra privilege. Normally people listen to music on their car or through their home stereos," said Kyyrä. "If you are a Linux or Mac user, you should consider purchasing a regular CD player." (Translation via tigert.com)

The comments come in the context of a debate over copy-protected CDs. As we have previously reported, CDs with copy protection do not play on all CD players, although this is certainly not just limited to computer CD players. Some older players also won't play the discs, either.

Curiously, Mr. Kyyrä's inflammatory remarks have since been removed from the story (comparative screenshots).

More recently we've learned that the entertainment industry is embracing a content protection scheme that will effectively give them control over whether or not you can play high-definition optical discs on your computer. I recently covered Microsoft's position in all of this mess; if Microsoft wouldn't support HDCP, high-definition optical discs would be entirely off-limits on Windows computers. Supporting HDCP isn't a panacea, however.  Computers without secure video pathways will either degrade the quality of video displayed, or refuse to play them at all. The situation is rather complex, and I suggest checking out my coverage.