Amy's i: RIGHT STITCH-UP BY DIGI-HEAVIES; MP3 NEWS 1.
Byline: Amy VickersGOOD news and bad news for MP3 file-sharers.
The good news is a compromise has been reached between the music and technology industries over digital copyrights. The bad news is that Microsoft, IBM, Intel, Dell and the influential Recording Industry Association of America will now work together on crushing consumer rights.
Instead of supporting US government plans to allow consumers to make back-up copies of their material, the consortium will lobby against such a basic right.
They'll also put more pressure on the law-makers to prosecute those who share MP3 tracks. Ironically, officials from the companies involved talked of the deal as a "landmark consensus".
Landmark for them maybe, not for innocent punters who make MP3 copies of their CDs to transfer to digital devices. Now, CD copy-protection will be more widespread and consumers will have no rights to do anything but listen to or watch their CDs/DVDs. One consolation is that future generations of entertainment devices won't have locking controls that make it more difficult to make copies.
But before you go thinking this is a generous gesture, you should know that they're only doing this because it's too expensive and too complex for them.
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| Title Annotation: | Features |
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| Publication: | The Mirror (London, England) |
| Date: | Jan 16, 2003 |
| Words: | 200 |
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