Topic: Anti-piracy labels on CDs

[scottws]

I noticed the other day that pretty much every new CD has a big FBI anti-piracy label on the back.  I found that quite odd, considering if you are buying the CD you aren't pirating it!

Maybe it's a warning to sharers?  Maybe it's for casual ripping among friends after a purchase?  I don't know, but I just found it very odd.

On a similar note, I hate those "Pirating IS stealing" ads they put at the beginning of DVDs.  The RIAA and MPAA want the public to believe software piracy and theft are the exact same thing, but they aren't at all for all kinds of reasons we've discussed on here time and again.

[Cobra951]

I'm sure it's just intimidation tactics.  You can legally rip (Redbook) audio CDs for personal use, even in the emerging police state that is the USA.  (The fair-use doctrine allows sharing among friends and family too.)  With (CSS-encrypted) DVDs at least they have the DMCA on their side here.  It bugs me to no end that the first thing you see on a legitimately bought DVD is intimidation.  Pirated copies don't have it.  Nice state of affairs.

[WindAndConfusion]

On a similar note, I hate those "Pirating IS stealing" ads they put at the beginning of DVDs.

Those ads are the reason I prefer pirated DVDs to the real thing.

[MysterD]

I noticed the other day that pretty much every new CD has a big FBI anti-piracy label on the back.  I found that quite odd, considering if you are buying the CD you aren't pirating it!

For past few years, many CD's have bee coming w/ these labels.

Maybe it's a warning to sharers?  Maybe it's for casual ripping among friends after a purchase?  I don't know, but I just found it very odd.

I'd say both.

On a similar note, I hate those "Pirating IS stealing" ads they put at the beginning of DVDs.  The RIAA and MPAA want the public to believe software piracy and theft are the exact same thing, but they aren't at all for all kinds of reasons we've discussed on here time and again.

Those are annoying.

And plus, it's the same damn ad that been showing for the past few years on DVD movies!!!
I'd like to at least see a new damn one....

[Quemaqua]

What everybody else said (I'm fucking lazy).

[ren]

I haven't noticed any labels. Sometimes in small print it says Unauthorized duplication is prohibited and all that jazz but not anything like what you're saying.

pics?

[idolminds]

What are these "CD"s you're talking about and how do they relate to music?

[Ghandi]

Supposedly you put them on a machine and while it spins a needle plays the music or something. I don't know, it's honestly a mystery to most people.

[scottws]

I haven't noticed any labels. Sometimes in small print it says Unauthorized duplication is prohibited and all that jazz but not anything like what you're saying.

pics?

http://www.sciencefictiontwin.com/images/DMbig.jpg

[shock]

"This artist does not endorse the following warning.  The FBI doesn't have his home phone number and he hopes they don't have yours."

o_O

[WindAndConfusion]

Jeebus Fuck the FBI sucks at its job.

[Xessive]

That FBI logo just seems so fictitious to me thanks to all the arcade games that started off with "WINNERS DON'T USE DRUGS" message. Now it's just like one of those Neo Geo and SNK logos.

[idolminds]

Zim: Computer! Give me all the information you have on the FBI.
Computer: The FBI is a government law enforcement agency.
Zim: Continue.
Computer: Insufficient data.
Zim: Insufficient data! Can't you just make an educated guess???
Computer: Okaaaaaay... uh... founded in 1492 by, uh... demons, the FBI is a crack law enforcement agency designed to... uh, I dunno, fight... aliens?
Zim: I knew it! This is baaaad! This is so baaaad!

[ren]

I've never noticed that on any of the cds I've bought. Some of them are from amazon too which means they ship from the states.

[Pugnate]

I'll never get the Invader Zim fad suffered by the members of this board.

[Quemaqua]

That's because you're stupid.

[MysterD]

I'm lookin' through some of my CD's -- 2005's Missy Elliott "Cookbook" CD even has the FBI warning label on the back of the case. So does 2005's NIN "With Teeth" CD.

Hell, let's go a step further -- Amy Winehouse's "Back To Black" (2006 release) has the FBI label on the back of the case....
AND ALSO has the FBI label right on the very bottom of the actual CD itself.

I think a lot of the major labels -- such as Interscope -- are using these FBI warnings on them.

I've got some CD's from 2006 w/out the FBI label -- such as Lacuna Coil's "Karmacode," which are from some Indie Label.

[WindAndConfusion]

Wasn't TV's Frank a writer for Invader Zim? [/randomquestion]

Edit: Yes. Therefore Invader Zim must have been cool, even though I never saw it.

[Quemaqua]

It says he did one episode.  I wouldn't bank on his involvement contributing too much to its success.

[scottws]

I don't even know what channel Invader Zim is or even what channel it is on.  I've heard people mention it, but never seen a commercial for it or even seen it on a channel guide.

[Pugnate]

Download some episodes, and let us know what you think.

[Quemaqua]

Zim was a bizarre, rather twisted cartoon on Nickelodeon that was ultimately canceled because it didn't mesh well with the target audience, which shouldn't come as much of a surprise given that it was created by Jhonen Vasquez, infamous comic artist responsible for Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.  The show developed a hugely loyal cult following, sold a lot of merchandise, and made decent money in the end, and they released the DVDs after a very long interval of waiting.

The show basically revolves around the titular alien, who is attempting to subjugate the earth but doesn't do a very good job because he's an idiot.  He has a broken robot who attempts to help him, and is thwarted most frequently by a kid so obsessed with aliens and the paranormal that everyone thinks he's insane.

Episode #4 features organ harvesting. Episode #20 features a Ham Demon.  The first part of episode #25 is titled simply "Zim Eats Waffles", and in episode #26, Dib's sister has a spell cast on her which makes all food taste disgusting unless made from pork.

    GIR: Then a giant squirrel came and ate Dib's big greasy head. Then he flew back to his home planet and fought all the bad guys.
    Host: What does that have to do with anything?
    GIR: Me 'n the squirrel are friends.

    Zim: I am the neighborhood baby inspector. I have come to inspect the baby.
    Mother: Oh, goodness! Inspect him for what?
    Zim: Your resistance will be noted!

    The Letter M: What's wrong with you? All you talk about is aliens and ghosts and seeing Bigfoot in your garage.
    Dib: He was using the belt sander...

[scottws]

Hmmm maybe I'll check it out.  But back to piracy... does anyone think that the RIAA has been mildly successful in their anti-piracy campaign?  Not referring to the CD labels exactly, just their campaign as a whole.  I've heard that it's much harder to find what you are looking for nowadays.

[Cobra951]

I can't remember last time I was shut out when looking for something I really wanted to find, even if it's fairly obscure, or its popularity has faded.  What I never use anymore is the old music sharing networks.  Torrents are much better, and not nearly as susceptible to corruption and fakes.  You'd be surprised what you can find with a good Google search string too, sitting right on somebody's little server.

[TheOtherBelmont]

Hmmm maybe I'll check it out.  But back to piracy... does anyone think that the RIAA has been mildly successful in their anti-piracy campaign?

No, I think they have shot themselves in the foot repeatedly for the most part, EMI is considering pulling their funding from RIAA and several record label executives have come out and said how unhappy they are with the way RIAA has handled things.  Also, the courts have recently decided that the RIAA has to come up with more legit figures on how much each illegal song download costs them because they feel the RIAA's figure is way too high.  Music sales are going down the toilet as well over the last couple of years as well and probably a decent amount of it is due too the RIAAs tactics and DRM shit that has pissed off consumers to no end.  There's been several articles on Slashdot the last week or two about this stuff, I'm too lazy to find them though.

[Cobra951]

If you search for "slashdot RIAA", you'll find some good stuff.  I like this:

Ty Rogers and Ray Beckerman.
-We are lawyers in New York City, practicing at Vandenberg & Feliu, LLP. We established this site to collect and share information about the wave of sham "copyright infringement" lawsuits brought by four large record companies to abuse the American judicial system, distort copyright law, and frighten ordinary working people and their children.

http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/

I found it in a sidebar at slashdot, where they were exposing cases of the RIAA trying to strongarm universities.

Edit:  Oh, I love this--same link as above:

Oregon Attorney General's Reply Papers Go on the Offensive, Seek Investigation of RIAA Tactics, in Arista v. Does 1-17

In a stinging rebuke to the RIAA's opposition papers, and in further support of the motion by the University of Oregon to quash the RIAA's subpoena seeking the identities of the students, in Arista v. Does 1-17, the Oregon Attorney General has filed reply papers which call for immediate discovery into the RIAA's tactics, and which point out to the Court that

--Carlos Linares, upon whose declaration the subpoena was issued, had no first hand information whatsoever;
--the RIAA's "data mining" investigation does not reveal how the files were obtained or whether they were ever shared with anyone;
--the RIAA papers did not show that any infringing activity actually took place;
--MediaSentry appears to have been conducting an investigation without an investigator's license, in violation of ORS 703.405 and ORS 703.993(s), which is a crime;
--in Atlantic v. Andersen, based on the same theories and investigative techniques as those used here, they had been found by the Court to have stalled and resisted discovery, before abandoning their case rather than oppose Ms. Andersen's summary judgment motion;
--the RIAA appears to have been abusing the judicial process by obtaining information through subpoenas which it then hands over to "collection firms" using them "to leverage payment of arbitrary sums of money, based on threats and evidence from the data mining";
--the RIAA concealed a material fact from its original ex parte motion papers, which sought to create the aura of an emergency and the need for immediate ex parte action -- the fact that the University had informed the RIAA in July that the requested information had been gathered and would be preserved;
--the RIAA lawyers falsely implied that the Attorney General's office had failed to "meet and confer" with them prior to making the motion to quash, even though the AG's office had in fact conferred with the RIAA's lawyers;
--the deposition testimony of the RIAA's expert witness Doug Jacobson in UMG v. Lindor tends to indicate that the RIAA has already accessed private information on the computers of University of Oregon students; and
--the RIAA has failed to provide an affidavit of the individual who actually conducted the 'investigation'.

[WindAndConfusion]

It says he did one episode.  I wouldn't bank on his involvement contributing too much to its success.

Actually, it said he acted in one episode. He was a writer in "unknown episodes," which I take to mean he was a regular crew member.

[scottws]

Well, it's good to see the government is capable of reason sometimes.

[Xessive]

ZIIIIIIM Ruules!!